For a night, Donny & Marie Osmond find a new partner
The Kats! Bureau at this writing is Caesars Palace sports book. Action abounds. The ESPN shout show “Around The Horn” is playing on one LED screen. Ponies are running across another.
A friend who likes to bet on anything (including cockroaches scrambling across a wood floor) has tipped me off about a horse running in Saturday’s Breeder’s Cup Mile. Name is Oscar Performance. That’s the horse, although the person who gave me that tip has that name. We now have $20 on that horse to win.
More from this scene, and beyond.
Emmet & Marie
“America’s Got Talent” finalist and Vegas vocalist Daniel Emmet was called to the stage by Donny Osmond during the Donny & Marie show on Thursday night. The two sang, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” which Emmet performed during his “AGT” run.
Originally I had reported it was Marie Osmond who had summoned Emmet, long a column fave, to the Flamingo stage. But it was in fact Donny, who in front of the audience congratulated Emmet on his dazzling “AGT” run. He then took Emmet’s seat in a booth near the stage as Emmet unleashed the song solo.
I’ve pushed for Emmet to sing that song with Aerosmith when the band opens at The Park Theater in April. By “pushed,” I mean, “Written that it would be a fine idea.”
Afterward, Emmet said siging during the Osmonds’ show was “so surreal,” and Marie openly suggested recording duet. Do it, we say.
No go for Joe
Rock legend Joe Walsh won’t make it to Paul Shaffer & The Shaf-Shifters this month as planned. Walsh was among the announced “drop-in” guests for the show at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars on Nov. 30. But he had a scheduling conflict on the East Coast that took him out of play.
Shaffer is still planning on bringing Walsh to the moated fortress when (and we say when) he returns in 2019. Valerie Simpson, accompanied by Felicia Collins from The World’s Most Dangerous Band, is set for Nov. 29; veteran comic and ex-“Weekend Update” anchor Dennis Miller is in Dec. 1.
On the topic of cancellations …
Whoopi Goldberg’s Nov. 9 show at Treasure Island’s Mystere Theater has been spiked. A scheduling conflict is also the official reason for her bowing out of that gig, which was set the weekend after midterm elections. Goldberg is politically outspoken on “The View,” leading to speculation on the Vegas comedy scene that the cancellation is a way for the hotel to avoid controversy. But Goldberg is not so opinionated in her live act, and has stressed that her stage act is far removed from her TV oratory.
Santa Fe’s famed fans
Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns presides over “The Healing,” as the band calls their shows, at 7:30 p.m. Mondays at the Copa Room at Bootlegger Bistro. The celebrate a year in the venue in December, and continue to be a hot draw among fellow their musicians. Just Monday, Barry Manilow’s guitarist Michael Lent hopped onstage for an extended jam of “Wishing Well.”
Nothing new there. Santa Fe has amassed an all-star lineup of music stars in their audience over the years while headlining in VegasVille. Front man Jerry Lopez counts Prince, Bette Midler, Bruno Mars, Christopher Cross and Kenny Loggins among the greats who have seen the band live. Cross and Loggins have sat in with the band, too.
I’ll add percussion legend Ray Cooper as an audience dweller, while he was in Elton John’s band at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. He sat next to me a few years ago, closing his eyes the entire time so he could just absorb the music.
All of those artists ducked in to see Santa Fe in the days they played the Lounge at the Palms (that’s where Camden is now located just off the casino entrance). Prince and Midler visited while they were in residency here; Prince at the Rio and Midler at the Colosseum.
Mars was headlining Pearl Theater in June 2011 when he the band at the Lounge. Mars rolled in with his father, Pete Hernandez, himself a professional artist and member of the Doo Wop Hall of Fame as lead singer of the Lovenotes.
“This was prior to ‘Uptown Funk,’ ” Lopez says. “Somehow, as he evolved, I can’t help but think that somehow our band may have influenced him a little bit when he got to sit up close and watch a horn band doing this thing we do. Who knows?”
Bruno knows. I’d love to ask him about that night, after he announces his return to The Park Theater next year.
Park it!
The first residency show at Alexis Park’s Pegasus Showroom will be the self-dubbed “Magic Asian Man” Nathan Phan. His tentative preview opening is Nov. 15.
Meantime, the operator of that room, Admit.VIP Chief Executive Officer Pete Housley, is still seeking other productions for Alexis Park (possibly a return of “Comedy & Dolls,” late of The Cabaret at Planet Hollywood).
Housley traveled to New Jersey this week to discuss a one-man show centered on the rise and fall of Scores gentlemen’s club in New York. That project, too, might find its way to Vegas.
Noshes at the Smith Center
It took more than six years, but we finally have a food-and-beverage hang at the Smith Center. Sambalatte opened an outpost at Reynolds Hall last week. Seating is offered inside the business and in the courtyard between Reynolds and Myron’s Cabaret Jazz, and the business is open for show-goers and those who live and work in the area. Hours are 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily, later on evenings after shows at Reynolds Hall.
On behalf of the collective, I thank you.
What is an event?
Tropicana Las Vegas is now charging for “event parking” at its self-parking lots and garage, and also valet. Self-parking is $15; valet is $20. This new policy was enacted — unexpectedly — on Oct. 26. Hotel officials say “events” are specifically Vegas Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena. The Trop’s self-parking and valet parking remains no-charge otherwise.
But we are keeping track of the charges at the Trop, and any ripple effect next door at Hooters, which is still offering complimentary parking.
Cool Hang Alert
“Nashville Unplugged,” long a column fave, continues to anchor Friday nights at Rhythm & Riffs Lounge at Mandalay Bay. Nashville singer/songwriter/musician Aaron Benward and his partner Travis Howard are center stage in this celebration of country hits and how they were conceived. Show times are 8 p.m.; the cover charge is “none.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
