After seeing Absinthe at Caesars Palace, I am kind of ashamed once again.

The show has been described as Cirque du Soleil on acid, but that doesn't really do it justice. It's more like Cirque du Soleil as done by Howard Stern or those guys from the Jackass movies, with some heart-stopping acrobatic style acts interspersed with the dirtiest, raunchiest, most offensive and yet still laugh-out-loud comedy you can possibly imagine. It's like Cirque's own Zumanity, only about a million times more crassly funny and a billion times more interesting.

It was originally performed in a wood and cloth tent on the Roman Plaza in front of the hotel but now a more permanent structure has been built. Outside it's a plain onion dome but the inside is like the attic of that crazed aunt you used to visit when you were a kid. Old mirrors, random paintings, and other assorted junk line the walls and the theater-in-the-round seating is made of up several rows of mismatched chairs, a few tables, and stools. Seating is general admission but the tent is small so you are never going to be more than a few dozen feet from the small center stage.

The production is hosted by a character who calls himself The Gazillionaire who, along with his dementedly dirty sidekick Penny, introduces the acts while harassing the audience to a level that was shocking, mostly because everyone was laughing so hard they forgot to be shocked. The greasy-haired, mustachioed lothario of a host said patently offensive things about pretty much every ethnic, political, religious, and sexual orientation group you can think of, directly to the faces of people in those groups and yet somehow managed to have everyone screaming with laughter, including me.

That people weren't storming out in disgust is either a fascinating psychological study for someone or a testament to how well the actor playing The Gazillionaire embraces the character, and caricature, of a sleazeball.

And Penny... the dimwitted assistant gets some of the shows biggest laughs with her Betty Boop voice spewing filthy stories of such scope and grandeur that they almost require a show of their own. There was one about a unicorn and bodily fluids that I can't possibly repeat here but trust me when I tell you that it was so over-the-top dirty and wrong that all I could do was try not to snort beer out of my nose. And then there's her sock puppets. Again, it's way too X-rated to tell you about here but it's practically worth the price of admission alone.

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, this show is definitely not for children (no one under 18 is allowed) and is absolutely not for anyone who thinks that there is too much sex and dirty words on television these days.

The acrobatic acts may vary from time to time but in the show I saw they included a four-person Russian strength and balancing act; a couple doing some stunning trapeze work; Holly Madison BFF Angel Perrino going topless inside of an balloon (I don't know why); and a high-wire act that will literally leave you holding your breath, especially if you are sitting in the front row with the guys balancing precariously right above your head. That is one of the coolest things about the show - the circular stage is maybe 10 feet across and the first row of seating is about two feet away from that. With only about half a dozen rows of seats, you are right in the middle of the action and feel like the danger is real.

Absinthe is the show Zumanity wishes it was: sexy, daring, dramatic, funny, shocking, and more than a little dirty. It's also one of the best shows in town.