Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘L8NITE’ show carries a full plate in Las Vegas
The name of Jimmy Kimmel’s upcoming comedy showcase harks back to the days of The Guy From Under the Seats, the Velcro Suit and the Late Night Collapsible Drinking Cup.
The show is “L8NITE,” a comedy presentation running midnight Saturdays at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club at Linq Promenade.
The new show premieres Dec. 14, following the familiar, rotating host-featured, comic-headliner format commonly used at comedy clubs. A full bar and happy-hour menu at Kimmel’s entryway lounge is also offered. For locals with valid Nevada ID, a $20 ticket includes free parking at Linq Promenade.
The usual schedule of nightly comics is unchanged at Kimmel’s club, where “America’s Got Talent” finalist Vicki Barbolak’s “Trailer Park Trash” shows at 8 p.m.. Tuesdays through Jan. 7.
Expanding to a midnight showcase has been in Kimmel’s plans long before opening the club in May.
“I used to have Don Rickles on my show and he’d tell these wonderful stories about how the early show in Las Vegas would start at 1 a.m., and the shows wouldn’t close until 4 a.m.,” Kimmel said during a phone interview Friday. “But now, there’s not a lot of shows in Las Vegas after 10 p.m., so we want to return to that spirit.”
The show’s title, of course, reads like a vanity plate, which it actually was— on Kimmel’s own vehicle. Kimmel has been a David Letterman devotee since Letterman launched “Late Night With David Letterman” in 1982.
“People think I had that plate because I wanted to have a late-night show,” Kimmel, host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” said. “No, it was because I loved Letterman.”
Kimmel recalled driving with his mother down Charleston Boulevard and spotting a guy outside the since-closed Red Rock Theaters, sporting Letterman gear.
“I saw a guy wearing a Melman Bus Lines T-shirt,” Kimmel said referring to the Larry “Bud” Melman character (played by the late Calvert DeForest) on the original Letterman show. “I made her turn around. I got out and asked him, ‘Where did you get that shirt?’ And he said, ‘I made it!’ I felt like I had found my soul mate.”
Kimmel later requested, and was issued, L8NITE when he registered the first car he ever owned.
“When I went to the DMV, the woman at the counter saw L8NITE and said, ‘You must be totally obsessed with David Letterman,” Kimmel said. “I remember her being an older woman, and I said, ‘You actually know what that means?’ And she said, ‘You think you’re the only one who watches that show?’”
The plate was placed on Kimmel’s 1985 Isuzu I-Mark, a favored car in the Kimmel family.
“My dad got the exact same car at the exact same time — we had two of them,” Kimmel recalled. “They were both stick shifts, and I learned how to drive it a lot faster than he did. I think he drove all the way to L.A. in second gear.”
And in a piece of Las Vegas lore, the car is also the vehicle in which Kimmel lost his virginity, in the parking lot of the Continental hotel-casino on Paradise Road.
“That is true, same car,” Kimmel said. “I wonder what happened to that car. It belongs in a museum.”
Someone say stadium tour?
In 2014, Mötley Crüe signed a “cessation of touring contract,” which might have been a legal document, or a shopping list. I joke of course, but the document was never disclosed publicly. The contract has since been blown up, and Monday the band announced their upcoming reunion in 2020. The Crue (with Las Vegas resident Vince Neil out front) is launching a U.S. stadium tour with Poison and Def Leppard — which burned the box office in their 12-show Zappos Theater residency in August and September. 
Keep an eye on the possibility of this tour playing Allegiant Stadium. It makes too much sense. Specific dates and venues have yet to be announced, but we’ll know more on Dec. 4.
Drake date
Drake has added a Jan. 8 date to his schedule at XS Nightclub. This is again tied to CES week. The rap superstar also performs at XS on Dec. 30 at with The Chainsmokers performing the Dec. 31 show. Diplo is Dec. 29.
Twain, Aguilera in AMAs
Zappos Theater resident headliners Shania Twain and Christina Aguilera are set to perform at the American Music Awards show at 5 p.m. Sunday on ABC. Twain, who opens “Let’s Go” on Dec. 6, is to perform a medley of hits and tease to her upcoming production show. It’s her first appearance on the AMAs since 2003.
Aguilera and A Great Big World premiere their new single, “Fall On Me.” They collaborated on the 2013 broadcast with “Say Something.” Aguilera is back at Zappos Theater Dec. 27-31.
ShowBuzz!
Not yet booked, but Brian Newman is expected to play NYE at NoMad Restaurant. He’s in Lady Gaga’s “Jazz + Piano” show that night …
Planet Hollywood headliner Criss Angel was a late scratch from “Live With Kelly and Ryan” during its shows from Las Vegas. Word from the show is that production logistical changes couldn’t be worked out. Mat Franco of Linq Hotel was the lone magician on the week’s worth of shows taped at Paris Theater …
This one nearly slipped through: Tegan Summer was back in town for The Composers Showcase of Las Vegas on Nov. 6, with a sample of music from his Bettie Page stage show. Three aces — Ashley Fuller, Ruby Lewis and Frank Lawson — performed. We’ll track the progress on this one. As we say, we’ll see you on opening night …
Was reminded recently of a pitch that never went anywhere: A scaled-back version of “Jersey Boys” at Plaza Showroom, after the show closed at Paris Las Vegas in September 2017 …
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