Archives
October 2006
10/31/06
10/30/06
10/29/06
Celeb Halloween Pics: Dennis Rodman, Tera Patrick, Criss Angel, Amazing Jonathan, Gene Simmons, More
10/27/06
10/26/06
10/26/06
10/25/06
10/24/06
10/23/06
10/22/06
10/20/06
10/19/06
10/19/06
10/18/06
10/18/06
10/17/06
10/17/06
Basketball Bonanza: the Lakers, the Kings, the Maloofs and a $6K Burger -- LUXE LIFE SPECIAL EDITION
10/16/06
10/16/06
10/15/06
10/13/06
10/12/06
Liza Minnelli Back in Vegas; Amazing Johnathan Prepares for Halloween; Meet the Gladiator Goddesses
10/11/06
10/11/06
10/10/06
10/9/06
10/9/06
10/9/06
10/8/06
10/6/06
10/5/06
10/5/06
10/4/06
10/4/06
10/3/06
10/3/06
10/2/06
10/2/06
10/1/06
Thursday, October 12, 2006
In This Issue:Liza
Minnelli brings good old fashioned razzle dazzle to the
Luxor.
The
Amazing Johnathan gets ready for Halloween after revamping
his
popular Sahara show.
Rita
Rudner gives back to her fans prior to taking the stage for
her new
show at Harrah's.
Meet
the new Gladiator Goddesses in all their sexy
glory.
For the first time in 8-years, Liza Minnelli returns to Vegas tonight. And, her 3-night run at the Luxor has been such a box office bonanza that she’s coming back next month (Nov 23-25) for another 3-nights!! A dynamic stage, screen and television performer, Liza will perform her well-known hits “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Cabaret,” “Losing My Mind,” “Some People” and her signature song “Theme from New York, New York.” Over the years she’s won every major entertainment accolade including an Oscar, two Tony awards and an Emmy. When Liza received the Grammy Legend Award she became part of a small and select group of performers who have won entertainment’s top four awards. She’s a long-time friend from my years in New York, where she now lives, and we’ll meet up backstage for a reunion tomorrow. Liza, who’s finished shooting a new fall episode of 'Law & Order' says she’s looking forward to exploring the new Vegas. “I haven’t been there in two years, so I’m looking forward to seeing all the new attractions and even taking a ride on the roller coaster at New-York New-York or the gondolas at The Venetian,” she said. "Hopefully I’ll get to see some of the new shows too.” Liza, who works out with a 2-hour daily dance routine, says she’s in great health and in great spirits despite all the recent scandalous headlines concerning her private life and bitter divorce battle with former manager-husband, David Guest. “I don’t pay that much attention because I know what’s true and what isn’t," she said. "It's more important that I have been feeling fantastic for the past 3 years with teaching at the Actors Studio, helping brain-injured children and doing that recurring role on 'Arrested Development.' I’m having a great time and I’m very happy so I wanted to come back to Vegas with a new show that's got material people really love and some numbers that I really love and have wanted to do for a long time. Call it a mix of my favorites and the audience’s favorites. As Bono from U2 once said, 'just give me the song and the spotlight and I don’t need anything else.' Vegas has changed since I was there when I was five-years-old -- the very first time my mother played the New Frontier -- so I have to go see it for myself. I’m an entertainer for life and I still love giving it my best. Everybody has been wonderful to me and I’m looking forward to my Vegas visit.”
Liza on stage at the Luxor, preparing for her 3-day concert series.
