Donny and Marie’s tickets skyrocket for Las Vegas Strip finale
The Kats! Bureau at this writing is Blizz yogurt emporium outside the Terry Fator Theater at The Mirage. This place is (chopped) nuts.
I just finished some intense PodKats! action with theater headliner and master sleight-of-hand artist Shin Lim, the only (so far) two-time champion on “America’s Got Talent.” That show posts Monday. A facet of the interview: As we left our spot in the back of the theater, I spotted an 8 of Hearts, just randomly on the floor. Lim leaves cards in his wake, apparently.
Learn more about Mr. Lim, booked through June at The Mirage, on the show posting Monday.
More from this scene, and elsewhere.
Pricey sendoff
Front-row tickets for Donny and Marie Osmond’s final performance Nov. 16 at Flamingo Las Vegas have been going for upward of $4,000. Balcony seats for that night’s performance are running about $600. Marie Osmond herself purchased tickets weeks ago (at face value), spending more than $1,000 so she could give tickets to close friends and members of “The Talk” production team.
That night’s show is the end of Donny & Marie’s 11-year run on the Strip. Also, it’s the final time the original Osmond siblings will appear in a ticketed show together. That could conceivably change, but Donny & Marie are certainly at the end of the line, and the brothers, too, have ended their collective performances. It’s been a 60-year run, and the closing show is a ticket stub to save.
Abdul honored
Paula Abdul, who also headlines at the Donny & Marie Showroom, was honored by Silver State Equality at its inaugural Nevada Equality Awards event Wednesday at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club at Linq Promenade. Silver State Equality is Nevada’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil-rights organization.
Abdul said of her extended engagement at the Flamingo, “It’s been a whirlwind.” She creates a lot of that wind herself in the dance-infused production. The 57-year-old Abdul added, “I am feeling great, and this is a dream come true in many ways. My parents were very much Vegas fans and knew I gearing up to do this when they passed away.”
Abdul’s father, Harry, died in April of Alzheimer’s disease, a year after her mother, Lorraine. Abdul, who was introduced by friend and comic Bruce Vilanich, was joined by state Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, as awards recipients. She returns to the Flamingo on Nov. 26, saying, “We’re doing some fine-tuning now, but the numbers in the show are the numbers for now.”
Fogerty’s peace
The ever-rocking John Fogerty has added a few covers from 50 years ago in his “50 Year Trip” show at Encore Theater, including the Joe Cocker arrangement of “With A Little Help From My Friends” and John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”
Fogerty is again joined by his guitarist son Shane Fogerty for the full show. And his son Tyler Fogerty blasts in for one song — “Good Golly Miss Molly” — which remains an especially mind-blowing event.
J.K. update
Still no official word on the status or return of Aerosmith’s Joey Kramer, who was not onstage with the band during its “Deuces Are Wild” run at Park Theater in September and October. Kramer has been sidelined since August with an unspecified ankle problem. Steven Tyler did mention his name when introducing his sub and the band’s drum tech, John Douglas, in the latest set of shows at Park MGM.
Modern Drummer magazine does have a contest going where fans can win VIP seating and a set of Kramer’s sticks from the Dec. 4 show, the band’s final appearance of the year.
Keen coincidence
Last Friday, trumpet great and band-leading icon Lon Bronson was with Michelle Rohl in Rohl’s “Kozmic Blues” tribute to Janis Joplin at The Colonial Theater in Bronson’s hometown of Keene, N.H.
The next night, Flamingo headliner Piff the Magic Dragon performed in the same theater. Totally unrelated booking for two Las Vegas acts. As Bronson says, “It was beyond random.”
Light speed
George Wallace was thrown off schedule for a family concern Tuesday at Ethel M Chocolate’s 26th annual Holiday Lighting. Wallace took the stage in front of the Cactus Garden maybe 10 minutes before the lighting, then brought Laugh Factory at the Tropicana headliner Murray Sawchuck back to the stage and engaged in some shtick (teasing Sawchuck about his hair and such).
Seemingly unaware that he was about to talk over the lighting of the garden, Wallace instinctively caught himself and counted down from 10 — catching the automated lighting on time. The man’s a pro.
Cool Hang Alert
Bobby Mao’s outside Galleria Mall in Henderson has been a hidden Cool Hang (trademark) for a year. The Chinese-Mexican fusion restaurant at 1300 W. Sunset Road celebrates its one-year anniversary as a live-entertainment haunt from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Kelly Clinton-Holmes and her band led, by the fashionably jacketed Michael Clark, are joined by a cavalcade of Vegas entertainers Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. No cover charge. Try the chicken tacos, or lemon chicken, or both.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram