Las Vegas entertainers focus of streaming telethon

Social distance doesn’t mean artistic distance.

Plans are moving forward for a telethon at The Space to benefit Vegas performers suddenly out of work. This is going to be a live, but not in front of a studio audience, experience. Venue proprietor Mark Shunock is leading an effort to live stream a seven-hour, all-star benefit show to support Vegas entertainers.

Originally, April 6 was looked as the performance date. Expect that date to move back, likely to the last week in April or early May.

Planned for a seven-hour block from 5 p.m.-midnight, the event is under the Mondays Dark charity show umbrella and is to support the just-established Mondays Dark Performer Fund. That portal will funnel money raised to Las Vegas entertainment-based charities (yours truly is a member of the steering committee helping organize the event). Shunock has

has been cleared by Clark County officials to stage a no-audience performance at his venue, with just the skeleton team needed to stream the show live.

Artists will be moved in and out of the venue just to perform. The link to the livestream will post to TheSpaceLV.com and MondaysDark.com websites, with donation portals furnished. The link can be accessed without paying a fee.

“The vision is to do a big performer-fund benefit, do raise money and disperse fund to local existing organizations,” Shunock said Friday. “Even if it’s a bunch of them, four or five that are already established, great. But we want 20 or 30 entertainers, various types of performers, to participate.”

Performances will be staggered so performers won’t be stacked at the venue, with both the main Space theater and Back Space activated. The format should be a music performance in The Space, then possibly a comedy or magic performance in Back Space, to keep the show flowing.

While stopping short of providing a list of those who want to perform as news events change by the hour, suffice to say there should be no difficultly filling the lineup. Shunock has already staged one live stream Mondays Dark show, on Monday night, from the Space. The night was a boon to the partner charity, Refuge for Women Las Vegas. A total of $10,000, the usual Mondays Dark haul, was delivered to the charity — with less than 10 people actually in the crowd for the performance themed “Women Who Rock.”

Going forward, and for the foreseeable future, Mondays Dark will be streaming to support Vegas entertainers — many of whom have previously donated their time and talent to perform at the Space.

“This will be in the same vein as Mondays Dark, but expanding the types of performances, and focusing on Las Vegas entertainers,” Shunock said. “It’s weird doing it without an audience, but we know it will work.”

Jewel on demand

Rarely one to ask for assistance, Jewel is now asking for assistance.

“I have a strict policy not to ask my friends/associates/celebrities for anything. I have good reason to break that policy,” Jewel said in e-mail message Friday, as she is planning the “Live From San Quarantine Concert” on her @Jewel Instagram Live page and also Facebook page at 5 p.m. Pacific time Saturday.

The show is to help offset heavy losses to Jewel’s Marty Hennessy Inspiring Children Foundation. Named for the first member of the Las Vegas Sands’ Sands Cares Accelerator Program, the organization provides aid and opportunities for at-risk youth and their families in Las Vegas.

Jewel launched the foundation with a performance at Palazzo Theater in 2o17. This year’s event was to be held at Tao at the Venetian, but was has been canceled, creating an 80-percent loss in revenue. The folk/pop artist has thus launched a campaign to get 5,000 people to donate $1 a day for one year at inspiringchildren.net to help raise the $1.4 million needed to stabilize the charity.

If the name of the show seems familiar, it should, at least for Johnny Cash fans. It’s a play off the legendary live album”At San Quentin,” and an ode to Cash, among Jewel’s artistic heroes.

Get to the site

Artists are racing to online platforms for livestream performances. We’ll be eagerly tracking this activity. Some of these performances (Travis Cloer, Shawn Eiferman and Ryan Baker on Facebook Live, for instance) are really fun. You can even find an “America’s Got Talent” champ and Strip headliner, such as Mat Franco, dealing the magic on Facebook.

The Stageit.com website is becoming a favorite for Vegas entertainers. Chadwick Johnson’s first show, titled “Music Vaccination” with pianist Jason Corpuz, was Wednesday night. The duo plan another show 7 p.m. Wednesday. The “cover” is whatever you can chip in, just follow the prompts on the website to contribute. I actually bought in for $10 — then forgot to return to the site for the show. So, Chadwick, you owe me one. …

Up next are Amanda King and Patrick Hogan in “The C-19 Supper Club” at 6 p.m. Saturday. King is a fantastic talent who moved to Vegas from the Bay Area a couple of years ago; Hogan is a star-in-the-making out of the UNLV jazz studies program who (for 10 shining weeks) performed at Mayfair Supper Club. Jonathan Karrant, a mainstay at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz and Italian American Club, is playing at 5 p.m. Monday. Track these virtual Cool Hang Alerts on my Twitter page, under #CreateInQuarantine.

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.