Jim Gaffigan at the MGM at National Harbor

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I have seen Jim Gaffigan multiple times in D.C., so I was looking forward to seeing him at a different venue. The MGM at National Harbor opened just over a year ago, and I had never been, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to check it out.

First of all, the place is a MAD HOUSE. The garage was super-full and hectic, and since the lights that indicate free parking spots don't actually work, I was driving around in circles for a while before I found an open spot. And because of the crowds, even though we got there for dinner at 4:30, we still had to wait 25 minutes for a table at Tap Sports Bar (the service was horrible; don't bother).

Once we were done with dinner, we made our way through the casino to The Theater (very clever name, by the way...). But once we were close, there was a huge line, and as we got to the front, all of a sudden the line had to go to a different spot even though we had already been waiting. We had to go up escalators just to go down again...it was so convoluted, and the staff did not know how to handle the crowds. This isn't their first rodeo: they need to get their s**t together.

When we eventually made it to our seats, we were certainly ready for the show. It started pretty much on time, which is always nice!

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The opener was Ted Alexandro. While I had never heard of him before, he said he has been doing comedy for 25 years. And he was pretty good! He joked a lot about getting older, and how is wife is significantly younger than he is. He did a great joke where he compared his struggle with E.D. to Shaq playing with the Celtics: he's older, he has to work harder than in years previously, people should remember the better years... I would definitely see him perform again the next time he comes to DC!

Check out Alexandro's YouTube channel for videos of his stand-up routines and more.

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Then it was time for Jim Gaffigan to come on stage. He was very funny as usual. He opened up with some jokes about the local area, which I appreciated, since you know he doesn't do those same jokes every night. He joked about DC asking for Baltimore's permission to call the harbor in Oxon Hill the "National Harbor," and discussed why DC needs three airports: National to go with the National Harbor, BWI for people who come down from Philadelphia, and Dulles for people who hate themselves (so true).

He joked a lot about his family, from taking his kids skiing to dealing with his in-laws, and even turned his wife's brain tumor scare into a funny scenario. And of course he had to do food jokes, mainly about France's obsession with cheese (well, and his own love of dairy products). He claimed to have run the New York City Marathon, and then proceeded to tell us why he would never do that and ponders why anyone would want to run 26.2 miles (or watch it for that matter). He jumped on Alexandro's bandwagon about getting old and told several colonoscopy jokes (which I probably wouldn't have gotten except for the fact that my dad is an older man, so it was more relevant haha).

He ended the show with an encore of his Hot Pocket routine (see below). SO GOOD!

Think this sounds funny? I found one of Gaffigan's recent full stand-up shows on Youtube; watch it for a real taste of his comedy!

P.S.: To top off the evening, I played the slot machines in the casino for a few minutes after the show. I won $10. Not a bad night!