Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Penn Jillette unplugged … in acoustic debut at Smith Center

Carrot Top 10th Anniversary

Glenn Pinkerton / Las Vegas News Bureau

Penn Jillette attends the 10th anniversary celebration for Carrot Top on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015, at Luxor.

Something about Lon Bronson’s shows at Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center leaves entertainers stranded. After the 25th anniversary of The All-Star Band in October, Bronson was left without a ride when his daughters, Alana and Taylor, departed the venue before the end of the show — while carrying the keys to his van.

Bronson was finally picked up by his wife, JoAnn, at 3:30 a.m. He was reclining on a bench at the entrance of Boman Pavilion, surrounded by boxes of merchandise and explaining to a security guard that he was the same person who had just headlined at Cabaret Jazz.

Friday night it was Penn Jillette’s turn. He was the guest star during Bronson’s terrific David Bowie tribute performance arriving to robust response and informing the crowd: “I need a ride home tonight, to the Ridges. My car, a Leaf, is out of power and needs to be charged. I am not kidding.”

He was not kidding. Jillette performed an original song, “No Martyrs, No Saints,” which he said was “inspired by Bowie” and thus fit the theme. The song is a tribute to late author and social critic Christopher Hitchens, whom Jillette admired greatly and considered a close friend.

The Bronson show served as a showcase for the song. Jillette is performing that tune, just an acoustic guitar and him, on Sunday during the Reason Rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The rally is to “showcase the presence and power of the nonreligious voting bloc” and expected to draw upward of 50,000 to the Mall.

“I had to do the song at least once before trying it in front of 50,000 people,” Jillette said to the audience of about 240 at Cab Jazz.

After the performance, Jillette took his seat at the table we shared near the stage, and I asked if he was serious about needing a ride. “Oh, hell yes,” he said. I offered, saying, “I own a car with an internal-combustion engine,” even though I had no plans to be anywhere near the Ridges on Friday night.

I felt someone would trump (the preferred lowercase treatment there) my overture, but no one did, and we trekked the 30 minutes or so from the Smith Center to Jillette’s new home.

He moved to the Ridges from the Slammer, the famous property of two interlocking houses in the southwest that he had inhabited during the days before he had a family in Las Vegas. But when the children of Penn and Emily Jillette, Moxie CrimeFighter and Zolten, started to become more socially active, Penn says, “We wanted them to be able to walk to their friends’ houses.”

But that house in the northwest is far from where Jillette was performing Friday, and the Leaf has just a 50-mile range on a single charge. “I could have called for an Uber, but the rock-star thing to do is to ask for a ride from the stage.”

“I am your Uber,” I said as The Beatles’ “I Will” played on my car stereo.

I did learn something about Jillette that night and on this drive. He puts as much thought and emphasis on his side projects, such as this song he is performing this weekend, as he does in the proven Penn & Teller production at the Rio. More than once, he said that he was nervous about performing a song rather than giving a speech at the Reason Rally.

“I could get up and talk for 15 minutes, and this isn’t bragging, I could do that and kill it,” he said. “I mean, that’s what I do. But playing a song is more difficult, more challenging, and you can’t always just go with the easy route.”

He asked how the song sounded.

“If you perform that song the way you did tonight, you’ll kill it,” I said. “I’ll know you’ll kill it.” As we stopped, he thanked me for the ride, and I told him, “This was a real ‘Melvin and Howard’ experience.”

You can look up that reference. I don’t know who is who in this comparison, but I have full faith in the guy with the guitar.

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

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