Will Ferrell: You're Welcome America - A Final Night with George W. Bush (2009)

Even though I've watched this more than 6 years after it came out, the solid writing and the well-timed comedic touches still felt as fresh. I assumed Mr. Ferrell had a team of writers contribute to the show while viewing it, but it turns out he has adopted the character so closely that the writing was all his. And he runs through it without a hitch in a well-choreographed, well-directed, and extremely well-acted play.You're likely to enjoy it even when you don't usually like his movies. This is not a self-celebratory liberal bashing of George W. Bush at all. You may even sympathize with the guy for being put in a place that turned out to be more demanding than he possibly expected. Definitely worth checking it out...

The show is as simplistic as the Bush Presidency. Liberals will adore it but Conservatives shall loathe it. Will Ferrell becomes absolutely annoying after a while. While he has the accent down pat and the greatest imitation of the Bush #43 walk down to a science, this show becomes insulting and rather tedious. The fact remains that George W. Bush was elected president twice and deserves some respect. Notice that the show never mentions Al Gore or John Kerry at all. Where was all the fuss about the 2000 presidential election? How about '04 in Ohio?Condoleeza Rice should be insulted by this. This show puts her down as some go-go dancer and suggests that Bush had more of an interest in her than just secretary-of-state.Poland and the other countries participating in the Iraqi offensive are put down.Psychologists will say that these Bush put-downs really suggest a genuine love for the man. Will history vindicate our 43rd president? The answer to that one will take years to evolve. One thing for sure, this show with Will Ferrell will not be vindicated.

The show starts with a very funny message by (I think) Adam McKay as Dick Cheney. Moments later, we hear a chopper, and coming down from the ceiling strapped to another guy (who I first thought was McKay as well, but it later turned out it wasn't him) is Will Ferrell. The crowd starts to cheer; and they should as it was quite an entrance. Will has to wait patiently for about a minute for the crowd to stop cheering and clapping. As soon as he opened his mouth the laughter started and didn't stop until he left the stage about 75 minutes later, which generated even more cheering and clapping.Throughout the show there was some strong language, which I guess could be expected. It never went overboard though. Will did what he did best when he's in total control. He improvised a lot of the audience reactions like a master. Other than Will Ferrell we got to see his brother Patrick Ferrell as his bodyguard, who did a great job with a constant straight-face except for the times he'd do some highly impressive dance-moves as soon as Will Ferrell went to change his outfit (which he did pretty often). We also got to see a hilarious erotic dance-routine between Condoleezza Rice & Dubya that had the crowd in stitches. Of course, Will was smart enough to include the now infamous shoe-throwing incident that happened to Bush when he was in Iraq a couple of months ago, and made a hilarious bit out of that. He actually harassed a guy sitting two rows behind me during the show, which would later turn out to be the shoe-throwing man, not a real ticket-holder of the show.Now keep in mind, you don't have to have been very involved and alert regarding George W. Bush's eight years as president of the United States, you can still laugh your a** off at the material presented to you by Will Ferrell's great comedic mind, because the show is not all references of his two terms in the White House. But it certainly doesn't hurt to have been updated about some of the more known incidents during his period in office; it will definitely make you laugh more. For those of us very acquainted with his movies, we can spot several references from the two Ferrell/McKay movies Talladega Nights & Step Brothers.As if the show wasn't awesome enough and by far the funniest thing I have ever seen on any stage, I was actually handpicked by Will Ferrell in one of the bits of the show which requires a lot of improvisation from Will. The bit was this: He wanted the audience members to raise their hands, give him their name and what they do for a living and he would come up with a nickname for them, to show the audience he (Bush) is quick on his feet, if I remember correctly (he was talking about some of the qualities he had)So at first, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, because I suspected I would stutter and make no sense with my Swedish accent (my English is good, but if I'm nervous when speaking English I'll sound terrible). He came by my part of the crowd (I was on the front row), I decided to raise my hand in the last second, but it was too late, he gave the opportunity to someone else. He then kept moving to the other sections of the audience. I thought he wouldn't come back to where I was sitting, but he did. As soon as I saw him walking towards my section, I raised my hand. Now before I share my brief but awesome interaction with him, keep in mind that the other members of the audience he talked to worked with traveling, human resources, store-owners & financial stuff. My job was the least attractive one up to that point. This is not 100% accurate of our words of exchange, but almost:Will: (walking towards me & looking at me while my heart rate goes through the roof, points his finger at me) You? Me: I'm ****** and I work in storage Will: You're ****** and you work in storage…? (Gives an odd look followed by laughter from the crowd) Me: Yeah Will: So you put stuff in boxes & sh!t? Move them around in different positions? Me: Yeah (laughing with the crowd) (Silence from Will while the crowd laughs at his physical reenactment of working in storage) Will: I'm gonna call you Captain Nerd! (at this time the audience laugh even harder, as did I, and I raised my hands and clapped with delight of my new nickname)It doesn't end there though. By the end of the show he reminisces about what he's said on stage, and says "I've come up with some cool nicknames…" He then turns his head towards me, looks & points at me, gives me a thumbs up and says "Captain Nerd…" In return I give him a thumbs up, and get two thumbs up from him back. The show ended about 2 minutes later and I walked out as if I was walking on clouds. Before I left the theater I bought a lot of merchandise from the show though! So to sum it all up, great show, lots of laughter & greatest night of my life.

I am not a big Will Ferrell fan. I cannot think of a single movie he has made that I enjoyed. That said, I have to admit that he totally personified George W. Bush in this performance. I couldn't even see Ferrell. All I saw throughout was W.His excellent performance notwithstanding, the show itself was not particularly funny. There is nothing funny about George W. Bush. The pain that he has caused first in Texas, and then on the whole country is no laughing matter. I really tried to find something to laugh at, but I sat there like a deer caught in the headlights the entire time.Trying to make us laugh at W. is like trying to make us laugh at cancer.