Buddy, ‘Baz’ and Burton top notes on the scene

By John Katsilometes

Friday, Sept. 25, 2015 | 7:45 p.m.

The Kats Report Bureau is ever moving, reminding of Muhammad Ali’s line, “Keep your cameras moving 'cause I’m kinda fast.”

What we’ve experienced; Thursday night action at the red-carpet premiere of “Billy Topit: Master Magician” at the Palms, the new indie film produced and directed by, and starring, Lance Burton; and the Imagine Dragons Tyler Robinson Foundation fundraiser at Four Seasons.

This afternoon was a sit-down at Reynolds Hall with the writers of “Idaho: The Comedy Musical,” Keith Thompson and Buddy “Spuddy” Sheffield, as the musical is set to premiere at Reynolds Hall in the Smith Center in July. Tonight (Friday night, if you are reading this at any other time than tonight) is to be David Perrico’s Pop Strings show at Cabaret Jazz; Frank Marino’s 30th anniversary celebration at Linq Showroom; and a dancefest at Zowie Bowie behind the magic wall at Red Rock Resort’s Rocks Lounge.

This weekend is a trek to Idaho with Spuddy, Keith and such “Idaho”-connected luminaries as Smith Center execs Myron Martin and Paul Beard and set designer Andy Walmsley. It’s harvest season in the Gem State, and these folks have never been, so we’re going to, um, peel out …

Onward:

• I have to reinforce my support of “For the Record: Baz” here, as the long-ago column from … what, Thursday? … seemed to indicate I have a waning confidence in the show’s prospects in Las Vegas. Not so, even though the word “waning” did appear in that piece. I have actually edited that word away and remain optimistic that the For the Record crew will find a venue in Las Vegas and make some sort of announcement at least by the end of the year.

The Strip (and elsewhere) is filled with shows moving around or out of town, or expected to, and venues of all variety opening to new projects. “Baz” has been caught in what they refer to in hockey as a shift change, but I do feel it will be back onstage in Las Vegas soon enough, and we can return to the right kind of Baz Buzz.

• Burton has performed some sleight-of-film just by bringing “Billy Topit” to the big screen. His premiere at Palms was reminiscent of the great red-carpet events, and by “great,” I do mean, in part, “total cluster.” But even though the mass of magicians caused a logjam at the entrance of Brenden Theaters, Burton and his date for the event, Gabriella Versace, were the picture of content.

Through the magic of mathematics, Burton finds it easy to quantify the success of the film.

“Here’s the thing: I read an interesting statistic for independent films,” he said as he stopped to chat on the red carpet. “Ninety-nine percent of screenplays that are written never start production. And of those that start production, 99 percent never finish. They are abandoned.

“So the fact that we finished — I feel great about that.”

The film is about a magician who plays children’s birthday parties whose friends are a juggler, mime and clown. They set off to save a girl who has been kidnapped, using their stage routines, and as Burton says, “It’s exactly like ‘The Avengers,’ except we don’t have Robert Downey Jr. and no one has superpowers. But they have skills.”

Magicians who have lent their time and talent to the film include Johnny “The Great Tomsoni” Thompson, Mac King, Criss Angel, Russ Merlin, Fielding West and Michael Holly, who are featured at least in cameos. Louie Anderson, Frankie Scinta and Versace also are in the story. I say “lent” for a reason, as “Billy Topit” is a fundraiser for a few Las Vegas charities, most notably Variety the Children’s Charity of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas Shriners and Nevada SPCA.

• Imagine Dragons have finished the video to their new single “Roots,” off “Smoke + Mirrors,” and without giving away the content, the video does hint to the band’s Las Vegas roots (naturally).

“Whenever it makes sense to involve Vegas, we’ll do it. It’s the first city that, of course, jumps into our minds,” frontman Dan Reynolds said before Thursday’s gala fundraiser. “There are Vegas shots in it. That’s all I’ll say, and you’ll see that. But if you’re Imagine Dragons, you can’t have a song called ‘Roots’ without Vegas in it.”

