Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Friends With Benefits:

Acting Naturally

Come and knock on Mike Cardella’s door

Mike Cardella

Beverly Poppe

Mike Cardella, N9NE Group’s door host

Ghostbar's signature cocktail, the Ghostini. <strong>Ingredients:</strong> 1.5 ounces Russian Standard vodka, 1.5 ounces Midori melon liqueur, 1 ounce fresh sweet and sour mix. <strong>Directions: </strong> Mix the above ingredients in an ice-filled mixing tin, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a cherry and, if you're ambitious enough, a plastic ghost.

Ghostbar's signature cocktail, the Ghostini. Ingredients: 1.5 ounces Russian Standard vodka, 1.5 ounces Midori melon liqueur, 1 ounce fresh sweet and sour mix. Directions: Mix the above ingredients in an ice-filled mixing tin, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a cherry and, if you're ambitious enough, a plastic ghost.

Mike Cardella leads a double life.

On the weekends, he's the N9NE Group's door host, ushering in the hottest of the hot to Palms nightspots like Rain and Ghostbar. The rest of the week he's in L.A. plotting his next acting venture, or in Las Vegas starring in his two-man improv show, The Last Men on Earth, at the Onyx Theatre.

It's not the life of your everyday door host, to be sure.

"I keep the nightlife hours, but I don't party, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't gamble," Cardella said. "I'm very atypical that way."

Born in Chicago and raised in Las Vegas as a teenager, Cardella grew up with comedy in his blood. His mother, the late Beverly "Pudgy" Wines, was a roast comedian who performed locally in Crazy Girls and, later, "X" Burlesque. Cardella and his Last Men partner, Anthony Owliaie, plan to expand their show to L.A. at some point, but until then he'll continue to be one of the city's most unlikely door hosts.

"(Guests will) ask me, 'Is it busy?' and I'll tell them the truth. I won't tell them it's slow, but I'll say, 'Oh, it's a lighter night, we're busier at Moon...' he said. "If you're just honest with them, you tend to get a more positive reputation, and that's hard to come by."

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