Liza got off to a fast start on playing catch up with Vegas last night after she arrived from Minot, South Dakota where she performed on Tuesday. She hit not one but two Cirque shows: first stop was at 'KA' in MGM Grand and then the sexy erotic 'Zumanity' show at New-York New-York. I chatted with Liza as she blocked out some of her moves onstage at Luxor yesterday afternoon: "I've got some surprises up my sleeve even though my show is basically 90-minutes of just me with my 12 boys in the orchestra. I work so hard in the show nonstop I actually lose about 7lbs each night, so because I cant eat during the daytime before singing, I have to make up for it after the show. So, let's all go out for dinner tomorrow night and party." Liza told me that she'll make reservations this trip to see the Beatles 'LOVE' musical from Cirque du Soleil when she returns in November. "I'mactually here for Thanksgiving and Rosie O'Donnell is coming out here too then to catch the show," she added. "And I'd like to recreate a little bit of Vegas history when I get back. In the 70's Sammy Davis and I used to sort of meet up at 2am and then do impromptu gypsy-cabarets for all the other entertainers on the Strip who were working while we were doing our shows. I want to do that again next time I'm out and I'm sure we'll get every entertainer to come by." We'll have more of our candid conversation with Liza next week in Luxe Life when we wrap up our coverage of her first run of shows here in almost a decade.
Liza's Luxor concerts will be her first in Vegas in eight years.
THIS JUST IN
Our two mega nightclubs -- TAO and PURE -- will engage in another celebrity slugfest this weekend. On Saturday night, 'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria, who just reconciled last weekend in Paris with her San Antonio Spurs basketball boyfriend Tony Parker flies in from Hollywood to host a " welcome to fall party" at PURE. Two weekends ago, Eva had been in Vegas at the MGM playing 4am piggyback rides in the lobby and casino with her boyfriend; just 24 hours before he flew to New York and was caught with "another woman" before flying onto Paris. Reports immediately surfaced that the two lovebirds had called off their romance, but he phoned from Paris where he was playing on the NBA Europe Live tour and begged Eva to join him in the romantic French capitol. It apparently worked, and they're now back together again. Meantime, TAO throws two celebrity studded nights: tomorrow, Ashanti has her surprise birthday party with rappers Nelly and Gipp, comedian Mike Epps, actress Tamala Jones and The St. Lunatics. Next night, Michelle will play host to my friend, heiress Lydia Hearst Shaw, rock band Incubus, singer/actor Jaron Lowenstein and actor Shawn Ashmore at her 21st birthday bash. Luxe Life, you know, will have total coverage of the ongoing celebrity battleground disco-wars on Monday morning.
HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
The Amazing Johnathan runs you down with his macabre brand of magic and humor.
If there’s one entertainer in town who embraces the upcoming Halloween festivities more than any other, it's definitely macabre magician The Amazing Johnathan. The crazy comic appears nightly at the Sahara and has just returned from New York, filming a brand new TV special at NY’s Hudson Theater for broadcast Nov 14, on the Comedy Central. In between getting his haunted house ready for his annual Halloween party, we took timeout for this exclusive Luxe Life interview:
Robin Leach: What are you currently doing to prepare for Halloween?
Amazing Johnathan: Now that we have done the special, we are just building the haunted house for our annual Halloween party. I am going to do it at my warehouse. There are two warehouses back to back and one of them is going to be the party and the other is going to be the haunted house. We have redone everything. I just built an elevator that looks pretty real. You get on it and drops what seems like 5 stories. People have ridden on it and they thought it was real so far and they screamed. There are a lot of people coming. A lot of rock bands like Twisted Sister, Nickelback and Pantera will be there.
RL: What did you add to the TV special that is different than the Sahara show and have you put anything new from the TV show into the Sahara show?
AJ: Comedy Central didn’t want anything repeated, which made it tough for me, because I had completed everything. I did three specials for them, but none of them were our specials, they were all 10-15minutes some even a half an hour, so what I had to do was pull stuff from way, way back to see if it worked. A lot of it didn’t, because it was stupid and dated. So we had to write probably a half hour of new material that we have never done on TV and that was stressful, but we did it. That alone took about three-and-a-half months. Oh man it was hard, and thank God we have a place to rehearse every night. It would be rough if we didn’t have the Sahara. I pulled things out and put things in and really brushed it up. They were impressed with it. They could see how hard I worked on it and they said it was one of the best ones they had ever shot. The New York audience was real good to me. We shot two versions -- one clean and one a little X-rated -- so you’ll see the clean version on TV and get the raunchy one on DVD later!
