This week's show - EARLY!

I've got to spend the day listening to politicians talk about climate change (see my NYT blog post last night about Clinton's praise of McCain) and my aunt arrives today for a five-day visit, so I decided to go and get this week's show up earlier than usual. It should arrive in the feed later tonight but you can download it direct by right-clicking on the date below. Carrot Top was a terrific guest, answering everything from why he's so hated -- and loved -- and whether he's had any, uh, help getting so buff. If you're not already subscribed to the show, you can do so via iTunes here or via Zune here.

Aug. 21: Carrot Top @ The Podcast-a-Palooza!

**NOTE: THE AUDIO IS A LITTLE ROUGH AND NOT EDITED THIS TIME SINCE IT WAS LIVE AND THAT'S THE CHARM OF IT. HOPE THAT'S OK!**

You may love him or you may hate him, but you cannot deny this one truth: Carrot Top is a Vegas star. And he’s the kind of star whose act could only have this kind of longevity on the Strip. Scott Thompson, the comic with the enormous orange plume and the shockingly ripped physique, joins us live today to explain his journey from Butts Road – no, really – to Las Vegas Boulevard. That’s coming up. Plus, news from Vegas, a new poll, the trivia question and, as always, the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week. This is The Strip, we’re at the Palms and our part of the 2008 Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza starts right now.

PLUS: The P-Ho rapproachement, Sheldon Adelson's protection and Steve's pre-Palooza nightmare.

Links:

See Carrot Top's website here
Get tickets for Carrot Top live at Luxor here
The website for Woo Restaurant, referred to early in the show, is here
See the back story on the Earl-Friess-Hillegas feud here
Find other Podcast-A-Palooza pix and video of The Vegas Gang's part here

Palooza Pix and Stuff

It was a crazy, wild, fantastically exciting experience and even for me, a challenge to put into words. Thanks go out to the Palms and my podcaster colleagues as well as to Vegas.Com, Huntington Press and the LVCVA for the donated swag we gave away.

And since I've really got to tear out of here, I figured for the moment, I'd leave y'all with photos and such to peruse. Anyone out there who has more and/or better images, please send them to me?

Sparky of Las Vegas shot some great photos, including the one above, and they can be found here. This one below is my favorite, representing how I get, uh, animated. This is from the Q-and-A after the three shows did their thing, so that's Hunter Hillegas from RateVegas.Com to the left (whom I affectionately liken to a pre-suicidal Owen Wilson), Tim and Michele Dressen of Five Hundy By Midnight, and then me and Miles.


Hunter has more than 100 images that can be found here.

Also, Sparky took some video but the only part that came out was the Vegas Gang's panel discussion with George Maloof. You can watch that here or on the image below. It's about 20 minutes long. I know that Hunter will post the audio of this discussion, which may be of better quality because it'll be coming direct from the sound board, soon.


We have video and audio of "The Strip" and the Q-and-A and I'll be finding ways to get that up and into our feed in coming days. Right now I've gotta run. Bill Clinton is speaking in Vegas tonight and I've gotta figure out what I need to do about it.

Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza Ramping Up!

We're getting a fresh blast of great PR in advance of the Vegas Podcast-a-Palooza today!

First comes an eerily timed -- gosh, how DOES that happen? -- Question of the Day that gives an overview of the Vegas podcast world on the Las Vegas Advisor website. And my friend and colleague Norm Clarke gave us a hand in today's Review-Journal column, which can be found here. (I believe the QoD is only available for free on Thursday, then it's part of the archive for LVA members.) And now Joe Brown from the Las Vegas Sun referenced us in his blog post earlier today as well!

Of course, YOU are our best promoters. And that's why you'll be rewarded for showing up! The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority has provided 150 blinky Welcome To Las Vegas magnetic lapel pins for guests on a first-come, first-served basis. And we'll do a drawing during or after each show to give away prize packs that include donated Vegas.Com swag, copies of my books and some other stuff that's in "The Strip" prize vault from the Huntington Press warehouse. And after all three shows are done, Tim, Michele, Miles, me and Hunter will take questions from the audience.

