As forewarned, Joaquin Phoenix appeared at a Las Vegas nightclub this weekend to turn in his debut performance as the world's newest actor-turned-rap-star.

"This is me saying this is who I am. This is my story," Phoenix announced before launching into his set. However, despite industry coaching courtesy of Diddy, a recent dance-off win under his belt and a couple Oscar nods, the would-be J. Pheezy's performance failed to generate much more than a few embarrassing viral videos.

While it wouldn’t be fair to say Phoenix totally crashed and burned, he at least accomplished the former. After a few semi-coherent songs, Phoenix closed the show by tumbling off the stage.

Apart from the usual YouTube footage, the whole thing was caught on tape by Phoenix's pal and brother-in-law, Casey Affleck -- who, as previously reported, is helming a (fake?) documentary about Phoenix's switch from A-list actor to fledgling musician.

"After all the years of reading scripts and reading lines, this is my chance to do something straight from the heart and put it out there," Phoenix said during his show. "When I was young I liked punk rock music but then I discovered rap. I love the storytelling aspect of hip-hop."

Since saying "Bye! Good!" to Hollywood in November, it seems Phoenix has at least been lucid enough to realize that most people aren't taking his new career seriously (unless his new career is becoming the world's foremost guerilla mockumentarian, in which case we're totally taking him seriously. Somewhere under that musty toque and matted beard, we're hoping Phoenix's comedic mind cogs are simply a few steps ahead of the rest of us).

"Are there people out there who think I'm a joke? I'm sure there will be," Phoenix told People magazine backstage before the show -- and, subsequently, before he (quite jokily) fell off the stage. "Are there people who think it's going to suck? Probably, but I can’t worry about that."

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