RL: Talk to me about the new additions. And how long have you been at the Sahara now?
AJ: About 18-months and we just got an extension for another year. I had put new stuff in between really strong stuff that I knew worked so it re-energized us. Being in Las Vegas, you are not in Hollywood anymore, and it is a black hole, things pass you by fast here. I was happily married to the fact that I was riding on my own coattails now, but Comedy Central made me get out there and come up with a whole new show. It's completely re-energized us and we’re back in the game again. My character in 5 years has changed and evolved so much. Comedy Central was so impressed with the advancement of the show and the character. It hasn’t changed that much to me, but for someone who hasn’t seen it in 5 years I guess it is a big change. It is really tight. Comedy Central was so cool about everything. They never gave me a no answer to anything that I came up with. They were so receptive to anything. They built me this incredible set that cost $100,000 just for the stage. I have this gigantic card castle that rises up out of the stage and then builds itself. It is three stories high, all out of playing cards, 6’ by 4’. It all comes up out of smoke on the stage and then one of the cards falls and I come walking out. To build that on a small scale and then send it to New York and then to see it built, I was like wow. And then they gave it to me when they were finished. It is a coming out like a rock star. I got it for whenever I play larger rooms than the Sahara. All of the TV show is now incorporated into the new Sahara show. I have a hard time going back to the other stuff because I worked so hard on this new hour that I may add a new 20 minutes for Halloween that is coming up now. Halloween week we are going to put in new tricks that incorporate blood into them.
RL: Forgetting Halloween for a second, is the new show a softer, gentler, kinder side of Amazing Johnathan?
AJ: Yeah it is softer, more manic; there is very little blood, little violence. I took all of that out. It is more reliant on improv with volunteers from the audience. Over the years I wanted to focus more on the comedy itself. This is my fifth year in Vegas. It all started while I did two weeks for David Brenner at the Golden Nugget. They asked if I could do two weeks while he was on summer vacation and I’ve been here ever since. The numbers are real steady now. I like living and working in Vegas. My show at the Sahara each night is 10pm, so I leave my house with just 10-minutes to spare and I’m back home before midnight! If I run out of gas en route, the crowd sits there for a half-an-hour. The audience thinks I am backstage getting prepared while I am still rushing around trying to find my wallet. I have things they can show the audience to kill time if I’m late. I have comedy videos. I should have a video apologizing is what I should have. It should say I am probably out of gas right now if you are watching this.
RL: Why did Vegas become the capital of the world for magic? Why is magic so accepted here, and in a sense rejected elsewhere?
AJ: It is variety that is accepted here. I think variety is accepted but is getting killed off slowly but surely. None of the TV shows are doing it anymore. Leno doesn’t use it hardly ever and so that is magic; people love to see variety acts and there is nowhere left to see them except for here. That is why it is a shame that all the theatersare coming here. They are closing down shows to put in plays, even though they have never worked. Their thinking is just so skewed. They are not original and I just don’t get it. With plays everyone does it and it never works. They are trying to make it like New York and no one wants that. They want showgirls and they wantsex, and Cirque Du Soleil is going to do Criss Angel’s new show. Imagine what they would do with a juggler or a mime? That is why magic works here is because it keeps up with technology and you can do anything with your imagination and magic, but what can you do with a juggler? How far can you take that? You can never make a pop rock star out of ajuggler but you can a magician. Criss Angel for example, has got it going on right now. I mean he is unbelievable popular right now. He is not afraid of what other magicians think about him. Magicians are stuffy but magic has always been about, being a con man and fooling people. If it fools them, it fools them. It is entertainment. They think that he is magic and they think that he is in the league with whomever. He is in the league with maybe the devil, but he is taking it all the way to the bank. He just bought a half a million-dollar car the other day. And I just saw him out with a girl and I didn’t realize how pretty she was. She is pretty and tall. He is not playing around and I don’t blame him. If I were him there wouldn’t be a girl in town that wasn’t walking with a limp.
