Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

‘The Rat Pack Is Back’ eyeing new spot — T Spot at Tuscany; Penn shops ‘The Slammer’

Rat Pack Is Back

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is prepping for the big Kenny Davidsen 40th birthday party at T Spot at Tuscany. The songs sampled are all to be from 1975, and a bevy of singers and musicians will fill the room with happy noise.

I’ve been writing about T Spot quite a lot over the past several months, or even year, with good reason. There is a lot happening in that entertainment den just off the casino floor.

For more of what is up at Tuscany, read on …

• Expected but not yet confirmed is a return of “The Rat Pack Is Back” to the stage in that very T Spot Lounge. Expect the show, late of the Rio and targeted for Versailles Theater at the Riviera (until some unfortunate news about the hotel being sold and headed for implosion surfaced), to be back in June.

A dinner package and five-night-per-week schedule is being assembled at the resort just east of the Strip on Flamingo Road. “The Rat Pack Is Back,” produced by our favorite Las Vegas entertainment overlord Dick Feeney, has had a successful if star-crossed run in VegasVille.

Mostly, the show has stayed a step ahead of implosions or closures, opening in 1999 at Desert Inn, moving to the Sahara, then to the Plaza, Greek Isles (which became the Clarion and now the Rubble Inn), then to the Rio.

The producers at Red Mercury Entertainment shopped the show until landing at the Riv and dumped serious money (more than $100,000) into renovations at the Versailles, where it obviously was never staged. It’s too bad. I, for one, would love to have seen the Return of Bronson at that hotel.

The Home of Penn Jillette

The home of Penn Jillette from Rio magician headliners Penn & Teller on Monday, Sept. 9, 2013. Launch slideshow »

• Penn Jillette has put the family home, famously dubbed “The Slammer,” on the market. He’s “sniffing around” for a buyer (for $3 million, you’re in the right range) for the home he bought in 1994 and has expanded as his wife, Emily, and he have concurrently expanded their family with children Moxie Crime Fighter and Zolten Penn. The two homes — the kids’ home was added to the original A-frame dwelling — occupy a 10-acre plot on West Wigwam Avenue in Las Vegas.

The features include a police lineup chart and accompanying camera, a full movie theater and band performance room, fish ponds in the back yard surrounded by multicolored swatches of artificial grass, observation windows at heights fit for kids and for the 6-foot-7 inch Jillette, and the infamous hot tub outfitted with the “Jil-Jet” water device designed by Jillette himself.

You’ll have to research the Jil-Jet, and for a walk through the estate, check out this Las Vegas Weekly story from 2013. In a text, Jillette said the family is moving to a place that is better for their children — it's closer to their schools and friends. “ ‘The Slammer’ is too secluded for a family,” he said.

Rehearsal for 'Pin Up' Starring Claire Sinclair at Stratosphere

Rehearsal for Launch slideshow »

• One could cast a touring version of “Pin Up” with all of the former performers who have departed the signature show at the Stratosphere. Start with music director David Perrico and singer Anne Martinez and work from there (though Martinez still swings for main vocalist Lisa Marie Smith).

The entire lineup of dancers and all but one musician have turned over since the show’s opening, with star Claire Sinclair the most prominent remaining charter member of the cast (and Sabina Kelley is playing a more prominent role in the production with her frequent appearances hosting the show).

The latest defection, announced via Facebook, is Ryan Kelsey. The lone male dancer since the show opened in March 2013 gave his one-month notice about two weeks ago and is going to be redoubling his efforts on “Alice — A Steampunk Concert Fantasy” he helped conceive with Martinez and another ex-“Pin Up” performer, Claudia Mitria.

That show continues its run at Vinyl in the Hard Rock Hotel on May 20, June 17 and July 15. Meantime, auditions are continuing in “Pin Up” in an attempt to fill what is a very demanding track, artistically and athletically, in the show.

As for Kelsey, he just turned 30 and has all sorts of options. He’s a good musician, along with his dancing skills, and we expect that he leaves with a sarong — I mean, song — in his heart.

• Las Vegas Wranglers owner Gary Jacobs checks in with details on the team’s clearance sale, which is May 15-16 at 4210 Sobb Ave. in Las Vegas. The daylong sale starts at 8 a.m. each day with a customer sign-in and the sale to follow at 8:30 a.m. Up for sale are office furniture, equipment and supplies; training equipment and supplies; exercise equipment; hockey gear and racks; and something listed as “The Skeleton of The Duke.”

Kidding about that last one. I think. But this fire sale should spell the formal end of the Las Vegas Wranglers, a little hockey team that was a whole lot of fun.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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