A seated audience waiting for Charlie Sheen to take the stage roared with cheers, but it wasn’t for the actor; they were praising the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had just tied Game 7 of the World Series.
Sheen, who is a diehard baseball fan, kicked off the first Southern California stop of his tour to promote his memoir “The Book of Sheen” at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in Cabazon on Saturday, Nov. 1, nearly an hour late, but it quickly became evident why he wasn’t on time.
Television and radio host Billy Bush, Sheen’s longtime friend and moderator for the tour, came out after the Dodgers tied the game against the Blue Jays to let the crowd know there was a holdup. He said that Sheen was still backstage, glued to the game, and asked whether the crowd was, too, which prompted cheers.
According to Bush and Sheen, they attempted to display the game on the theater’s monitors but were prevented from doing so due to licensing issues that prohibited the game from being shown during the event. Bush eventually asked the crowd how they’d feel if Sheen came out on stage and kept watching the game along with everyone on their phones. The crowd enthusiastically agreed.
The monitors then began playing a highlight reel of Sheen’s career as an actor, including clips from “Two and a Half Men,” “Spin City,” “Platoon,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and other notable works, before he joined Bush on stage.
“Have you ever been in a predicament like this?” Bush asked Sheen.
“No, I haven’t,” Sheen replied.
“And you’ve been in some tricky ones,” Bush jested.
“I think there’s no other way to navigate this than to incorporate it,” Sheen said.
The actor explained to the crowd that the week leading up to the World Series, he knew he’d have a show that could overlap with Game 7. Still, Bush tried to assure him that it may not happen and even if it did, the game would have to be in overtime to overlap with their 8 p.m. scheduled event at Morongo, and that’s precisely what happened.
“It is really impossible to pretend that I care about ‘Platoon,’ ‘Wall Street,’ ‘Two and a Half Men,’ or any of that right now,” Sheen said. “We’re all in this together, though, right?” He asked the crowd, who cheered.
He then pulled out his phone and propped it up on his side table to watch the game, asking others to do the same and to keep everyone updated in case one connection service was faster. While the game was in progress, Bush, who brought a comedic tone to the moderation, attempted to ask some questions; however, the focus remained mainly on the game for the first half of the event. At one point, Sheen went into full-on sports broadcaster mode, breaking down the plays in detail.
“I’m sure this feels like ‘Major League’ all over again for you,” Bush said. “I’m trying to weave some of these questions in, as you can see.”
After taking a few questions from the audience and bantering, the crowd rose to their feet and cheered. The Dodgers had won the World Series. Sheen went side to side on the stage, high-fiving fans in Dodgers gear.
Sheen then announced that he had something that paired perfectly with the moment, and reached over to his side table to retrieve a can of his new nonalcoholic beer, Wild AF, joking that the “AF” stood for “alcohol-free.” He and Bush cracked open a can and toasted the closeout of the World Series.
“How crazy is it that we all got to celebrate this together tonight?” Bush said. “I’m so happy everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”
Even after the back-to-back World Series wins, the Dodgers didn’t disappear from conversation. At one point, Dolores Robinson (the talent manager for Charlie’s father, Martin Sheen, and his brother, Emilio Estevez) was handed a microphone to speak. She shared that she used to drive Sheen and Rob Lowe to Dodgers games in their youth.
“It’s so appropriate to be here tonight to experience the Dodgers win the World Series together,” she said. “The reason I was able to take you to those games was because I worked with Charlie’s father when I lived in Malibu. We had such a good time at those games, and I still have pictures of that game with you and Rob.”
There was also a couple in the audience who were from Russia and shared that they’d been living in the U.S. for a year, and had recently adopted a new cat, but had yet to name him. They asked Sheen to do the honors. Given the historic nature of the night, Sheen offered the name “Dodger” for the cat, to which the couple accepted.
Because of the Dodgers’ victory, audience members would randomly shout “winning” throughout the night, a nod to Sheen’s 2011 public meltdown during an interview with ABC for “20/20.” He explained to the crowd that the phrase, along with others like “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA,” was inspired by a conversation he had with baseball pitcher Brian “The Beard” Wilson.
Sheen said that the two had spoken once over the phone, in which Wilson gave Sheen a pep talk, likely thinking he was inspiring him, but it turned out those words were playing on a loop in Sheen’s head. During the “20/20” interview, after an exchange with news anchor Andrea Canning, the words poured out, becoming something that would define a darker era of his life. He said he finds the episode embarrassing.
While Sheen’s memoir discussion became eclipsed by the excitement surrounding the Dodgers’ win, there was still room for moments of vulnerability throughout the remainder of the evening. A mother in the audience shared that her son is on a similar path of addiction and asked Sheen what advice his own mother could’ve given him that might’ve helped him snap out of it. He responded that the question might be better suited to his mother, but shared that she had never stopped supporting him.
“She never stopped saying I love you with her words or her actions,” he said. “She was always there through thick or thin. Try not to lose hope in your situation. I believe that it’s never too late for a fresh start. One moment can change everything. It’s about making the decision and sticking to it. If we broke as many promises to our friends as we break to ourselves, then we wouldn’t have any friends. There is a way to recognize that and change it.”
Sheen later told the audience, “I believe we’re the sum total of all of our experiences, good and bad, and we don’t have to be defined by the bad ones,” he said.
Another couple in the audience also spoke highly of Sheen’s compassion, noting that he frequently visited their late friend, Jeff Ballard, the former Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, while he was in the hospital for cancer treatment. They shared that Sheen gave a eulogy at his funeral, that Ballard had named one of his dogs after Charlie, and they recently spread the dog’s and Ballard’s ashes over Lake Arrowhead.
Other conversations during the event included topics covered in the Netflix documentary “aka Charlie Sheen” and “The Book of Sheen,” including how Sheen got the role for “Platoon” and how he almost missed his big break on “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” because he missed his alarm for the shoot. He also noted that he had to turn down the lead role for the Karate Kid because he was committed to “Grizzly II: Revenge.”
Towards the end of the talk, Sheen mentioned he’d be open to acting roles in the future and hinted at a sitcom in the works with a writer from “Two and a Half Men” leading the project.
“The script for this is a gem,” he said. “We might be cooking something up a lot sooner than later, and we’ll keep you posted.”