The Show is UP: Shecky's Complaint

I'm still quite sickly. Or, at least, my voice is a wreck even though I'm feeling better. You can hear a moment of it at the top of this shortened episode of "The Strip" in which we present our chat with the legend Shecky Greene, who appears at the Suncoast next month. Next week: Carlos Santana! Click on the date below to listen or right-click and save to your computer. Or subscribe (it's free!) via the iTunes link or via the Zune link. -sf

April 23: Shecky's Complaint

When Steve makes a joke that’s so awful it’s funny, Miles refers to him as Shecky Friess. That’s because long before Steve was hamming it up badly, comic Shecky Greene was one of the legendary comedians who made Las Vegas what it is today. Greene, now 83, is back in town for a three-show gig at the Suncoast next month, so Shecky Friess chatted him up about being tackled by Buddy Hackett in the middle of Paradise Road, about crashing his car in the Caesars Palace fountains and about which of the current crop of comics he loves and which he hates with, as Shecky put it, “a purple passion.”

Links:
Shecky Greene's site
Tickets for Shecky's show at the Suncoast

OJ, Ellen and Wynn

OK. So I'm sure by now you know OJ Part Duh is coming to a courtroom near us late next year. Well, if you care, here's my New York Times coverage of today's events in court. V.S. will be delighted to know I refrained from using the word "disgraced" as it pertains to Pete Rose today and, yes, I did so in part because of her post.

More important, though, is my USA Today piece on Ellen DeGeneres, which appears in Thursday's paper. She's performing at Caesars Palace Thursday night as part of The Comedy Festival in a variety show that will air Monday night on TBS. But Ellen is controversial these days, what with her weepy Iggy caper and her continuing to shoot her talk show during the writers strike. So see what she has to say about all that in my piece. But, also, grab next week's podcast to hear our conversation in its entirety.

Finally, I had an hourlong chat with Steve Wynn today for a piece I'm filing Friday about Wynn's Michelin triumphs and some other topics. There was, as always, loads of news out of that conversation and I'll start piecing it out over the next week. I haven't listened to the discussion again since it ended at 7 p.m. and I'm thoroughly exhausted at the moment from all the week's events.