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March 14, 2024

‘X’ turns XIV at Flamingo; Steve Wynn not grooving to overpaid DJs

13th Anniversary of 'X Burlesque'

Edison Graff / Stardust Fallout

The 13th anniversary of “X Burlesque” on Thursday, May 7, 2015, at the Flamingo.

Updated Saturday, May 7, 2016 | 2:07 a.m.

13th Anniversary of ‘X Burlesque’

The 13th anniversary of Launch slideshow »
The Kats Report Podcast

The Kats Report Podcast — Return of “Alice:”

Kats’ guests this week are the co-leads of “Alice – A Steampunk Concert Fantasy,” Anne Martinez and Ashley Fuller. The show features a host of backing dancers, a live band and a Red Queen character all in original costumes performing to contemporary rock songs. The production is a rock and steampunk adaptation of the story Lewis Carrol story "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and the show returns to Brooklyn Bowl at 10 p.m. Feb. 24.

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is the Patio Bar at Flamingo Las Vegas, where outside the patio is soaked with rain, and inside we detect the unmistakable odor of vanilla.

This fragrance is to pay homage to the cologne favored by Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, which also was vanilla. Or maybe I am making that up. But around the horn here, we will pay our own homage to the sexy little show that could, “X Burlesque” over at Bugsy’s Cabaret.

That show celebrates its 14th anniversary Thursday night with a VIP performance. I have been at most of these anniversary shows, often placed in “pole position” near the center of the room. A few years ago, I think it was on the ninth anniversary, one of the dancers — and I wish I could remember which one — clipped my nose with a swinging heel. Not her fault — I had leaned over after dropping a $5 Flamingo chip from my pocket.

Afterward, she breezed past by my seat. Instead of asking how I was, she said, “There’s more where that came from.”

Nice.

A product of the Matt and Angela Stabile “X” empire, the show is advancing with new numbers (and pulling from a news release here, as we note such dovetails) “The Buzz” by New World Sound & Timmy Trumpet, “Trndsttr” by Black Coast featuring M. Maggie and “I’m a Good Girl” by Christina Aguilera. There are new visuals and “projection mapping,” which I believe is to notify audience members how far forward they can lean before being clipped by a stiletto.

With that, more raking is in order. Follow me around the yard:

Intrigue at Wynn Opening Night

Vanessa Hudgens attends opening night of Intrigue on Friday, April 29, 2016, at Wynn Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

• A couple of riffs from Steve Wynn during the red-carpet opening of the nightclub Intrigue on April 29:

Wynn said he has no input on the entertainment concept of the club. “No. I am too old to be a thinker that way. But when it comes to design, I’m your guy,” he said just a few feet off the carpet. “When it comes to understanding exactly what is happening in the club, I rely on Sean (Christie, the hotel’s COO) and the boys. They made these calls.” (One of those calls is expected to be appearances by recording artist Nick Hissom, son of Andrea Wynn, who performed at the space when it was Tryst and also has hosted at XS.)

Wynn did speak to the expenses he has authorized for superstar DJs at his clubs. That trend is ebbing, count on it.

“Paying a disc jockey $300,000 or $400,000 a night, that’s something that is … a little counterintuitive in nightlife today in Las Vegas," he said. “We’re seeing a metamorphosis. We’ll see a change. Nothing ever stays the same, right? We’re constantly changing, and the key is to be agile, alert and have a staff that feels the same way, and I see nightlife changing up and down the Strip, even a little bit.

“I think the DJs got too expensive, and that is being adjusted, and the prices are going to change a little because the public won’t pay, and it’s always about the guests.”

Click to enlarge photo

Chippendales at the Rio guest host Antonio Sabato Jr.

• Antonio Sabato Jr. is to open his run as the guest host of Chippendales at the Rio tonight. He’s in for the requisite rowdy reception, of course, with an audience teeming with fired-up bachelorettes and ebullient publicists, but one guest in particular has Sabato concerned.

His wife.

“She is going to see me, and she’ll have a ball. It’s going to be fun, but it’s a challenge, right?” Sabato said of having his wife, Cherly Moana Marie Nunes, on hand when he is onstage. “I will be nervous. When you perform before someone who knows you so well — it’s an interesting audience.”

Sabato and his family were featured on the ABC series “Celebrity Wife Swap” in 2012, pulling the trade with WWE star Mick Foley and his wife, Colette. Sabato and Nunes were not actually yet married; that ceremony took place two years later on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i.

Other fun facts about the couple: Sabato is a Leap Year baby (Feb. 29, 1972); Nunes was a Raiderette with the team while in Los Angeles and Oakland.

In his stage debut with Chipps, Sabato is to perform at the top, middle and close of the show, wading into the audience while taking off his shirt. The usual requirements, in other words, for these guests of Chipps.

Sabato’s introduction to Las Vegas was as an 8-year-old when his family was still living in Sicily and visiting the U.S. for the first time. They drove in from L.A., and Sabato recalls, “I’d never seen lights like these, and beautiful buildings, and shows — shows everywhere. To be here performing is really an incredible feeling for me.”

• A few days ago, I was notified formally of what I already notified you, the reader, of informally: Improv at Harrah’s is closing at the end of May.

A statement issued by Caesars Entertainment on behalf of the comedy club confirms: “After a very successful 21-year engagement, the Improv at Harrah’s Las Vegas will present its final showcase of comedians Sunday, May 29. As a result, the showroom will introduce new show times for ‘Menopause The Musical’ and ‘X Country.’ ”

Before moving to Harrah’s in 1995, the Improv was a hotspot at Riviera, where it opened its Las Vegas outpost in 1986 and hosted such highly regarded comics as David Spade, Wendy Liebman, Rita Rudner, Chris Rock, Margaret Cho, Jay Mohr, Joe Lopez, Kevin James, Jeff Ross and column fave Dennis Blair. Closing out the final week at the Improv is host Casey Ley, featured comic Marc Price and headliner Henry Phillips.

‘53X’ Rehearsal at Chateau

Cast member Alejandro Granados tries on his Freddy Krueger gloves as stylist and costume Designer Jeffrey Debarathy works during rehearsal for the new Chippendales show “53X” at Chateau on Thursday, March 10, 2016, at Paris Las Vegas.
Launch slideshow »

• I had some “53X” action on Thursday, returning to the show for the first time since media night in March. The show is tighter, more focused and better paced than that opening night, when the production felt about 15 minutes too long.

As I said then, “53X” is great, but you can have too much “53X.” At some point, you have had enough “53X,” and it’s time for a beverage and maybe some pretzel bites. That’s why we have Beer Park upstairs from “53X” at Chateau.

By the way, and not incidentally, Shangela is a force of nature. So great, with so much responsibility to helm this adult revue designed to appeal to all sexual orientations. You’ll notice the absence of a gender reference to the drag-queen host. Not unintentional.

During the show, I was seated next to the Dancing Kelseys: Father Chet and daughter Lora, as brother Ryan was onstage with the “53X” troupe. All of the Kelseys have enjoyed impressive stage careers in VegasVille — including performing, at different times, in the show “Jubilee.” Ryan is co-director of “Alice” at Brooklyn Bowl, which is set to return May 17 at 10 p.m., and Lora is back as the stilted Red Queen to close the show that night.

We hobnobbed for a time afterward, at Beer Park, where Lora customarily towered over the group. She stood about 6-foot-6 in the black heels she wore in her days in “Zombie Burlesque.” Thus, we land this column where we started, with a Las Vegas dancer and her formidable footwear …

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats on Instagram at Instagram.com/JohnnyKats1.

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