RL: So are you still at work on new illusions and new tricks?
AJ: I am at work to build scary stuff right now. I am trying to figure out what terrifies people and I have a pretty good idea about that, and it is all going into this warehouse. It is not a kid’s haunted house. I have people crawling on the floor and the floor drops from underneath them. It doesn’t look safe, but it is and it is very scary.
ROCK THE RAINBOW
LEFT: Gerina DeMarco with Sean Kinny. CENTER: DeMarco with Clint Holmes. RIGHT: Drummer Vinnie Paul.
Gorgeous Vegas songwriter and recordproducer Gerina DeMarco decided she should be a singing star too. Her hits for such stars as Thalia went to #1 in the Latin charts and now she’s won such fans as 'Alice in Chains' drummer Sean Kinny and Vegas veteran Clint Holmes. She debuted her fiery brand of music at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, the rockers' hangout where Pantera’s drummer Vinnie Paul, on the same night, hung up his autographed snare drum on the club’s greenroom wall.
RITA’S FANS
Comedian Rita Rudner has special gifts for fans of her new show at Harrah's.
Now that comedian Rita Rudner has settled into her new home at Harrah’s, she has a special treat in store for fans. Even before her show starts each night she has a special backstage “meet and greet” session by her dressing room where she poses for fotos and gives them an autographed magnetized “TO BUY LIST” memo-pad and a VIP DVD. She told me that she does the fan-fest before her show so that she can dash right home afterwards to ensure her 5-year-old daughter Molly is OK!
GORGEOUS GLADIATORS
(Left to right) Raegen, Ashley (kneeling) Jayde, Brena (sitting) and Choreographer Jamey Dilley (center).
Four beauties have been selected as captains for the 5th Anniversary Las Vegas Gladiator Goddesses’ new AFL season. Meet Brena Kautz, Ashley Vail, Jayde Mohammadi and Raegen Pruitt. Mary Vail, the Goddesses manager, also selected acclaimed choreographer, Jamey Dilley, who used to be in 'Mamma Mia!' to master plan all the new moves! Goddess Ashley is from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and has lived here for more than 11 years and also performs in the Rio Masquerade Show in the Sky, Goddess Brena, a UNLV graduate, is also a showgirl in Masquerade. Goddess Jayde, a communications major at UNLV, comes from Salt Lake City, as does Goddess Raegen, a senior at UNLV Vegas, majoring in Dance with a minor in Business Management.
STRIP SCRIBBLES
Legendary actor Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne with former Motion Picture Association chairman, Jack Valenti caught the Beatles 'LOVE' musical. An observant attendant spotted Mrs. Douglas’ sunglasses left at The Mirage box office and returned them at their seats before the show started and won a hug and a kiss from the thankful couple. … TAO nightclub at The Venetian will be hosting actress Michelle Trachtenberg’s 21st birthday on Saturday evening after Chefs Sam Hazen and Josh Thomsen serves up a decadent dinner for her celeb-guests at TAO.
TAO Chef Sam Hazen with Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupree.
TONIGHT'S TIPS
My
pal rap-mogul Russell Simmons throws a party for his
new
book ‘The New American Dream’ at the OPM
nightclub in the Forum Shops at
Caesars Palace and he promises gift bags with his Phat Farm clothing
line and
his decorated rap cell phones.
Congratulations
to another good friend, star chef Michael Mina, who
opens
his first-ever steak restaurant -- in addition to the others he already
has at
MGM
Grand and the Bellagio
-- appropriately named Stripsteak, and is located at
Mandalay
Bay.
As
detailed above Liza Minelli opens at the
Luxor but
don’t lets forget my other friend Dionne
Warwick, who has
found her way from San Jose to the Orleans for 3 nights of
concerts.
