Magician Steve Wyrick Postponed Again; Will He EVER Open?

That's not just my question. It's the one stalking the folks at the Las Vegas Hilton, too. There's some snag going on over there that goes beyond needing more time to perfect the show, and now I have a Hilton source telling me there are financial problems. Before it even opens, there are financial problems?!?

I had exclusively reported on July 26 the the journeyman magician's new headliner gig had been postponed from a 7/27 opening to an 8/5 opening, and the other day a ticket agent told me its new opening date was 8/6. Well, that's today, and the Las Vegas Hilton website has scrubbed those dates and a ticketing agent said it's supposed to open 8/9 but "I can't really predict the future."

Indeed. Don't hold your breath on that, either, because the resort's website shows Wyrick scheduled to appear EVERY SINGLE NIGHT UNTIL JANUARY 31, 2012 WITHOUT A SINGLE DAY OFF.

Yeah, right.

[Aside: By then will it even be "the Hilton" by then?]

If you try to book tickets for any of these dates, you evidently can do it, though. They're $39.95 to $125. Something tells me there'll be plenty of seats available on a walk-up basis, though, so I'd hold off on that.

Why does this even matter? Well, Wyrick's face is already plastered on a 20ish-foot-tall banner on the side of the resort where Barry Manilow's visage once gazed down upon the masses. Has there ever, in the history of Las Vegas, been a show advertised and promoted like that that has simply never opened?

Wyrick, of course, has a long history of financial troubles and disappointing shows. Most recently, he went bankrupt after the $35 million Wyrick Theater and bar complex in the Miracle Mile Shops failed miserably. And yet he keeps trying to come back, and that spirit and effort deserves a certain admiration from even those not impressed by his tricks.

There's one more bit of proof, though, that Wyrick is clearly not ready for primetime at the Hilton. This...


...is what you find out front at SteveWyrick.Com. Maybe that's a time-traveling DeLorean? THAT would be an awesome trick.

The Shows are UP: Charlie Palmer & Hal Sparks

Here we go, another two-fer week as we wind down the program. Enjoy. Click on the date below to play or right-click to save the show. Or you subscribe -- for free -- in iTunes or Zune. -sf

July 31: Charlie Palmer, Hall of Famer
EXTRA: Hal Sparks on Vince Neil, QaF and Minority Comedy

The last time we spoke to celebrity chef Charlie Palmer, he used this program to break a WORLD EXCLUSIVE about his plans to build a hotel in Las Vegas. This time around, he joins us as one of the three newest inductees into the American Gaming Association’s Hall of Fame. Palmer talks about that, about the aforementioned hotel he still intends to build some day and about a particularly wild birthday meal he had on an island in Fiji. That’s all coming up. Also, we excerpt our interview with comic Hal Sparks, the former “Talk Soup” host and “Queer As Folk” star who appears this weekend at the Las Vegas Hilton. It was Sparks’ show, you might recall, that Vince Neil interrupted in order to confront a former girlfriend, Alicia Jacobs.

In Banter: Drrrty pools, Wyrick delays, Vegas Top Cheffers, Bucket Lists and more.

Open & Banter: Start to 18ish
Charlie Palmer: 18-50ish
Trivia/Poll/Letters: 51ish-1:04ish
Hal Sparks Excerpt: 1:04-1:07ish
TSTToTW: 1:08-end

Links To Stuff Discussed:

The sites of Hal Sparks and Charlie Palmer
The Daily’s piece on pee in the pools
Bellagio’s rooms pictorial and report by VegasHappensHere.Com
WSOP betting at sports books are open and popular, says the Sun's Case Keefer
Top Chef Just Desserts contestants from Vegas
Charlie Palmer’s Fiji birthday extravaganza

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?

The Gays, The Jews and Vegas

There is a pathetic creature out there who reads this blog religiously and never seems to miss the podcast but who is nonetheless livid that Miles and I are gay and that we talk about our lives as if -- get this! -- they were normal. He even spends his time posting homophobic messages on this blog under old posts that nobody is reading anymore (I get email alerts to all new posts or I'd miss it, too) and has debates with himself, pretending to be more than one poster. It's very odd. And always loaded with bad grammar and spelling because kooky fundamentalists are uniformly averse to the English language.

