Loraine
Google
Because of all the glowing previous reviews, I was reluctant to write this one. However, I decided that the honest feedback might be helpful to James Stephens, Celebrity Performer & Owner. Based on comments by two friends, I was SO excited about going to the Fri, Dec 12, 2025, show & was expecting James Stephens to perform his “thousand voices” show for which he’s well known. Instead, the evening had essentially 4 performers & only the 2 singers, were enjoyable, and I would rate just them as 4-5 stars. The first performer consisted of a professional singer who had a lovely voice & sang several songs during the evening that moved the audience. The second act was performed by an older gentleman who was a rather outdated magician & comic. His jokes were offensive with references to the “short [school] bus,” elderly sex, blacks-whites, etc., His very elementary magic tricks ceased to amaze & needed a lot of work. Another gentleman stopped by & quickly performed one song quite well and was off. Then it was time for the headliner - James Stephens. Mr. Stephens was extremely hoarse & spent what little time that he was on the stage performing poor standup comedy that was riddled with references to sex & never-ending old black-white jokes that weren’t very humorous especially at a time when our state & country are so divided by race. He tried to weave in comments about God, which was done in a blatantly disrespectful way. (I noticed that, like me, some of the Pastors in the audience were not always laughing.) Mr. Stephens would tease us with a few phrases done in voices, & in his final minutes, he performed a bit of Ray Charles & Sammy Davis, Jr. However, it was obvious that his failure to perform his usual show was likely related to his hoarseness, & what he noted was a cheaper paying crowd when he stated, “You didn’t pay for that.” He talked about his upcoming Netflix special & encouraged us to come back the next day for the Motown show. He repeatedly told the audience that he couldn’t perform his usual “thousand voices” show because “You didn’t pay for that.” He also kept stating that it was time for him to finish up. We couldn’t understand why he repeatedly made these comments. It was only after the show that our friends, also in the audience, told us that they paid $3.99 for tickets & others may have even been invited for a free show! We think it was to fill up the room. This was obviously unfair to us because we paid full ticket price of about $70 well in advance of the show’s date. Mr. Stephens did state that his shows are different & not always the same. It would’ve been nice to have known this. Maybe it was just an off night, & we really wish we could’ve rated the show higher, but we were gravely disappointed. It was certainly not a family show or one that we can recommend, & because Mr. Stephens stated that his shows vary, we do not plan to return because we just wouldn’t know what to expect.