Blue Man Group

Ben Franklin had it wrong when he said that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes. He forgot to mention that Blue Man Group will be up to its usual shenanigans at the Venetian.

Blue Man Group — whose roots go back to the performance-art scene in 1980s New York — consists of three bald, mute, earless guys with shiny blue paint on their faces.

The trio wanders about in wide-eyed wonderment, enthralled by the most mundane things in life (say, a Hostess Twinkie or a piece of PVC pipe).

One of their best-loved segments is the tutorial on rock-concert movements (the “basic head bob,” the “one-armed fist pump”). And then there’s the educational video on the behavior of the backed-up toilet (“materials take on temporary ‘upstreaming’ capabilities”).

These strange blue men don’t utter a single word. In fact, they rarely part their lips at all except when eating Captain Crunch or tossing marshmallows into each other’s mouths.

Though mute, they make lots of noise. The trio is fond of beating on drums and splattering lots of paint. The group is backed by a full-fledged rock band decked out in day-glo regalia.

For the finale, endless reams of toilet paper drop onto the audience, whose collective job it is to move the tangled white mess to the front of the theater. You could write a doctoral thesis about what it all means.

Blue Man Group’s Las Vegas home is a custom-built 1,760-seat theater. The first few rows are splash-zone seats, where you’ll find a plastic poncho draped over the backrest. Pull it on and settle in for a night of fun.

-Anne Burke, Custom Publishing Writer

BLUE MAN GROUP

The Venetian Hotel-Resort-Casino

3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South

702.414.9001; 800.BLUEMAN

$59, $83.50 and $125
www.venetian.com