At the end of his rambunctious one-man show Thursday at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, William Shatner gave what must have been the least-needed apology uttered that night in Costa Mesa: "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm real."
It wasn't an off-the-cuff apology; Shatner was reciting the Brad Paisley-penned song (or, rather, monologue with music) that closes his 2004 album "Has Been." Over the last 90 minutes, Shatner had reminded the audience repeatedly that he was less than mythic — with stories about forgetting his lines while performing Shakespeare, earning poor grades in college and more.
Perhaps the opposite of "real" would be Capt. James T. Kirk or T.J. Hooker, but as storytellers, they might not be as entertaining as Shatner, who provided a whirlwind tour of his life and many careers in "Shatner's World: We Just Live In It." Accompanied onstage by a video screen and a swivel chair, which he used as an all-purpose prop, the actor raced from one yarn to another, sometimes acting them out so vigorously that the intermittent film clips felt like moments for him to catch his breath.