Friday, June 18, 2004 | 8:18 a.m.
The pugnacious side of Sonny King's otherwise sunny disposition boiled to the surface Monday night.
The legendary lounge performer (and for 28 years the opening act for Jimmy Durante) happened to catch the debut of the new reality show "The Casino," which airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox (KVVU Channel 5).
King was incensed.
During one segment, his close friends Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and vocalist Dennis Bono sang a duet and were belittled by singer/pianist Matt Dusk, who will be a recurring figure in the documentary-style production that is scheduled to run for 13 weeks.
"That little punk," King groused. "I wouldn't dignify him by dirtying my hands on him."
The premise of the series is to follow around new Golden Nugget owners Tim Poster, 36, and Tom Breitling, 35, and along the way feature side stories centering on Golden Nugget employees, guests and gamblers.
The 25-year-old Dusk was employed by the Zax restaurant as a performer during the course of the taping, which took place in February. Prior to that he was at Ferraro's restaurant.
In the premiere episode, Hunt and Bono sang an impromptu duet with Dusk's band, which apparently irritated the Toronto native, who made some unflattering remarks about the place turning into a karaoke bar.
King, 84, leapt to his friends' defense after seeing the show, even saying Dusk insulted a long list of Las Vegas performers with his uncalled-for comments.
"Why did they invite her down to the show?" said King, a friend of Hunt's for more than 50 years and host of a revue at her restaurant, the Bootlegger Bistro. "To make her a laughingstock, calling them karaoke singers?
"That could have been Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme or Frank Sinatra, and they would have done the same thing -- in the old days this kid wouldn't have been in town two days after what he said."
Dusk left the Golden Nugget after the TV series finished taping and is on tour in Canada. He could not be reached for comment.
Hunt, who is in China on state business, also could not be reached.
However, Joe Leone, the Golden Nugget's entertainment director, noted that during the show he and Dusk got into a few verbal confrontations -- over several issues, including Hunt and Bono.
Leone said the scene in the show involving Hunt, Bono and Dusk lasted about three minutes.
"It was not a drawn-out storyline," he said.
Leone said Hunt and Bono requested to sing onstage.
"Matt resisted," Leone said. "I made it happen. But then he kind of dogged them, saying we were turning this into karaoke."
Leone has known Hunt for a long time and respects her talent. He said the essence of Dusk's complaint was that the band did not have a chance to rehearse with Hunt and Bono.
"He didn't think that was the classy thing to do, not to rehearse," Leone said. "Matt is 25 years old. He had his image of what he thought Tim, Tom and I wanted, and he thought it was cheesy for Lorraine and Dennis to get up and sing. I don't believe he ever said anything directly about Lorraine Hunt, although he wasn't ecstatic about her performance.
"Part of the storyline of the series is that he and I butt heads a few times."
Leone described Dusk as a talented singer, along the lines of Harry Connick Jr. and Frank Sinatra Jr., who has a record deal and was hoping the reality series would help him publicize his music.
As far as King is concerned, Dusk got too much publicity.
"This kid is just a little piano player," he said. "But that's the new generation for you. They gain attention by putting other people down.
"I'm sick and tired of these kids that come along and put down people."
King defended his fellow performers.
"I detest anybody who puts down people who made this town," he said. "Before Lorraine was lieutenant governor, she was the star of her own show at the Sahara. And what this woman is doing for this town -- she's traveling across the world, taking her life in her hands to go to China to induce people to come to Vegas."
King said Dusk will never accomplish what Hunt has accomplished.
"It burns me up," he said. "Here's a kid playing piano at some little restaurant, and he's putting down a woman who helped make this town.
"The same with Dennis Bono. He's one of your fine singers of today, a great balladeer. To have him called a karaoke singer is beyond taking away his dignity and his class."
King says he appreciates the new owners of the Nugget trying to bring back the old days of Las Vegas.
"But the old days were nothing like that," he said. "Nobody in the old days would call anybody names."
Lounging around
Saxophonist Tommy Alvarado has a hit jam session at the Hurricane Bar & Grill, 10420 S. Bermuda Road, starting around 8 p.m. Sundays. Meanwhile he's rehearsing for a new production at Treasure Island's Tangerine ultra lounge that debuts July 1 -- the production features a burlesque show every two hours on the club's patio. Alvarado will be part of a three-piece jazz band backing up the shows. Carmen Electra will perform July 2.
Release performs from 7 p.m. to midnight Sundays at the Sultan's Table, 3417 S. Jones Ave., in the shopping center between Spring Mountain Road and Desert Inn.
Scott Brotheron, who exudes old Las Vegas, performs his "Dino to Diamond" show at the Imperial Palace's Kabuki Lounge from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Fridays in June.
archive
