Columnist Joe Delaney: A wish list that would start millennium right

When we return from vacation on June 14, that day's column will be the first in our 33rd year with the Sun. ... In this column, closing out year 32, we're offering a wish list, things we would like to see happening at least once more before this millennium runs its course. ... Perhaps some of you can come up with a wish list of your own and we can share it with readers upon our return.

Comedy in most comedy clubs follows a rigid formula, too much of it is the same, three or four comics doing 15 or 20 minutes apiece. ... Some of the club headliners are excellent, but very few could entertain an audience with an hour or so of solid laughs.

Comedy clubs are priced under $20 for the most part; those in Las Vegas do offer value for the money. ... There are a few club graduates -- Elayne Boosler, Rita Rudner and John Pinette -- who can fill a showroom.

The wishes begin

First wish: It would be wonderful to see Shecky Greene, working free-form, in a showroom seating 1,000 or fewer. ... Shecky was hilarious, timing perfect, when the Tropicana introduced its Casino Legends Hall of Fame recently. ... Greene is back in action. ... Perhaps he could work the Friday nights at the Trop when the "Folies Bergere" is dark.

Second wish: Buddy Hackett filled the Desert Inn Crystal Room one or two nights a week a few years back. ... Hack has few peers in his profession. ... Monday nights at the Orleans in its warm, intimate showroom would be a perfect venue, and at a price that would not exclude locals.

Third wish: Returning to the Tropicana, the last revision of its "Les Folies Bergere" found producer Jerry Jackson revising the show on the basis of how little money he would spend. ... Let's make it a true French spectacular like the "Folies Bergere" of old.

More wishes

Fourth wish: Don Rickles works here regularly in the Desert Inn Crystal Room. ... Don's best friend is Bob Newhart. ... We wish they would tour in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" with Don as Oscar and Bob as Felix, worth seeing more than once. ... Rickles did tour in "The Odd Couple" in the 1970s, playing Felix to Ernest Borgnine's Oscar.

Fifth wish: This is really an alternate for the fourth wish with Rickles and Newhart working on tour separately and together onstage and, hopefully, telling of the Rickles and Newhart family trips and showing home footage with narration as a show finale -- just don't bypass Las Vegas.

Sixth wish: An impossibility in today's corporate world with accountants and attorneys calling the shots, but I would like to see the return of live music in every showroom. ... It makes such a difference to the performer and to the audience's enjoyment as well.

And still more

Seventh wish: Now that LV's population is on its way to the 2 million plateau, it would be wonderful if the people of Las Vegas would actually attend and support good music, especially classical and jazz wherever played. ... Prices are usually quite reasonable and, in the case of jazz, it is usually the price of a drink or two, and not at Strip hotel prices.

Eighth and ninth wishes: Let's have Cavalcades of Comedy and of Music in showrooms, using four or five veteran comedians like a Jack Carter, Norm Crosby, Jackie Gayle and Jan Murray, with a Peter Anthony or a Pete Barbutti to host. ... Musical Cavalcades would feature male and female singers.

Tenth wish: It would be better if there was less negativity in all our relationships, corporate and personal. ... Talk radio today is nothing but diatribes against almost everything. ... Things are not that bad, nor have they been that bad. ... I wish the whole world could work together as one in the next millennium.

We'll be back

The next Sun column will appear in this space on June 17. ... Please send us your wish lists and we will address them upon return. ... Support the Sun Summer Camp Fund; it's so vital that every child spend a week in camp this summer. ... The Sun picks up all the fund expenses so that every penny goes for the children going to camp.

Enjoy the respite, I certainly intend to; that is, after I get through Roberta's wish list of things I am supposed to do on my vacation. ... Be well, enjoy and God Bless. ... See you on June 17.

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