Joe Downtown: Amazing Johnathan trades stage for design studio

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 | 11:52 a.m.

The Amazing Johnathan, who performed his twisted brand of comedy-magic on the Strip for more than a decade before giving it up late last year, is going into a new line of work.

Johnathan Szeles, who grew up in Michigan, says he is going to be redesigning the Las Vegas Club, a casino at Main and Fremont streets.

Szeles, who last fall installed the Screamont Experiment, a permanent haunted attraction, in the casino, said he had been asked to do a redesign based on the premise of “fun.”

Szeles said he can’t give specifics right now. “All I can tell you is they want me to design the place and make it ‘FUN,’” he said, adding that “they like my ideas and asked me to help. That’s all.”

Clark County records show the Las Vegas Club, along with other nearby parcels, was sold in 2004 to Tamares Real Estate Investment LLC for almost $16 million. Tamares also owns the Plaza hotel/casino just west of the Las Vegas Club across Main Street.

After working 13 years in Las Vegas, Szeles announced in December he was quitting.

Szeles has described himself as the "Freddy Krueger of Comedy" and since 2001 had played gigs all over the city, from the Harmon Theatre to the Golden Nugget.