For our part, in addition to our Carrot Top chat, we've got a fascinating piece of never-aired audio to share from a recent interview that contains an amazing Sheldon Adelson anecdote and tonight I shall be having my much-anticipated rapproachement dinner with a certain Vegas mogul so there will be that to dish about.

If you somehow don't know what this event is that I jammer on about, click here and see. There's still some talk that we might stream the event live and I'll update when I know if/when/how. And whatever we do will be in our feed sometime next week for sure.

Wynn: "I'm The Most Powerful Man In Nevada"

(UPDATE: I changed the new poll. We'll get back to the other one next go-around. Meanwhile, I'm curious your answer to the new one, which bounces off of this post. See it to your right and VOTE.)

There's an excellent piece in today's Review-Journal by Benjamin Spillman about the dealers' complaint against Steve Wynn following his decision in 2006 to redistribute tips, leading to the dealers' unionizing at Wynn as well as at Caesars Palace.

But the part that fascinated me most was a line in the labor complaint that claims Wynn told a group of 15 angry dealers, "I am the most powerful man in Nevada. ... If you guys have a problem with the way I am handling things, you can leave." Oh, and according to the story, he also showed up at the meeting wearing plastic fangs to amuse the others. Didn't work.

But the statement there is interesting and begs the question: Is it true? Or are there more powerful people in Nevada? You know, like maybe Harry Reid, the nation's top Democrat? Or the Clark County Commission, which has the power to approve or reject any development is wishes? Or, in Michael Politz' estimation, perhaps Carrot Top? And what IS power, anyhow? Hmmm... This is starting to sound like a good column for the Weekly.

Any thoughts?

Red Carpet: 40/40 Club Fun

The 40/40 Club is a new sports-themed nightclub with "an eclectic menu" that includes fried deviled eggs and southern-fried chicken sticks owned by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, boyfriend of Beyonce. I did not have the stamina to stick around until they arrived, probably at about 2 a.m. I did get a bunch of fun pix, though.

The first recognizable star I saw was, uh, the Rev. Al Sharpton. It surprised others, but this was the third time I've seen Rev. Al on the Vegas scene -- he was in the audience of a Gladys Knight concert a few years ago. I don't remember the other time but it was, as this, a black-related event.

For a while, it was the predictable I'd-attend-the-opening-of-a-can-of-tuna crowd: Frank Marino, Nathan Burton and then Carrot Top...

We were getting sort of restless, having been assembled 8 p.m. along this area and having nobody of note show up for more than three hours. I was particularly fascinated by the Nicole Richie-lookalike in the blue dress and sprocket-silver boots from the local Fox affiliate in the middle shot. I'm always fascinated by "journalists" who hug and kiss all the stars and fancy themselves one of them.




Anyhow, eventually, we started getting a parade of major sports stars, including (in order) Charles Barkley, LeBron James and Alex Rodriguez:

I gave up on this red carpet when Mary J. Blige showed up. A PR woman, knowing I wanted to chat with her, nonetheless said to the singer, "Would you speak to the local Fox reporter?" And then, when done, the same PR lady said leadingly to Blige, "You don't want to talk to anyone else, do you?" Later, this woman would claim it was Mary's ideas who she spoke with, but as someone with a severe hearing disability, I can SEE exactly everything that's said. But, anyhow, here's Mary J -- and her very, very severe shoes...

I did get a very nice shot of one of Miles' reporters at KVBC, Hetty Chang, chatting up LeBron, who is 6-8. The disparity reminded me of my 2001 snapshot with Yao Ming in a Changchun, China hotel room. See it here. God, wasn't I young and my hair so short!

Evidently, I wasn't the only one who gave up; Richard Abowitz of the L.A. Times blog the Moveable Buffet checked out even sooner than I did. He will be live-blogging New Year's Eve tonight from the Strip, for those of you who feels sad you're not there. Read it all here.

