Thirty years, one list: Frank Marino celebrates his queendom on the Strip

By John Katsilometes

Monday, Sept. 21, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Frank Marino has surpassed the age of 50, 25,000 shows and, finally, 30 years as an unbroken star of a show on the Las Vegas Strip.

Nobody has done this, ever.

Marino today is the star of “Frank Marino’s Divas Las Vegas” at Linq Showroom, having logged 30 years between that show and, for nearly 25 years, as the frontman for “An Evening at La Cage” at the Riviera in the days when the Riv was actually a top-level hotel on the Strip.

The 30th anniversary was celebrated with a VIP party at Caesars Palace on Friday night; the anniversary show is to be performed tonight.

At the 30-year mark, we celebrate All Things Marino with this list of 30 things to know about the great drag queen. Follow along …

30: Has never played an organized sport.

29: Says he has a five-year window left to portray Joan Rivers because “technology is so prevalent today that fame doesn’t last nearly as long as it used to.”

28: Received a 5-carat, white-and-black diamond ring with a white-gold band custom designed by Mordechai of the Jewelers of Las Vegas when his partner, Alex Schechter, proposed to Marino onstage at the Quad Showroom (now the Linq Showroom) in July 2013.

27: Plans to expand the “Divas” brand with his shows in Reno and Laughlin and “keep it going until it stops going.”

26: Prefers creamy to chunky peanut butter.

25: Keeps fit with regular visits to David Barton Gym in Tivoli Village.

24: Uses 200 wigs in his show, rotating them in and out “depending on what mood I’m in.”

23: Shares a birthday (Nov. 20) with Robert Kennedy, Joe Biden, Joel McHale and Dierks Bentley.

23: Says his favorite dish is “Mom’s lasagna.”

22: Changes costumes 17 times in a single performance.

21: Can change stage attire, “Top to bottom, wig, shoes, earrings, costume, everything,” in 2 1/2 minutes.

20: Once joked that he should change the title of his show to “Cirque du So Gay.”

19: Has tried to incorporate Adele and Donna Summer into “Divas,” but both characterizations bombed.

18: Says, “I am always looking for the next hot mess,” to add as a character.

17: Has reached a deal with Bravo to broadcast a reality-TV series based on the wedding, which he wants to hold at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

16: Surpassed 25,000 performances on the Strip in May 2014.

15: Is proud that three characters who opened the “La Cage” production at the Riviera are still in the show: Rivers, Cher and Diana Ross.

14: Called in sick to a show in Laughlin in November 2012 so that he could meet Ross, his all-time favorite entertainer, after she performed at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace. He was busted when photos of Miss Ross and him surfaced in social media.

13: Has seen Ross perform “more than 100 times, easily, maybe hundreds” in 40 years.

12: Is often funnier offstage than onstage when he doesn’t use a script.

11: Has been a guest on “at least 50” reality-TV shows over the years, including “Millionaire Matchmaker,” “Toddlers & Tiaras,” Tank” and “Plastic Surgery Before and After.”

10: Has filmed 15 reality-TV show pilots.

9: Says that his post-“Divas” career would center on a reality-TV show. “My life is so messed up, people will think it’s scripted, but it isn’t.”

8: Says of his downstairs dressing room, far removed from Linq Showroom, “It’s a 15-minute cab ride if you make all the lights.”

7: The TV show that sparked the $5 million lawsuit filed by Rivers against Marino was “Milton Berle Enjoys an Evening at La Cage.” Marino and Rivers settled and became friends, as he noted, “I tried to pay her the entire $5 million but was $80 short.”

6: Has never had a “real” job other than fronting “La Cage” and, today, “Divas.”

5: Once lent money and provided support to his onetime rival, the late drag legend Kenny Kerr of the Strip production “Boy-Lesque.”

4: Is lucky that his mother, Mary Mastrangelo, says she cannot think of even one negative fun fact about her son.

3: Was adopted at birth and found Mary, his birth mother, about 25 years ago. He said his first words to her were, “So that’s where I got my nose.”

2: Has described himself as a gay Republican and says he knows one other gay Republican.

1: He has no regrets in his career, saying, “If I didn’t do everything I did do, I wouldn’t be where I am now. There are some people I would like to eliminate, but everything I’ve done, I would do again.”

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