The
2006 ScienceFiction
Festival opens at downtown’s Plaza Hotel while
uptown
DJ Mix Master
Mike of the Beastie Boys
spins the discs at Worship Thursday in TAO.
TOMORROW'S TEASE
Has Sly Stallone picked Vegas as the perfect place for the world premiere of his new Rocky 6 movie in December? We’ll answer that in 24-hours time!! Meantime, Wayne Newton is still Mr. Las Vegas -- and always will be -- and he’s getting ready for his annual Holiday Show, running until New Years Eve. Hard to believe the calendar is at that time of the year yet again. Where does the time fly? Luxe Life also takes an advance peek at Barbra Streisand's upcoming visit to the MGM Grand plus the entire weekend wrap-up in Robin’s Royal Rundown as my favorite basketball team, the Sacramento Kings come to town with the LA Lakers and the Phoenix Suns for pre-season basketball!
CONTACT US
You can
make 3-pointers with us by bouncing an email to robinsvegas@aol.com. To
ensure
you don’t miss one eye-popping edition, click
here or at the
'Alert Me' up top if you’d like to know the
split-second we post the brand new Luxe
Life.
Go to AOL Vegas for much more on hotels,casinos, restaurants, nightlife, and everything Las Vegas! Check our travel section for great deals on hotels, airfare and much more! And when visiting Vegas, be sure to see Las Vegas Magazine in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life, and an incredible directory of attractions, shows and restaurants.
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Liza Minnelli Back in Vegas; Amazing Johnathan Prepares for Halloween; Meet the Gladiator Goddesses
In This Issue:
For the first time in 8-years, Liza Minnelli returns to Vegas tonight. And, her 3-night run at the Luxor has been such a box office bonanza that she’s coming back next month (Nov 23-25) for another 3-nights!! A dynamic stage, screen and television performer, Liza will perform her well-known hits “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Cabaret,” “Losing My Mind,” “Some People” and her signature song “Theme from New York, New York.” Over the years she’s won every major entertainment accolade including an Oscar, two Tony awards and an Emmy. When Liza received the Grammy Legend Award she became part of a small and select group of performers who have won entertainment’s top four awards. She’s a long-time friend from my years in New York, where she now lives, and we’ll meet up backstage for a reunion tomorrow. Liza, who’s finished shooting a new fall episode of 'Law & Order' says she’s looking forward to exploring the new Vegas. “I haven’t been there in two years, so I’m looking forward to seeing all the new attractions and even taking a ride on the roller coaster at New-York New-York or the gondolas at The Venetian,” she said. "Hopefully I’ll get to see some of the new shows too.” Liza, who works out with a 2-hour daily dance routine, says she’s in great health and in great spirits despite all the recent scandalous headlines concerning her private life and bitter divorce battle with former manager-husband, David Guest. “I don’t pay that much attention because I know what’s true and what isn’t," she said. "It's more important that I have been feeling fantastic for the past 3 years with teaching at the Actors Studio, helping brain-injured children and doing that recurring role on 'Arrested Development.' I’m having a great time and I’m very happy so I wanted to come back to Vegas with a new show that's got material people really love and some numbers that I really love and have wanted to do for a long time. Call it a mix of my favorites and the audience’s favorites. As Bono from U2 once said, 'just give me the song and the spotlight and I don’t need anything else.' Vegas has changed since I was there when I was five-years-old -- the very first time my mother played the New Frontier -- so I have to go see it for myself. I’m an entertainer for life and I still love giving it my best. Everybody has been wonderful to me and I’m looking forward to my Vegas visit.”
Liza on stage at the Luxor, preparing for her 3-day concert series.
