ORMOND BEACH -- There's not much the usually cocky Perego can say about it.

But Sunday's third-round audition for the television show "America's Got Talent" in Orlando is about more than the million-dollar prize, it's about his Art Army mantra: We are the art. Everyone is an artist.

"It's really just my excuse to get the message out," said Perego, a larger-than-life performance artist who's made his mark with live art shows and roving Vagabond Art parties.

Now Perego -- he's a one-name kind of guy -- and well-known break dancer Heps Fury could be taking their frenetic music, light, art and dance show to a national audience.

Since the two met at one of Perego's art parties two years ago, they've collaborated to create an unusual mix of Perego's art using Fury's body as the instrument and the floor as canvas.

"We kind of figured out the extreme dynamics of performing arts together where we combine dance acrobatics, which is me, and live painting, which is him," Fury said.

Venezuelan-born, Miami-bred Fury has been dancing professionally and touring internationally for 14 years with the likes of Daddy Yankee, Disney, Universal Studios and New York City's Rock Steady crew.

Fury, now based in Orlando, is also a visual artist, creating live graffiti murals and energetic abstracts.

"Since I'm a dancer and artist I figured one day I was going to combine," said Fury, 31.

"He's a multi-talented guy," said Perego from the artistic chaos of his Ormond Beach home.

Perego, 42, has been an artist for more than 20 years, living the art scene and painting murals in New Jersey, Philadelphia and eventually Daytona Beach in the early 1990s.

He's done murals and live-art shows from Disney to Las Vegas and worked as art director for Cirque du Soleil's premiere party in Orlando.

Perego's Art Army, which boasts thousands of members nationwide, galvanizes artists without a platform to display their work. And it brings creative people together at Vagabond Art parties, featuring body painting, liquid light shows, live bands and guests-as-artists.

"People are so different, but we're all one because we're all creative," Perego said.

Together, Perego and Fury have found a high-energy creative symbiosis.

"It's very easy for us to sit down and brainstorm," Fury said. "Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming because we have so many ideas."

With Saturday's audition creeping up, Perego was hard at work on another painting in his home studio cluttered with canvasses, paint and his 5-year-old daughter Phoenix's pieces.

Neither he nor Fury would say what their game plan is for the reality TV talent show or whether they'd show up on national television in the coming months.

"We have all sorts of cool performances planned. People are not going to even know what to expect," Perego said. "It's going to be like 'What are the

The actress-singer portrays Anita Appleby, a no-nonsense author who tries to "train" men into better behavior in relationships. Her target is Neil Patrick Harris' playboy-bachelor character, Barney: Appleby makes it her mission to break him.

Carter Bays, the show's co-creator, joked Wednesday about Lopez's appearance: "We're looking forward to a week of revealing outfits and sexy dance moves the likes of which this show hasn't seen since Regis Philbin guest-starred."

The exact date of Lopez's episode hasn't been set. The Monday-night comedy recently reached a milestone with its 100th episode.

A flurry of films that passed through Sundance - the teen dramas "Manic," "Mysterious Skin" and "Brick" - helped former child star Gordon-Levitt graduate into adult roles and showed he was more than just that alien kid in human form on his sitcom.

In the title role of "Hesher," Gordon-Levitt bears little resemblance to the clean-cut young romantic of "(500) Days of Summer," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. His Hesher has long, stringy hair, tattoos everywhere and a mad-dog demeanor that shouts: "Mess with this guy at your own peril."

"I just love to act. It's my favorite thing to do in the world, and what keeps it interesting to me is the creative challenge. So different kinds of characters, that's what I just love to do," Gordon-Levitt, 28, said in an interview.

"My favorite kinds of actors are the chameleons, like Daniel Day-Lewis or Peter Sellers, people like that. To me, the highest compliment you can pay to an actor is, 'Man, I didn't recognize you.' So yeah, Hesher is really different from Tom in '(500) Days of Summer,' and you know, that's what keeps it spicy for me."

Gordon-Levitt has been mixing up his work in independent films with big Hollywood pictures, among them last summer's action tale "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" and next summer's "Inception," a science-fiction thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight").

"Hesher" director Spencer Susser said Gordon-Levitt is a chameleon himself, remaking his persona to fit each role.

"When I met Joe, I thought he was just a great guy. I thought, I want to see your Hesher, and we got into a room, we started to play with it, and I was blown away, because he turned into a different person," Susser said. "I know Joe now, but I know Hesher, too, and they're different people."

Violent, profane and unpredictable, Gordon-Levitt's Hesher insinuates himself into the life of a boy (Devin Brochu) who's mourning the death of his mother in a car wreck. Moving in with the boy, his catatonic father (Rainn Wilson) and doting grandmother (Piper Laurie), Hesher becomes an unlikely agent of healing for the family.

The film, which also stars Natalie Portman as a store cashier who befriends the boy, lets Gordon-Levitt cut loose with abandon as Hesher sets fires, trashes strangers' pool furniture and plays avenging demon by inflicting nasty retribution on bullies.

For Gordon-Levitt, it was an irresistible ride on the wild side.

"That was it. That's why I wanted to do it, and that's really why I do any movie that I do. I'm lucky enough, I made money on television when I was young, so I don't have to do parts to support myself. I just do stuff because it'll be fun and challenge me," Gordon-Levitt said.

"'Hesher' is easily one of the most fun parts I've ever gotten to play, because he is really liberated from a lot of the anxieties and stresses that we all carry around. So to play the part right, I have to do that, and it was liberating."

With his success in movies like "Elf," and "Catch-22," scores of television appearances including two beloved series, a Grammy and a Peabody Award, it's easy to forget that funny man Bob Newhart got his start in stand-up comedy. But on a chilly Friday night at Peabody Auditorium, a grateful Daytona Beach audience was transported back to those early days by the spry 80-year-old comedian.

In an admittedly non-politically correct show, Newhart drew huge laughs as he touched on a wide range of subjects including Germans ("Not one of the great fun races"), the country of Estonia ("Their main industry is being overrun"), the late Oral Roberts ("His third book chronicled his meeting with Jesus. His third book. I gotta tell you, if I met Jesus, that's going in my first book.") and Miami Heat fans.

Though a chair was brought out before the comedian took the stage, presumably to allow him a break, Newhart never sat down during his 80 minute show. He seemed to draw energy from the enthusiastic crowd of nearly 1,500, as his performance highlighted an impeccable sense of timing and Newhart's famous stammer.

The comedian even poked fun at his Irish Catholic heritage. "The best time to go to confession in Chicago was during a Notre Dame-SMU football game, when the priests would be listening to the radio. 'Go my son, and sin no more. (Suddenly agitated) Will someone please tackle the son of a b----!!'"

Most of his material was refreshingly new, but Newhart reached into his recording past for the "Bus Drivers School" routine, a bit that highlights the icon's comedic genius: One sided conversations that allow the audience to paint their own picture of the instructor, Johnson the rookie bus driver , and poor elderly Mrs. Selkirk, whose sole purpose is to help would-be recruits learn the art of being rude at her expense.

Near the end of his performance, the comedian narrated a film titled "A History of the Newharts," which placed the deadpan Chicagoan in defining moments of time. The piece also showed clips from his iconic TV series "The Bob Newhart Show," and "Newhart," including the latter's famous dream ending that Newhart described as "the best scene I've ever been in."

To complete the feel of an old Las Vegas-style show, singer Connie James and an 11-piece band opened for the comedian, performing classic Burt Bacharach and Peggy Lee standards.