Piff the Magic Dragon
Monday, Dec. 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.
With the exception of a few musical headlining residencies expected to make announcements soon, all of the major Las Vegas shows that were planning to reopen after last year’s Strip shutdown have done so — and several new productions have arrived as well. A quick survey of the entertainment landscape indicates that whether it was a scrappy, smaller production finding a way over the pandemic’s obstacles or a bigger-room show strategically relaunching with careful conditions in place, all of these casts, crews and creatives are on the road to recovery, just like the whole of Las Vegas.
But rare is the Strip show that actually grew over the last two years. The comedy and magic extravaganza starring Piff the Magic Dragon at the Flamingo, the original Strip casino celebrating its 75th birthday this month, did exactly that.
The offbeat show starring the grumpy dragon and his tiny dog has just signed on for three more years at the Flamingo, where it’s been surprising and satisfying audiences for six years. Originally sharing the Bugsy’s Cabaret space with topless female revue “X Burlesque,” Piff moved into the larger Flamingo Showroom in October 2020, going from a 160-seat space to a 700-seat theater.
Of course, when the move happened, audience capacities were extremely restricted due to social distance requirements and other rules designed to fight the spread of the virus. Now that things are a bit more normal, Piff is routinely drawing big crowds five nights a week, sharing the showroom with “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live,” which plays later.
“It took about three months to really find our feet in this room, but then after that it felt like home,” says the British costumed comedian and magician also known as John van der Put. “We did 50 people for a long time, three months I think, which was bananas. I think that’s 6% capacity.”
Piff was the first headlining act to reopen on the Strip on October 29, 2020, beaten back to the stage only by the comedians at the Strat’s L.A. Comedy Club, “X Country” at Harrah’s and “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace. His show was relocated to the larger venue to make the COVID logistics work and evolved into a comfortable fit when restrictions were lifted.
“For the last couple of years [before the pandemic], we’d been touring the show in different venues with anywhere from 500 to 2,000 or 3,000 people in the audience. So this was a pretty simple move and transition for us,” he says. “The great thing is now we can do all this stuff we’ve been wanting to do so long in Las Vegas, bigger tricks, bigger routines. It’s a blank canvas.”
The current show is completely new and different from its pre-pandemic version, highlighted by a gag that involves 25 pounds of lemon-lime Jell-O. “That took a while to get right but it’s a lot of fun for me,” Piff says. “It’s one of the things I’m most proud of, but with the whole show being new, audiences are just loving it.”
While Piff performed several virtual shows and made a few TV appearances during the pandemic, his big comeback on the Strip hasn’t left a lot of time for such pursuits. He’s slowly making plans to return to touring a bit next year but is focusing on the Vegas show more than ever, “which I love,” he says.
Piff and his team are planning to release a TV special in the coming months, a project they’ve been working on for two years that mixes stage performance with other footage shot at different locations. Frequent guest star Penn Jillette (who appears as Piff’s dragon dad, Pop) will be in the special as well.
Piff took advantage of last year’s downtime by building a studio at home and developing projects like the special, but the live stage remains the most magical place for this Vegas entertainer.
“In a way it was a big break for us, but growing in the middle of a pandemic is not a cause for celebration,” he says. “It was a big moment for us to make the move and be able to fill the room and keep filling it when everyone came back. We feel very fortunate it worked out like this.”