Liza got off to a fast start on playing catch up with Vegas last night after she arrived from Minot, South Dakota where she performed on Tuesday. She hit not one but two Cirque shows: first stop was at 'KA' in MGM Grand and then the sexy erotic 'Zumanity' show at New-York New-York. I chatted with Liza as she blocked out some of her moves onstage at Luxor yesterday afternoon: "I've got some surprises up my sleeve even though my show is basically 90-minutes of just me with my 12 boys in the orchestra. I work so hard in the show nonstop I actually lose about 7lbs each night, so because I cant eat during the daytime before singing, I have to make up for it after the show. So, let's all go out for dinner tomorrow night and party." Liza told me that she'll make reservations this trip to see the Beatles 'LOVE' musical from Cirque du Soleil when she returns in November. "I'mactually here for Thanksgiving and Rosie O'Donnell is coming out here too then to catch the show," she added. "And I'd like to recreate a little bit of Vegas history when I get back. In the 70's Sammy Davis and I used to sort of meet up at 2am and then do impromptu gypsy-cabarets for all the other entertainers on the Strip who were working while we were doing our shows. I want to do that again next time I'm out and I'm sure we'll get every entertainer to come by." We'll have more of our candid conversation with Liza next week in Luxe Life when we wrap up our coverage of her first run of shows here in almost a decade.
Liza's Luxor concerts will be her first in Vegas in eight years.
THIS JUST IN
Our two mega nightclubs -- TAO and PURE -- will engage in another celebrity slugfest this weekend. On Saturday night, 'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria, who just reconciled last weekend in Paris with her San Antonio Spurs basketball boyfriend Tony Parker flies in from Hollywood to host a " welcome to fall party" at PURE. Two weekends ago, Eva had been in Vegas at the MGM playing 4am piggyback rides in the lobby and casino with her boyfriend; just 24 hours before he flew to New York and was caught with "another woman" before flying onto Paris. Reports immediately surfaced that the two lovebirds had called off their romance, but he phoned from Paris where he was playing on the NBA Europe Live tour and begged Eva to join him in the romantic French capitol. It apparently worked, and they're now back together again. Meantime, TAO throws two celebrity studded nights: tomorrow, Ashanti has her surprise birthday party with rappers Nelly and Gipp, comedian Mike Epps, actress Tamala Jones and The St. Lunatics. Next night, Michelle will play host to my friend, heiress Lydia Hearst Shaw, rock band Incubus, singer/actor Jaron Lowenstein and actor Shawn Ashmore at her 21st birthday bash. Luxe Life, you know, will have total coverage of the ongoing celebrity battleground disco-wars on Monday morning.
HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
The Amazing Johnathan runs you down with his macabre brand of magic and humor.
If there’s one entertainer in town who embraces the upcoming Halloween festivities more than any other, it's definitely macabre magician The Amazing Johnathan. The crazy comic appears nightly at the Sahara and has just returned from New York, filming a brand new TV special at NY’s Hudson Theater for broadcast Nov 14, on the Comedy Central. In between getting his haunted house ready for his annual Halloween party, we took timeout for this exclusive Luxe Life interview:
Robin Leach: What are you currently doing to prepare for Halloween?
Amazing Johnathan: Now that we have done the special, we are just building the haunted house for our annual Halloween party. I am going to do it at my warehouse. There are two warehouses back to back and one of them is going to be the party and the other is going to be the haunted house. We have redone everything. I just built an elevator that looks pretty real. You get on it and drops what seems like 5 stories. People have ridden on it and they thought it was real so far and they screamed. There are a lot of people coming. A lot of rock bands like Twisted Sister, Nickelback and Pantera will be there.
RL: What did you add to the TV special that is different than the Sahara show and have you put anything new from the TV show into the Sahara show?
AJ: Comedy Central didn’t want anything repeated, which made it tough for me, because I had completed everything. I did three specials for them, but none of them were our specials, they were all 10-15minutes some even a half an hour, so what I had to do was pull stuff from way, way back to see if it worked. A lot of it didn’t, because it was stupid and dated. So we had to write probably a half hour of new material that we have never done on TV and that was stressful, but we did it. That alone took about three-and-a-half months. Oh man it was hard, and thank God we have a place to rehearse every night. It would be rough if we didn’t have the Sahara. I pulled things out and put things in and really brushed it up. They were impressed with it. They could see how hard I worked on it and they said it was one of the best ones they had ever shot. The New York audience was real good to me. We shot two versions -- one clean and one a little X-rated -- so you’ll see the clean version on TV and get the raunchy one on DVD later!