I have not seen yet whether Jay-Z and Beyonce made it or, if they did, whether they made the wait worth anything to the print reporters who waited. Others who were on the "tip sheet," a press release advertising who would walk the carpet, included Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Jackson and Barry Bonds. Dunno if they were there, but I gave up when I realized while chatting with LeBron that my questions were too deep for this setting anyhow. Oh well.

But before I finish this, though, I wanted to mention that there was this huge hoard of people being escorted into the club, mostly very pretty women. I asked one how she got her invite and she mentioned, elusively, that she was from some "agency." Hmmm.

That does NOT explain how this reincarnated Robert Goulet got in, though...

When sycophancy -- and spin -- becomes idiocity

That yutz Michael Politz evidently modified his silly Carrot Top post. He still says Mr. Top is "sold out for six months" but then indicates:

The Luxor on-line ticket office says tix are available so take advantage of it. We have just been notified that other writers in Las Vegas are blogging their opinions against my selection of this show.

Umm, no. I don't know that anyone with either high-brow or low-brow taste can believe that Carrot Top is the best show in Vegas, but I hold no grudge against him and enjoyed his show well enough.

No, Mr. Politz, it's the entire item, taken together, with its absurd notion that this show is sold out -- but now, lucky you, there ARE tickets which means it's NOT sold out -- that drives me bananas. That and that obvious effort to shill your opinion in order to appear on someone's advertisements and marquee. You know, I can see it now. "Best Show in Vegas! -- Michael 'Rent-a-quote' Politz"

I'm gonna try that! The only marquee I'm on that I know of is for Phantom, and I didn't really mean it but a phrase from my USA Today piece on the show made it. My name did not, sadly. So let's see if I can right that wrong here and now!

Here are my candidates:

Dixie Dooley is the biggest thrill you'll ever have in a Vegas theater!
Steve Wyrick is the new Harry Houdini!
Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Whachamacallit is the height of elegance and first-class service!

Any others, friends?

When sycophancy becomes idiocity

I like Carrot Top well enough. He was an affable guest on "The Strip" back in 2005 and I gave his show at Luxor a respectable B- in my book, "Gay Vegas." It's not brain surgery but he's likeable and he tries so hard you have to give him props.

But.

Do you recall a number of months ago, I wrote about a fellow named Michael Politz, who runs Las Vegas Food & Beverage Magazine and has a blog called The Vegas Eye?

Well, Mr. Politz's insistence on sucking up to his favorites has now made him seem even more ridiculous than he already did. Today he not only called Carrot Top the "best show on the Strip," but he claimed it's sold out six months in advance. (I'm including a screen shot because Mr. Politz is known for removing stuff and claiming it never existed.)

That, my friends, is not only false but silly. There is no such thing as that kind of advance booking in Las Vegas. I can't imagine what Politz was thinking and I imagine Mr. Top himself would be embarrassed by such a claim.

See to your left. You can buy tickets to his show any day you'd like. And you should. It's a fun time.

Spamalittle?

There's some strong evidence that despite boffo reviews for "Spamalot" at Wynn Las Vegas, audience demand is tepid. To wit:

Exhibit 1: Wynn set up a booth last Friday at First Friday in the downtown Arts District to give away vouchers for 500 seats to first comers. Giving them away! Yikes.

Exhibit 2: I stopped by the half-price ticket counter in the Coke bottle across from the Monte Carlo on Saturday afternoon after trying (and failing due to the MGM Mirage systemwide sportsbook glitch that the mainstream media entirely ignored) to place my losing De La Hoya-Mayweather wager. Spamalot tickets were available at half price, for $66. This was a big, big weekend in Vegas and this was a Saturday night and the show can't sell out?

I still predict Wynn will keep it open at least a year regardless of the cost so as to not declare it a total failure.

While I was at the Coke bottle, by the by, I took note of who else was offering half-price seats on a very busy Vegas night. Mamma Mia had $50 seats, the self-proclaimed "New Mr. Las Vegas" George Wallace was up there for $40, Le Reve was available for $80 (not quite half-price, actually) and poor old Carrot Top was on sale for $20 a stick.

Is it time to start wondering if the Vegas show industry is in trouble?