Chris Isaak [ tickets ]'s fans have a certain agenda when flocking to his shows. They not only seek his timeless music, seductive vocals and flashy stage presence--they crave his sense of humor.

Isaak was everything that followers expected at his sold-out Friday (8/27) show at Phoenix's Celebrity Theatre. He charmed the crowd with silly stories, his Elvis-like growl, his dead-on vocals and his beacon of a yellow suit detailed with purple rhinestones.

Isaak opened the show by belting out three aggressive rockers--"Wanderin'," the title track to his 1989 album "Heart Shaped World," and a sped-up version of the melancholy "Somebody's Cryin'"--before acknowledging the audience.

He channeled Elvis Presley during an oddly-timed cover of "Blue Christmas," which served as a segue to his stage banter. Cat calls and laughter greeted Isaak before he stopped impulsively and said, "Hello Phoenix. Thank you for comin' out."

The fans reacted with an extended standing ovation, leaving Isaak with a wide grin on his face. In typical fashion, he made a mockery of the situation. "OK, we will play everything we know," he said with a laugh.

He poked fun of the Celebrity Theatre's revolving, in-the-round stage. "I'll be winking at someone and suddenly you're winking at a guy," he said about the stage movement. "It's OK, but he started winking back."

Keeping with the effervescent nature of the show, Isaak swapped positions with the drummer, Kenney Dale Johnson. "It's your show now, baby," Isaak said to Johnson. "Do whatever you want to do."

Johnson served up a spur-of-the-moment surf tune: "Let's go surfin'. We're in the desert." As the song neared its end, Isaak, who was playing drums, lifted his arms in victory and quickly returned to the front of the stage. Johnson sat behind the drum kit just in time to pound the final note.

"Thank you. Good night," Isaak said, leading to minor confusion in the audience.

The sometime actor said he was confused as well. The "elevation," he said, was killing him. "What's the elevation here Kenney?" he asked the drummer.

"Oh, about 20 feet," Johnson responded.

But the best bit came when he discussed the forthcoming elections, ribbing his politically active peers. "This is something I realized this election year: pop stars know everything!"

While his sense of humor was intact, his weepy, lovelorn tunes carried the appropriate punch. His vocals dripped with emotion, sometimes leaving the crowd perfectly silent. But whenever he had the crowd by their heart-strings, he would make a 360, hooting and hollering, and serving up yet another joke to lighten the mood.

"Let Me Down Easy" was one of those gems. Isaak ended the crowd-pleaser by yelling for everyone to stand because he was going to "play some rock 'n' roll for you. Let's go." Women shimmied in their seats as men rocked side to side during a roots rockin' number. He encouraged everyone in committed relationships to raise their hands. "Show it off, you're happy." He quickly revealed his true motives--"This way I don't waste time talking to you people after the show."

"Now let's see the hands of people who came here alone and desperate," he said. Focusing on one woman, he said, "I gotcha baby. Just like the Animal Channel, I pick the weak one out of the herd."

As the night wore on, his storytelling became more and more absurd. He shared lengthy stories of the secret love lives of those who live in trailer parks, and the biography of his Cuban-born percussionist, who rode on an inner-tube from Cuba straight to Phoenix with nothing but his BVDs. He introduced an acoustic portion of the evening by sharing his feeling about his album "The Baja Sessions."

"I really love that record," he said. "It's particularly something I love because we really ripped off the record company on that one."

Isaak did manage to squeeze in songs between his stage banter--including Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" and Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man." But, in a testament to Isaak, fans hung on every word of his storytelling. He repaid them by offering note-perfect versions of his hits and album tracks throughout the night.