RL: Talk to me about the new additions. And how long have you been at the Sahara now?
AJ: About 18-months and we just got an extension for another year. I had put new stuff in between really strong stuff that I knew worked so it re-energized us. Being in Las Vegas, you are not in Hollywood anymore, and it is a black hole, things pass you by fast here. I was happily married to the fact that I was riding on my own coattails now, but Comedy Central made me get out there and come up with a whole new show. It's completely re-energized us and we’re back in the game again. My character in 5 years has changed and evolved so much. Comedy Central was so impressed with the advancement of the show and the character. It hasn’t changed that much to me, but for someone who hasn’t seen it in 5 years I guess it is a big change. It is really tight. Comedy Central was so cool about everything. They never gave me a no answer to anything that I came up with. They were so receptive to anything. They built me this incredible set that cost $100,000 just for the stage. I have this gigantic card castle that rises up out of the stage and then builds itself. It is three stories high, all out of playing cards, 6’ by 4’. It all comes up out of smoke on the stage and then one of the cards falls and I come walking out. To build that on a small scale and then send it to New York and then to see it built, I was like wow. And then they gave it to me when they were finished. It is a coming out like a rock star. I got it for whenever I play larger rooms than the Sahara. All of the TV show is now incorporated into the new Sahara show. I have a hard time going back to the other stuff because I worked so hard on this new hour that I may add a new 20 minutes for Halloween that is coming up now. Halloween week we are going to put in new tricks that incorporate blood into them.
RL: Forgetting Halloween for a second, is the new show a softer, gentler, kinder side of Amazing Johnathan?
AJ: Yeah it is softer, more manic; there is very little blood, little violence. I took all of that out. It is more reliant on improv with volunteers from the audience. Over the years I wanted to focus more on the comedy itself. This is my fifth year in Vegas. It all started while I did two weeks for David Brenner at the Golden Nugget. They asked if I could do two weeks while he was on summer vacation and I’ve been here ever since. The numbers are real steady now. I like living and working in Vegas. My show at the Sahara each night is 10pm, so I leave my house with just 10-minutes to spare and I’m back home before midnight! If I run out of gas en route, the crowd sits there for a half-an-hour. The audience thinks I am backstage getting prepared while I am still rushing around trying to find my wallet. I have things they can show the audience to kill time if I’m late. I have comedy videos. I should have a video apologizing is what I should have. It should say I am probably out of gas right now if you are watching this.
RL: Why did Vegas become the capital of the world for magic? Why is magic so accepted here, and in a sense rejected elsewhere?
AJ: It is variety that is accepted here. I think variety is accepted but is getting killed off slowly but surely. None of the TV shows are doing it anymore. Leno doesn’t use it hardly ever and so that is magic; people love to see variety acts and there is nowhere left to see them except for here. That is why it is a shame that all the theatersare coming here. They are closing down shows to put in plays, even though they have never worked. Their thinking is just so skewed. They are not original and I just don’t get it. With plays everyone does it and it never works. They are trying to make it like New York and no one wants that. They want showgirls and they wantsex, and Cirque Du Soleil is going to do Criss Angel’s new show. Imagine what they would do with a juggler or a mime? That is why magic works here is because it keeps up with technology and you can do anything with your imagination and magic, but what can you do with a juggler? How far can you take that? You can never make a pop rock star out of ajuggler but you can a magician. Criss Angel for example, has got it going on right now. I mean he is unbelievable popular right now. He is not afraid of what other magicians think about him. Magicians are stuffy but magic has always been about, being a con man and fooling people. If it fools them, it fools them. It is entertainment. They think that he is magic and they think that he is in the league with whomever. He is in the league with maybe the devil, but he is taking it all the way to the bank. He just bought a half a million-dollar car the other day. And I just saw him out with a girl and I didn’t realize how pretty she was. She is pretty and tall. He is not playing around and I don’t blame him. If I were him there wouldn’t be a girl in town that wasn’t walking with a limp.
