William Shatner delights all ages at Lied Center

Not knowing what to expect from the 81 year old William Shatner, Bad Billy as he calls himself at times, he managed to delight a diverse audience with stories of his life. Shatner is clearly in a happy place in his life. He began the show by giving the rules including, "No flashes because it might blind me and I might fall off the stage which is only funny once." After the 20 somethings and 70 somethings alike chuckled he came barreling onto the stage.

Shatner spoke kindly of his wives, lovingly of his three children and proudly of his parents. His stories of his early career in radio included telling his mother he had been cast as a Jewish husband. She told him to march right back down there and ask for a speaking part. Hilarious.

William Shatner spoke of being the most horrible college student but then quietly slipped in that he had studied economics. His business degree in commerce was the term at his school used for the study of economics, certainly a difficult major if you are not well inclined toward math so he likely promotes his poor student skills to get a good laugh.

The one-man show is approximately a 2-hour monologue with no intermission. It is the one thing that would have been nice to know ahead of time or that they would have provided an intermission would have made the experience slightly better.

Shatner looks spry and relatively healthy for his age. Clearly, he is still an actor as he goes from whispers to booms while treating an office chair like a dancing partner. Trekkies may be slightly disappointed as he does not linger on the Star Trek experience. Seeing Shatner speak of his much larger body of work, his mentors, friends, inspirations made for a clever and funny evening at the Lied Center in Lincoln Nebraska on a crisp January day.