‘KWTD’: Jeff Timmons on a bare hunt with his new show Men of the Strip

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 6 p.m.

Jeff Timmons has been bounding around VegasVille and beyond for the past couple of years. He arrived on the scene in the summer of 2012 as an early guest host for Chippendales at the Rio before reuniting with the crew that made him famous, the 1990s boy band 98 Degrees during a “Package Tour” series with Boyz II Men and New Kids on the Block in 2013.

Just after the final strobe flashed on that highly successful cross-global jaunt, Timmons announced plans for a new project akin to the Chipps revue he hosted. The show is called Men of the Strip, owing to the act’s artistic focus and where Timmons would like the show to be staged. A Las Vegas resident for more than two years, Timmons has been busy promoting the project in Las Vegas and across the country. A documentary about the making of the show is set for cable-TV treatment, with Timmons acting as host and co-producer of the project.

Saturday at 8 p.m, Timmons hosts a showcase of the act at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay (tickets are $35 for general admission, $50 and $65 for tables; click the Live Nation website for info).

One of our favorite guests in the three-year history of “Kats With the Dish,” Timmons visited the KUNV 91.5-FM studios for the show that aired Friday night at 9. Highlights from what was, at times, three voices performing simultaneously in near harmony:

On his new adult-male revue Men of the Strip:

It’s the “all-new face of male revues.” When I hosted Chippendales a few years back, I got inspired. I saw my audience (from 98 Degrees) that were teenagers now have grown into women in there 20s, 30s and 40s, and the formula was good. It’s crazy and it’s fun having a girls night out getting up, dancing and enjoying the guys up onstage. Chippendales is an amazing, legendary brand, and we wanted to step it up and make a more modern version with hipper music. We associated ourselves with Emmy-nominated Glenn Douglas Packard, who has choreographed Michael Jackson. He’s created the scenario for the live show.

One of my partners, former UFC fighter “Money” Mike Foland, and I decided to take some of the elements that broke 98 Degrees, which was a grass-roots promotion. Originally, our label wasn’t supporting us, so we wrapped a Winnebago with our pictures on it. We had a single out, but nobody knew who we were, so we toured around the country in this Winnebago wrapped with our pictures. For Men of the Strip, we toured all over the county on a promotional tour that was very successful. We created enough hype that the E! Network decided to create a docu-series on it. We are filming a 90-minute movie that is going to air Memorial Day Weekend.

We are doing a showcase on March 29 at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay. I’m going to host and sing a little. Maybe there is a secret part of the show where I might come out and take my shirt off. We are doing a hybrid of a concert and a male revue. You will see some of the traditional stuff because that is why girls go, but you are also going to see a lot more entertainment.

On how he found the men for Men of the Strip:

After I finished the 98 Degrees “Package Tour” with New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men, we decided to build off the momentum of that and introduce the cast that we went all around the country casting. We did castings in New York, Miami, L.A. and Las Vegas. We found eight great guys who are incredible. They are of different tastes and ethnicities, and they can sing. They all have to sing, and they all have to dance. They all have charisma and are good with the ladies.

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