http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...rticle/1129912
Regis croons, Metro swoons
Published Saturday July 10th, 2010
TV talk show host rocks casino in first N.B. appearance
by brent mazerolle
Times & transcript staff
With all the talk lately about whether or not Regis Philbin would be eating seafood when he came to the Maritimes, probably no one thought to ask if he liked maple syrup.
VIKTOR PIVOVAROV/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT
Regis Philbin acknowledges the crowd as he takes the stage to perform with his 22-piece orchestra at Casino New Brunswick last night.
Happily, he told his audience at his first-ever New Brunswick appearance last night at Casino N.B. that he did, he was just worried about the health effects of eating all those pancakes with it.
He and his wife Joy will be swimming in the stuff, thanks to Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc, who went backstage to present the entertainer with a jug of the maple syrup the City of Moncton produces from its own trees around the Turtle Creek Reservoir.
And while another commitment meant Mayor LeBlanc couldn't stick around to see it, the City of Moncton syrup provided some sticky schtick to get the show off to a great start.
"Everywhere I went today, people were giving me a little bottle of maple syrup," Regis said, pulling one of the little bottles from the left trouser pocket of his tuxedo.
"And tonight I had a meeting with the Mayor, LeBlanc.
They told me, the mayor's going to give you the key to the city.' Well, guess what the mayor gave me? A big bottle of maple syrup..."
With that, Regis tried to pull the second, bigger jug from the right pocket of his trousers, and it got stuck.
"Honest to God, I can't get it out!" he cried, before turning to a woman in the front row to say, "Don't get excited, lady."
"A $3,000 tux here and I'm going to tear it to shreds because of a bottle of maple syrup!" he complained.
That's when the lady, who was indeed pretty excited, offered to come up on stage and help.
Regis took her up on the offer and soon Dieppe's Jeanette Martin was nearly stealing the show, and dazzling her famous new friend with her French accent.
"You've got to be gentle with me," he told her.
"Is Joy around?" she asked, not missing a beat. "How much time do we have?"
"This one's been around," he told his audience, before asking Jeannette,
"How much time do you need?"
Morning TV's favourite host decided it was time to cool things down a bit.
"Are you married?"
"Thirty-six years," Jeannette admitted with a smile.
"What does your husband do?" he asked.
"We're not sure."
It took some doing, but Jeannette ultimately got the big bottle out of Regis's pants.
It took more doing, but Regis finally got the enthusiastic Jeannette offstage.
Alone again onstage, not counting Symphony New Brunswick's 21 members as well as pianist Stanley Yerlow, a familiar face to anyone who watches Live! With Regis and Kelly, Regis told stories, told jokes and dished on his relationships with folks like Kelly Ripa and David Letterman.
He had already introduced himself as "Donald Trump's poorest best friend and Joy Philbin's fifth and final husband."
Of Kelly, he joked, "she's a beautiful woman, but if only she'd lose five pounds." He also said as pretty as Kelly is, her husband Mark Consuelos just might be prettier.
Speaking of his regular morning co-host, Regis also took time to plug his potential guest co-host Mandy MacDonald of Moncton's C103.
Mandy, in a contest to guest host on Live! With Regis and Kelly, and last night's emcee, met Regis backstage before the Casino New Brunswick concert, wearing a Live! With Regis and Mandy T-shirt.
"I can't wait to see how Kelly feels about that," Regis said. "I'll show her Mandy's picture and she'll say, yeah, she's the right one.'"
Most singers chat a little bit with their audiences between songs. Philbin sang a little bit between chats.
Judging from the reaction of his audience, they would have had it no other way.
Regis Philbin did Regis Philbin bang on last night, meaning the veteran performer and TV personality is so iconic, his character so much a part of our culture and our home lives, that you just sort of know what he'll have to say about any particular topic and how he'll react to any particular situation.
And yet somehow last night it always felt fresh and funny, especially because decades of live television have made him master of the ad-lib.
He was also accessible, wandering through the crowd, and even singing a duet of You Made Me Love You with a member of the audience - a rather large, male member of the audience who was a great sport and not a bad crooner himself.
Joy Philbin, redefining beauty for 69-year-old women everywhere, finally stepped onstage 45 minutes into the show, rocking a form-fitting strapless purple gown in a mermaid silhouette.
She took over the other half of the duets from there, thank you very much, and an appreciative Moncton audience ate it all up, especially when the Philbins took a moment to dance together.
The music, the laughter and the love - and the maple syrup - were all hits.
"What can you do with the key, really?" Joy asked, when Regis mock-complained again about His Worship's gift of syrup. "That you can enjoy."
Regis Philbin in Moncton, NB !
