Call it tiger blood or Adonis DNA if you will. Just don't call it entertainment.
Kicking off his 20-city tour April 2 in Detroit, Charlie Sheen pulled a stunt that even by his standards was a little extreme. He alternately pandered to and antagonized an estimated audience of 5,000 people at the Fox Theater in a blatantly cynical attempt to cash in on his craziness. Roughly paraphrased, his excuse for having barely worked out the blueprint for an act was, "Hey, you guys paid for a show when you didn't know what you were getting!"
What the audience got was egomania gone wild. Grandiosely titled "My Violent Torpedo of Truth: Defeat is Not an Option," Sheen's haphazard act was neither standup nor confessional memoir, despite repeated promises that he was going to dig deep and dish secrets. It was closer to a motivational seminar, but one in which the speaker was also the key beneficiary. Early in the evening, before the crowd turned sour, there was a creepy atmosp