Drew Lachey exploring a host of options as he takes on ‘The Price is Right’

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010 | 9:23 a.m.

Bob Barker was never in a boy band.

This might seem unimportant, if accurate, information. But it is worth noting, as a former boy-band member is embracing the spirit of Barker in the stage version of “The Price is Right” at Bally’s.

Drew Lachey, long ago of the boy-band phenomenon 98 Degrees and more recently a champion on the ABC contest series, “Dancing With the Stars,” is hosting the four-year-old game show beginning tonight and running through Aug. 21 (the show is presented Tuesdays through Thursdays and Saturdays at 2:30 p.m., and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Bally’s website or by calling 702-967-4567).

This should be an intriguing match, as the kid who once helped fill arenas and stadiums during tours with 98 Degrees deals Plinko chips to perky game-show contestants at Jubilee Theater. It might seem a strange career move, it makes sense if you know that “The Price is Right” at Bally’s is a FreemantleMedia production. Freemantle is the same company that produces the TV version of the show (hosted these days by Drew Carey), along with “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent.”

And consider further that Lachey turned 34 on Sunday. Aged for a boy-bander, yes, but, but he’s a veritable infant in the world of TV show hosts. Barker stepped down in 2007 at age 83. Carey took over for him at age 49.

“You can do this really long time,” Lachey said during a phone interview last week. “And the way the hosting world works, it’s a really small culture. Everyone knows everyone, and you can really become something and stay in one place if it works. Mary Hart says she meant to stay on ‘Entertainment Tonight’ for three years. She was on for 29.”

As famous as 98 Degrees was, Lachey realizes that brand has long turned stale.

“It’s a way to broaden my fan base and expose me to people who have never seen me before,” he said. “I don’t know how many 78-year-olds are listening to 98 Degrees music.”

Lachey has also co-hosted “Dancing with the Stars,” a contest he won in 2006. During much of August, Harrah’s Entertainment can boast two “DWTS” champs – Donny Osmond at Flamingo being the other – and a pair of famous former boy banders. Matt Goss at Caesars Palace was once in the British act Bros. The younger brother of Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey is certainly a versatile entertainer. He’s also appeared in the Broadway versions of “Rent,” “Hairspray,” and “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” shows that experienced varying degrees of success in Las Vegas.

It seems, then, that Freemantle has plans for Lachey beyond this particular show. He doesn’t like to refer to the stint as an “audition,” but with so many opportunities out there, this would appear to be just a way for Freemantle execs to see how he handles the nuances of a live game show.

Nuances like as a guy who has been slurping rum and cokes from a plastic Eiffel Tower container for 12 hours attempting to negotiate The Big Wheel.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” he said. “It could be 50-person bachelor party, or it could be people who came on a bus from the senior center. The key is knowing the rules and being open for anything to happen.”

Mastering the games themselves is a must, too. Lachey says he has no worries.

“I know them all. They are nostalgic and unique,” he said, adding, “I feel good about my Plinko skills.”

Big return

Brad Garrett is more frequently putting the “Brad Garrett’ into his nightclub at Tropicana. Garrett has added dates for his own appearances on Aug. 28 and Sept. 10. He’ll be onstage for both shows, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Garrett’s live radio show, to air simultaneously on KXNT 840-AM and 100.5-FM, begins Sept. 6 and will run each Monday through December.

Like everything else Garrett pursues, it’s a big effort: A poker table and seven chairs will be lugged onstage for each show. Garrett will lead a freewheeling, round-table discussion with the comics appearing at the club that week and local newsmakers. He’ll also take live phone calls and questions from the audience.

If this trend of personal appearances continues, Garrett might was well move a cot into the club. A really long cot.

Eighty on the floor

Eighty is the answer. The question: How many tickets were distributed to the Las Vegas Hilton to sell to the general public for Brandon Flowers’ appearance Friday night at Shimmer Cabaret.

That’s it, 80. The rest were doled to members of Flowers’ fan club. The Shimmer seats 375 for that night’s show.

More from Sulu

Trekkies will know the answer to this one, but: Who stood up for George “Sulu” Takei and longtime partner Brad Altman were legally married on Sept. 14, 2008, in West Hollywood Calif.? Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols, better known, respectively, as Chekov and Uhura from the original “Star Trek” series.

Takei reminded fans of this matrimonial lineup during his appearance at the Star Trek Las Vegas Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton over the weekend. William Shatner did not attend. He says he wasn’t invited; Takei says he was indeed invited but never RSVP’d.

“Only You” epilogue

“Only You” the fun but ill-fated dinner show inside Hennessy’s Tavern on Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, has closed. The project fronted by former Platter Derek David, who invested in the production with his wife, Rita Bliss, was facing almost impossible odds when it opened in May. An indication the show might be doomed occurred a couple of weeks before the end, as David sang the production’s rich theme song – and a TV monitor hanging in the little showroom fell off the wall. “Only You,” and only on Fremont Street, you’ll be missed.

More from Kio

Magician Joseph Gabriel, whose appearance in the premiere performance of “Vegas! The Show” was marked by the wayward flight of his performing macaw, e-mailed over the weekend. As expected, the episode in which his scarlet macaw, Kio, “buzzed the tower” and landed on the head of audience member Colleen Custer’s head was not planned.

The back-story, as Gabriel related, was that several changes in lighting were made between the final rehearsal and the performance. The bird was confused as the lights shifted in midflight, and instead of settling on Gabriel’s arm, Kio remained in flight until she spotted the nearest light-haired audience member. That was Custer.

Those two – Gabriel and Custer – have since been in contact, as Gabriel has apologized for (pause) “giving her the bird.” (Rimshot!)

A sports book sighting

The announced closing of Wasted Space in the spring of 2011 to clear out space for the Hard Rock Hotel’s new sports book reminds of a the strange sighting from around 1996 in the current Hard Rock sports book. I believe it was the summer of that year. I was making my way to the window for a parlay sheet and recognized a tall, distinguished-looking guy peering over racing forms.

I asked the man if he was Henry Bibby, and he was. Coached USC’s basketball team at the time, and was a solid pro with the Knicks and 76ers.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.