RL: So are you still at work on new illusions and new tricks?
AJ: I am at work to build scary stuff right now. I am trying to figure out what terrifies people and I have a pretty good idea about that, and it is all going into this warehouse. It is not a kid’s haunted house. I have people crawling on the floor and the floor drops from underneath them. It doesn’t look safe, but it is and it is very scary.
ROCK THE RAINBOW
LEFT: Gerina DeMarco with Sean Kinny. CENTER: DeMarco with Clint Holmes. RIGHT: Drummer Vinnie Paul.
Gorgeous Vegas songwriter and recordproducer Gerina DeMarco decided she should be a singing star too. Her hits for such stars as Thalia went to #1 in the Latin charts and now she’s won such fans as 'Alice in Chains' drummer Sean Kinny and Vegas veteran Clint Holmes. She debuted her fiery brand of music at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, the rockers' hangout where Pantera’s drummer Vinnie Paul, on the same night, hung up his autographed snare drum on the club’s greenroom wall.
RITA’S FANS
Comedian Rita Rudner has special gifts for fans of her new show at Harrah's.
Now that comedian Rita Rudner has settled into her new home at Harrah’s, she has a special treat in store for fans. Even before her show starts each night she has a special backstage “meet and greet” session by her dressing room where she poses for fotos and gives them an autographed magnetized “TO BUY LIST” memo-pad and a VIP DVD. She told me that she does the fan-fest before her show so that she can dash right home afterwards to ensure her 5-year-old daughter Molly is OK!
GORGEOUS GLADIATORS
(Left to right) Raegen, Ashley (kneeling) Jayde, Brena (sitting) and Choreographer Jamey Dilley (center).
Four beauties have been selected as captains for the 5th Anniversary Las Vegas Gladiator Goddesses’ new AFL season. Meet Brena Kautz, Ashley Vail, Jayde Mohammadi and Raegen Pruitt. Mary Vail, the Goddesses manager, also selected acclaimed choreographer, Jamey Dilley, who used to be in 'Mamma Mia!' to master plan all the new moves! Goddess Ashley is from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and has lived here for more than 11 years and also performs in the Rio Masquerade Show in the Sky, Goddess Brena, a UNLV graduate, is also a showgirl in Masquerade. Goddess Jayde, a communications major at UNLV, comes from Salt Lake City, as does Goddess Raegen, a senior at UNLV Vegas, majoring in Dance with a minor in Business Management.
STRIP SCRIBBLES
Legendary actor Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne with former Motion Picture Association chairman, Jack Valenti caught the Beatles 'LOVE' musical. An observant attendant spotted Mrs. Douglas’ sunglasses left at The Mirage box office and returned them at their seats before the show started and won a hug and a kiss from the thankful couple. … TAO nightclub at The Venetian will be hosting actress Michelle Trachtenberg’s 21st birthday on Saturday evening after Chefs Sam Hazen and Josh Thomsen serves up a decadent dinner for her celeb-guests at TAO.
TAO Chef Sam Hazen with Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupree.
TONIGHT'S TIPS
TOMORROW'S TEASE
Has Sly Stallone picked Vegas as the perfect place for the world premiere of his new Rocky 6 movie in December? We’ll answer that in 24-hours time!! Meantime, Wayne Newton is still Mr. Las Vegas -- and always will be -- and he’s getting ready for his annual Holiday Show, running until New Years Eve. Hard to believe the calendar is at that time of the year yet again. Where does the time fly? Luxe Life also takes an advance peek at Barbra Streisand's upcoming visit to the MGM Grand plus the entire weekend wrap-up in Robin’s Royal Rundown as my favorite basketball team, the Sacramento Kings come to town with the LA Lakers and the Phoenix Suns for pre-season basketball!
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