Still, even wacky, virulent homophobes have their days, and this may just be his. Thinking he was hurting my feelings, he passed along this very useful link from a Swedish newspaper reporting that Swedish magician Joe Labero (pictured above) bitched to an in-flight magazine about why he can't get work in Las Vegas:

"I don't mean to sound prejudiced of course, I'm just cynical. A blond Swedish Viking will have a hard time breaking through the hierarchies that control Vegas, where power rests in the hands of Jewish business syndicates, American dollar millionaires and homosexual booking agents."

Fascinating. Did you know this? Planet Ho is installing a Dutch magician, Hans Klok, who is reportedly not gay, American or Jewish, and he's been hired by P.Ho CEO Robert Earl, who again is none of those things. There's Steve Wyrick, Nathan Burton, Lance Burton, David Copperfield and Criss Angel -- none are gay (not openly anyhow) and none are Jews. True, Siegfried & Roy are gay but would never admit it, but they sure weren't Jewish or American. We're not entirely sure they were even Earthlings.

Could it be that Mr. Labero is just not very good? Look at this clip below -- he's cutting a woman into pieces in a box. Gosh, Vegas really needs its 18th version of THAT trick. And the close-ups of him -- what's with the 1980s-hair-band look? -- I wonder about his protestations of heterosexuality anyhow.




Interestingly, He did go on to apologize for the remarks yesterday. You know, because he didn't mean to sound prejudiced. Of course.

Anyhow, being gay and Jewish myself -- and left-handed and hearing impaired, what a list! -- I'd like to speak on behalf of this city when I answer this other comment made by Mr. Labero:

"But I will get there, sooner of later."

I'm thinking not.

Reminder: "The Strip" is live WEDNESDAY

Because I'm away, we're recording the show live tomorrow night. We'll have a newsworthy interview with magician Steve Wyrick and a special interview edition of the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week.

Join us at lvrocks.com Wednesday at 7 pm PT or wait till the podcast is up on Thursday night.

Steve Wyrick responds

During my interview with Steve Wyrick for next week's episode of "The Strip," I asked the Planet Hollywood magician about the lack of a hearing assistive device system in his theater. He said there is one and that the usher I asked -- actually it was the box office dude -- was mistaken.

That's really good to hear. But I think we're going to have to start putting pressure on these theaters to train their personnel since they frequently don't know. And, also, I've been told the Americans With Disabilities Act requires signage offering these devices to patrons.

This is developing...Hunter from RateVegas.Com suggested in a comment from the prior post that he might incorporate that question in his tracking of Vegas theaters. Great idea. Hopefully he'll do that.

What's more, though, is that I'd be curious if anyone offers audio description for the blind, which is starting to spread in Broadway theaters and some movie theaters. Man, that would be awful hard to do at "Ka," wouldn't it?

Stay tuned for the interview. There's definitely a Norm-worthy moment or two in it.

Don't worry, deafie, it's REALLY loud

Just came in from the Steve Wyrick magic show at Planet Ho because I'm interviewing the headliner tomorrow for next week's "The Strip" podcast.

One question I may ask is this: "How the &%*#@ could you build a $35 million theater complex from scratch in this day and age and not make it accessible to people with hearing disabilities?"

I asked the guy at the counter tonight if there were headsets. And, just as I told you all the other day with the Gordie Brown usher, his answer was: "No, I don't think so, but the theater's brand new and everything's really loud."

Incidentally, it actually wasn't. Wyrick speaks a lot in the show and he has a soft voice. I just don't understand why it's even legal to open a theater in this age of ADA without hearing assistive devices?!?!

Gentle reader, please start asking about this when you go to theaters in Vegas. Just ask. Pretend you have a deaf aunt at home you'd love to bring. Whatever. I want to start keeping track of this. And any disability lawyers out there willing to tell me if the ADA covers public theaters?