After having open-heart surgery several months ago,comedian Robin Williams is back on track, back on tour, and funnier than ever. Taking a break certainly seemed to recharge his batteries…not that he needed charging. Robin’s frenetic energy has always been one of the things that made him my favorite comedian–and it was in full force last night at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, where he made his South Florida stop on his “Weapons of Self Destruction” tour.

He walked onstage only to be greeted by a standing ovation from most of the audience, and went right into a set about the Hard Rock Casino and the Seminole Tribe–how they’ve had to change their names to things like “Chief Always Roll a Seven” and the estranged tribal son “All In”.  Like any great comedian, he did his homework on South Florida and worked the local jokes into his intro, heckling some of the latecomers and picking on the “hot women” with plastic surgery (accompanied by cameras panning in on the audience, displaying on two large screens on stage). He made a few quips about Governor Charlie Crist and his tan (”he’s darker than Obama”), and joked about how the Seminole Tribe could buy back Manhattan–”oh wait, looks like they already did, New York is here already” and of course, talking about our weather (”you folks down here know what global warming is, you’ve been living with it for years.”)

While I was not impressed with the constant dropping of the “f” bomb (which thank goodness eased off after a few minutes, where he still used it quite a bit but not every other word), Williams jokes spanned topics ranging from hurricanes and natural disasters (”I live in California, God’s etch-a-sketch”) to technology and Twittering, GPS systems, his surgery, politics, marriage, drugs, the Pope, pets, and of course, sex and porn.  In typical Williams style–and another one of the reasons he’s so top notch–he blended in his phenomenal character voices and impersonations with his jokes, never missing a beat.

During a great bit about people who have been married more than once should have to lose a body part each time around, he slipped into a set on same-sex marriage, Mormons and polygamy (”Mormons giving marital advice is like Octomom running a planned parenthood organization”).

He did surprise me by throwing in a couple of trite, we’ve-heard-em-before one liners (”Pregnant women shouldn’t drink–isn’t that how you got pregnant in the first place?”) but the rest of his performance was so damn funny, I didn’t care.

One of most clever bits was about how a committee designed the human reproductive system–and of course the comedy would be lost in translation if I attempted to describe this, so I won’t even try. Watching Robin Williams has so much to do with his voices and physical comedy in addition to what he’s saying that it’s neary impossible to describe him and do him any justice.

He finished the show, then came back for one small encore, which was a phenomenal impersonation of Walter Cronkite telling a “blue” joke. I won’t spoil the fun by telling the joke, but it was fantastic, made better only by Williams’ impression of Cronkite. Didn’t see the punchline coming, that’s for sure!

I literally didn’t stop laughing the entire show, and the audience around me was having a similar experience. It’s a non-stop laughing, eyes-tearing, practically peeing-in-your-pants heckuva good time, and I highly recommend you get to the Hard Rock Live tonight to catch his second show. (Be forewarned, though, this is DEFINITELY an adult content, R-rated show–not for the weak of heart or the prude.)

For more info:  Call 1-800-745-3000 or visit the Hard Rock Live website.

So about a week ago, I was channel surfing and hoping for a few minutes of brainless tv watching late one night to help me unwind. I consulted my trusty DVR list of shows that I’d recorded over the last few days, and settled on Deal or No Deal (I don’t know what it is, there’s just something about watching people potentially win a million dollars that’s invigorating).

But when I pressed play, there was no Howie Mandell. WTF? No cases. No models. Just some other show that I was whizzing through on fast forward quickly to see if maybe Deal started late…but no. So I accidentally hit play and found the show that recorded from CNBC instead was something called Flipping Out, a reality show about a real estate investor named Jeff Lewis, his ex-boyfriend-now-partner Ryan, their assistant Jenn and a few other characters, and how they flip houses out in LA.

What a lucky accident that my DirecTV channel was mislabeled–this ended up being one of the FUNNIEST shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Really.

Jeff is extremely high maintenance (but with good taste–and I wouldn’t expect anything less from a GQ, good-looking gay man in 2008) and hilarious to watch, especially when he gets stressed out about something. The episode that I watched involved started off with Jeff butting heads with a client and quitting the gig, and then in between trying to get houses ready for selling, there was a sub-plot with Zoila, the housekeeper, wanting a few days off for her birthday. Jeff was not happy about this, and he asked if she could rearrange her birthday for a different week, when it wouldn’t clash with his schedule. Zoila, who doesn’t speak very good English, then tries to insult him by saying “Don’t bite me, Jeff” instead of “Bite me.” Then she says “Are you biting me, Jeff?” OMG. I was dying. Then the camera pans to Jeff who is dead serious, saying “Who’s going to do my laundry? Who’s going to make me breakfast? I think she’s being very selfish.”

This guy is simultaneously annoying and lovable, and I was riveted.

Then to continue the Zoila-birthday subplot, Jeff’s gift to Zoila is an oil painting–of her! And honestly, it’s really less than flattering to the poor woman, and she lets him know exactly what she thinks–she tells him she looks ugly and she doesn’t like it. I felt awful for the artist, who was actually there..yikes!

Now, Zoila isn’t the most attractive woman to begin with, but the artist didn’t exactly help matters.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this show–which I somehow have not been able to locate accidentally again on CNBC, but it runs on Bravo and you can read all about it here: http://www.bravotv.com/Flipping_Out. The schedule said it is on Tuesday nights at 10pm EST.

Grab a cocktail, sit back and enjoy this bit of fluff for an hour (or less if you fast forward through the commercials like I do–what did we do before DVR’s and TIVO?). It’s well worth the gander for some good old-fashioned belly laughs! Not to mention, you might learn a thing or two about flipping houses. I know I felt better just knowing that I wasn’t the only one to deal with schlock contractors out there…