The quote is from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly reviewing Charlie Sheen’s Friday live show at Radio City Music Hall in New York. A great phrase, worthy of a book title. As to exactly why Charlie’s show sucked:
In the early stages of his madman meltdown phase . . . he created the sex-and-dope version of a Howard Beale mad-as-hell moment. He held out the prospect of danger, of saying the things that we aren’t allowed to say. . . . Which leads one to ask: What does a Howard Beale who has already had his mad-as-hell eruption do for an encore?
Sheen is an actor, and actors require a script, but Sheen is not a writer. A guy who made $2 million telling other people’s jokes can’t seem to understand that the joke-writers — who got paid a lot less than he did — were important to his success.
Besides which, a live stage show is not a TV sitcom, where you can do re-takes or add a laugh track. And deranged narcissism isn’t really funny.