• An intriguing booking in the comedy front: Rita Rudner is now part of the laughs behind the glass series (formerly titled Comedy Rocks) at Rocks Lounge. Rudner is set for a headlining appearance at 8 p.m. Oct. 17. She supplants (which is to mean “replaces”) the previously announced Mark Curry. Tickets for Rudner are $25 and $35 (absent fees).

Rudner is something of a free agent these days. This year, she had moved back to Harrah’s, where she headlined for four years, after relocating from Venetian’s Sands Showroom as the all-female comedy series “Lipshtick” moved in.

A look at Rudner’s recent Las Vegas run dating to 2001: New York-New York (in the room built for her performances by then-President Felix Rappaport), Harrah’s, Venetian, Harrah’s and now Red Rock. Years ago she also appeared at Riviera Comedy Club, joining Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin James and Kevin Pollack on the now-closed club’s Wall of Fame.

Booking someone of her caliber at Rocks Lounge is an impressive pickup for Station Casinos, and the Comedy Rocks series (which also features Hal Sparks, Orny Adams and Justin Williams in one-offs) makes the recent renovation of the lounge and its closed-off entrance make sense.

• The cover story on Criss Angel I penned (typed, actually) for sister publication Las Vegas Weekly has sparked considerable response. Angel has some feverish fans, and I am not talking about their physical health. They are fired up over this story, as the multitudes of responses and re-tweets and “favorite” notations on Twitter indicate.

During my interviews with those with whom Angel has worked, Cirque du Soleil exec Jerry Nadal talked of the imminent overhaul of “Believe” at Luxor. Expect Cirque and Angel to revamp the production as he celebrates the seventh anniversary of "Believe" at the end of the month.

As vice president of Cirque du Soleil’s resident shows, Nadal said the refreshing of the show will likely boost ticket sales. “This year we’re running between 70- and 75-percent occupancy,” Nadal said. "We had a great run in the summer. If we could get the show into the mid-80s, everybody would be really happy with that.”

Luxor’s “Believe” theater seats 1,600.

Nadal remembers an appearance Angel made on behalf of Cirque in Beijing in 2014.

“Criss has broad appeal in Asia, and last year he did an appearance at the U.S. Embassy there. We brought a couple of acts over to show 140 of the top travel bookers from Beijing,” Nadal said. “Two weeks after that appearance, we had a booking for 6,000 tickets for Criss.”

• There are a few diamonds in the rough in this city’s entertainment community, and one of them is Philip Drennen. I got to know him while hanging out at Don’t Tell Mama piano bar on Fremont East, where he was among the singing bartenders at the music pub.

I’ve also caught him at Tuscany’s Copa Room (formerly T Spot Lounge, renamed for “The Rat Pack Is Back” show), backing piano ace Kenny Davidsen, and Drennen is a regular backup in Mark Shunock’s “Monday’s Dark” charity shows at Vinyl. Jassen Allen and he never disappoint on those nights at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Most recently, Drennen has joined the cast of “Vegas! The Show” at Saxe Theater in Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. Drennen is part of the show’s ensemble, and this is his first Strip gig. Well-deserved, too.

And, if you want to see him gig it up with Allen, Michelle Johnson (the First Lady of Las Vegas Jazz and a wiz with any Apple product) and Niki Scalera (who appeared in “Tarzan” on Broadway with “Vegas! The Show” co-star Josh Strickland), that quartet is fronting “R&B Rhythm & Broadway” at Freedom Hall Theater in Sun City Anthem at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 and at Starbright Theater in Sun City Summerlin at 3 p.m. Oct. 18 (tickets are $18 for the Freedom Hall show and $20 for the Starbright show. Call (702) 614-5864 for the Oct. 16 show, (702) 240-1301 for the Starbright show).

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