Adele Pauses Las Vegas Show to Remember Matthew Perry

The late actor Matthew Perry was all anyone was talking about on Saturday — and that includes one of Las Vegas’ most successful resident singers of all time.

Matthew Perry and Adele
Matthew Perry, left, was on Adele’s mind during her Las Vegas show on Saturday. (Image: hellomagazine.com, inset: CNN)

Though Adele admitted she never met the Friends star, she dedicated her song, When We Were Young, to him and called his character, Chandler Bing, “probably the best comedic character of all time.”

I’ll remember that character for the rest of my life,” Adele, who was dressed for Halloween as Morticia Adams, said to cheers from the audience at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, the site of her ongoing Vegas residency.

“One of my friends, Andrew, when I was, like, 12, did the best Chandler impression,” Adele said. “He would do it all the time to make us laugh, and if any of us were having a bad day or feeling low, he would just pretend to be Chandler.”

Perry died on Saturday at age 54 in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home from an undisclosed cause.

The Ring of Bing

The “Friends” cast were Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc. (Image: Warner Bros.)

“He was so open with his struggles with addiction and sobriety, which I think is incredibly, incredibly brave,” noted the 35-year-old superstar, who reportedly made her own decision to stop drinking earlier this year.

Perry wrote about his alcohol and opioid addiction in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.

In the book, the troubled actor revealed that he nearly died at age 49 when his colon burst from opioid use, leaving him to fight for his life for five months in a hospital bed and then for another nine months with a colostomy bag.

“It is always so shocking, especially someone that made you laugh and who brought so much joy to your life that you don’t know,” said Adele as she walked about her audience with an outstretched mic, seeking remembrances from fellow fans.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

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