Review: No-Holds-Barred, RANDY RAINBOW Takes Down Trump and Friends One Parody at a Time in Durham

At the Carolina Theatre in Durham Sunday night, Randy Rainbow got a standing ovation before he even sang one note. In fact, one woman in the audience stood up and called him a national treasure, a beacon of frivolity amidst precarious times.

Rainbow's show was interlaced with clips of his viral videos, stories, and live performances of his most popular parodies, including 'Desperate Cheeto,' 'Yes! We Have No Steve Bannon!,' 'Alternative Facts,' and 'Rudy and the Beast.'

Rainbow credits his grandmother with "planting the comedy seed." He told the audience during the question/answer period that she was hilarious and both she and his mother encouraged him to always be himself. And it seems to be working for him. His last video, 'Kavanaugh' (to the show tune 'Camelot') has almost 400-thousand views and counting.

To anybody who has watched Rainbow's videos, it is clear he is multifaceted. In fact, he writes, performs and edits each video in his apartment in a short, two-day period. What becomes abundantly evident seeing him live, however, is the fact he can also sing, a testament to his foundation in musical theater. You might be able to auto-tune a video, but you can't fake your way through a Sondheim or Gilbert and Sullivan tune when you're performing live.

And he's funny, donning costumes and wielding props to give the Durham audience exactly what they came for... a good laugh and a little levity at what turned out to be the end of a hair-raising, politically-polarized week.

Rainbow's tour continues through December. For more information visit https://www.randyrainbow.com/tour/.

Next up for the Carolina Theatre is The Capitol Steps, October 6th. For more information visit http://www.carolinatheatre.org/.

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