Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is flanked by tap-dancing twins Sean and John at “Absinthe” on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015, at Caesars Palace.
The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is Planet Mazda service center on West Sahara Avenue. Time for an oil change and tire rotation (both for the Katmobile), and if any newsmaker wanders in here over the next hour or so, we are on it.
Let’s check under the hood, eh?
• The ever-scurrying tap-dance tandem of Sean and John Scott were among the members of “Absinthe” to meet Steven Tyler on Sunday night after the show’s performance at Caesars Palace. This was not the first meeting among the twins and Tyler, but it was the first time they’d seen him in about a decade.
Before performing on the Strip, Sean & John plied their craft for a dozen years at the Santa Monica Promenade in Southern California. Often, celebs would happen past and alternately gawk, applaud and even join the performance.
Aerosmith frontman Tyler was walking by one afternoon and stopped in amazement (Sean & John have this effect on people), watched for a few moments and pulled a harmonica out of his pocket. The brothers danced as Tyler played, and the guys talked for a while afterward.
That was the last time they’d seen Tyler until Sunday; Aerosmith performed a sold-out concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night. Sean & John also performed for and with Justin Timberlake, and Leonardo DiCaprio was a frequent fan who “would always come and watch us undercover wearing a hat with a hoodie over it.”
Nice. He should be in “Absinthe,” too. Play on …
• The plans for the next production to follow Dirk Arthur at International Westgate Theater might well be a return to the Elvis theme. Westgate Las Vegas and Red Mercury Entertainment remain interested in a show centered on the King, given that the venue was where Elvis performed 636 consecutive sold-out shows from 1969-’76.
It will not be the show that appeared this spring, to tepid response, “The Elvis Experience” starring Martin Fontaine backed by a costumed band and videos hearkening to Elvis’ run at the International and Las Vegas Hilton. But the hotel is not giving up on the Elvis model.
Westgate official Mark Waltrip says the company is still in talks with production company LCQ Productions that delivered “The Elvis Experience” about bringing a new Elvis show to Las Vegas. The night slot remains open in the theater, as Arthur is taking the 4 p.m. time.
Elsewhere, Westgate Cabaret has a void left by the well reviewed but financially tail-spinning “Suzanne Sizzles,” which is not returning next month as originally scheduled. The show fronted by Suzanne Somers was great fun, and the hotel was right to take a shot at returning her to the stage. But Somers reportedly sold, on average, 10 to 20 percent of the 330-seat house at the venue long known as Shimmer Cabaret.
Embracing the obvious, that’s not enough support to build on regardless of a billboard campaign. It’s too bad because Somers was really fired up about coming back to the former Hilton, where she headlined for two years in the 1980s.
What’s left in the Westgate’s small room is a revamped “Sexxy,” Jennifer Romas’ 10 p.m. (Tuesdays through Saturdays) adult revue, and the Prince tribute “Purple Reign,” which is Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Count on a busy fall from the crew at Red Mercury to populate the theater and cabaret.
• During an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday night, Penn Jillette told the host about the challenges of the Penn & Teller show returning to Broadway after a 25-year absence.
“It’s tough. It turns out when they name the theater after you, and paint pictures of you 300 feet high on the side of the hotel, and we tell them we want to go to a different place and do a show for a while, they get angry,” Jillette said as Teller nodded and Fallon laughed. “And they’re in Vegas, so when they get angry, it matters.”
Penn & Teller return to the Rio on Aug. 22. The remaining shows running through Aug. 16 at Marquis Theater in New York are nearly all sold out.
• Ever been in a Las Vegas casino and see someone and think, “Dang, that person looks like (name of completely randomly placed superstar),” and it turns out to be the actual celebrity? This happened to me about 10 years ago when I saw a guy at an ATM at the Riviera who looked just like Martin Sheen — and he was the actual Martin Sheen.
Our friend Dayna Roselli experienced this Monday at Sam’s Town. The co-anchor of “Carlos and Dayna” on KXNT 100.5-FM saw a guy who looked just like Sly Rocky Rambo Stallone (a nod to Joe Bob Briggs there) duck into the an audience-test screening of “Creed.” This occurred by happenstance, as Roselli was for the 48-Hour Film Project Awards, also being held at the hotel-casino.
Two long lines of fans streamed from the theaters to the "Creed" screening. Meantime, a group was led into the building through a separate back entrance. Roselli saw that group, and deduced accurately that one of those being funneled away from the fans was Sylvester Stallone. He wound up watching the film from the back of the theater with members of the film’s creative team. Likely, no one in the theater realized Stallone, who as Rocky Balboa split his two bouts with Creed, was even seated in the audience.
• A final date for Jabbawockeez at Luxor has been set: The dance crew bugs out Aug. 30 and awaits a fall start date at Beacher’s Madhouse in MGM Grand. Blue Man Group moves into the onetime House of Jabbas on Nov. 18, closing at Monte Carlo on Oct. 11.
• Tireless impressionist Gordie Brown is marking a rare milestone in VegasVille: Show No. 1,740, to be celebrated Aug. 20 at Brown’s showroom at Golden Nugget. The 1,740 was not entirely a random demarcation, as it handily rhymes in the sentence, “Gordie at 1,740.” There is a great backstory about the decision to use that number to celebrate Brown’s residency in Las Vegas. Let’s just say lunch with Steve Flynn is never without consequence …
• David Perrico’s Pop Strings has booked its debut performance at Cabaret Jazz in the Smith Center. The violin-charged mini-orchestra performs Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. at the Smith Center. Perrico’s band also appears with host Frankie Scinta at Goodwill Industry’s “Blue Party” at World Market Center on Oct. 2.
• On the topic of Scinta, he continues to canvass the great urban landscape seeking a new home for the act most recently known as “Frankie Scinta.” That change was made as Scinta, brother Joey, drummer and music director Peter O’Donnell and great vocalist Janien Valentine headlined at The D Las Vegas.
Expect the act to reclaim its former name, “The Scintas,” at its next home. And last weekend, as “The Scintas,” Frankie & Co. sold out the 1,600-seat M Pavilion at the M Resort. They have an audience. They just need a playground.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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