Latest / Vegas Revealed / Las Vegas Casinos are Officially OPEN | Ep. 20

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Las Vegas Casinos are Officially OPEN | Ep. 20 · Vegas Revealed

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Vegas Revealed episode 20.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: Las Vegas resort casinos are officially open.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: How did the week go as far as crowds and safety?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: We talked to review journal columnist John Casalomides, who's been out on the town reporting on all of it.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Plus our secret tips, all coming up on Vegas Revealed.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: You can visit Vegas, baby.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a number of our resort casinos have opened their doors with limited capacity, but so far the demand seems to be there on Dana Roselli.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm Sean McAllister.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, many of the resorts opened up their doors at 12.01 a.m.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: on June 4th.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: We saw celebrations and countdowns, even some masked showgirls and some go-go dancers in uh face shields.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's bizarre to see, but we have it.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: We have also seen lines at casinos because they just can't operate at full capacity just yet.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Review Journal columnist John Caslamedes, aka Johnny Katz, has been out there visiting properties, gathering information.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: He's been covering some of the protests here in Las Vegas as well.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we have a lot to talk with Johnny Katz about.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: So we're getting right to it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: Katz, how's it going, man?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm doing all right.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's good to see you guys.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: Great to see you too.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Great to see you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, it's funny because you'd think in a time where you wouldn't be busy.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you were busy through this whole shutdown.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then now that Vegas has opened, I assume you're busier than ever.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I can't quite um uh explain the what it's been like, other than I haven't missed any any days of the column at all.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_04: I've had more work than I know what to do with, uh, busier than ever right now.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I it's just uh there's been no real set pattern to the whole thing, but it was it's just been there's every day that has uh that I've I've uh addressed has had a lot of news in it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_04: And uh so I'm I've been pretty lucky to have been working through the whole thing and uh um you know kind of I think my role has been to keep the entertainment community kind of uh you know aware of what it is going on with each other and and in the field as it's been.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: So uh yeah, it's been a it's been a very interesting stretch, and the last few days have been uh pretty remarkable as well.
• 2:32
  unknown: Yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and and what kind of challenges did you face?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: And and how did you come up with solutions when everything shut down and all of a sudden uh as an entertainment columnist, you were faced with no entertainment in Las Vegas, something that none of us could really even even fathom.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: But uh when you were faced with that, I mean, were there conversations that went on in how to pivot?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Or or talk about how that all went down.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it it uh I I knew I would have a lot of work because even though performances were stopped, performers are still around, they're still creating and doing, and and uh they still have something to say artistically, uh most of them somehow.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_04: And it's as if, Sean, uh all it's when when everything shuts down like this, it it also means that a lot of it is relaunching in a different way.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of these performers are doing things that that were coming out uh digitally mostly um at the same time.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_04: So there was a lot of really cool stuff, a lot of charity stuff that was happening online, a lot of um uh people reinventing themselves online.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_04: There were some very good chat shows, some some performers that I hadn't really been too aware of were really killing it online, and I became aware of that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of them had portals of either you know, charities to support other entertainers or just causes.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: And through that whole process, I it became the scene became uh online.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: It was a man about uh a man about uh online instead of a man about town, you know.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_04: But all those, all the people we know, all of our friends out there in the entertainment community were doing something.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: They were they were they were speaking in a different way, and that was really fascinating to follow that whole process.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: And on top of that, you had issues.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: You had issues about uh DETR and some of the stuff you guys have been uh covering, the 1099 workers, how they could get uh help and were and how shows were gonna return in in a different way to Las Vegas.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_04: We've been write writing a lot about that now.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um and and and then there's things like Roy Horn passing away that you know that you don't anticipate.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, that those stories were were coming around also.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and I started riding bikes on the strip, you know, that became a thing.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: Walk and walking the strip, you know, and that took up time.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: And that was I've had guys more traffic in the last uh 12 weeks since I've been at the RJ, more online traffic in the last 12 weeks than at any other 12 week period since I've been there.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: More on these page views.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's that can be quantified.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I it's like, you know, there's interest in Las Vegas, you know?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I agree, it's it's insane.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and for those that are listening around the world, I didn't mention, and you've probably picked up on it now, but John is an entertainment columnist for the Review Journal and a very for a very long time here in Las Vegas.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and John, tell us, walk us through uh 12.01 a.m.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: on June 4th when hotel casinos opened here.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I saw you were out there.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think you were at the D, right?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think I saw Derek Stevens and dancing on a on a poker table or something.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_04: The Derek platform.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_04: He was in the middle of the uh it was like he was in the middle of the gaming pit, the go-go pit there at the uh the D Las Vegas when it came up at 1201.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's where I was.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_04: I was I was standing there.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_04: They cut ribbons around the gaming, uh, the gaming pit uh to welcome people back in.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I have somewhere in here, I have the uh a couple of strips of it that said I survived or I came back to the D Las Vegas.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_04: I got two of them they gave to me as I was walking in.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Derek Stevens, a co-owner of the D, um made a thing out of it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, at 1201, it was back to business.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: And we walked in, and I'm telling you, it was surreal.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: It was like out of a David Lynch movie.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_04: It was like uh, you know, the the dancers in the pits were wearing plexiglass and and face covers, and we were all trying to stay away from each other.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_04: I had mask, a mask on.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_04: We were walking around and uh and watching people return to the tables, get chips, start playing, go to the bar, uh the long bar, in this case at the D Las Vegas, and uh and and return to to uh the Las Vegas we remember from uh before this all started.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: And last week uh on Vegas Revealed uh Cats, we were talking about the fact that Derek Stevens bought uh like 2,000 plane tickets for people from out of town to come here to Las Vegas.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: Do you know if any of those plane tickets were used for that opening night?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know that any were used for that opening night.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: I think they covered um beginning June six.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: I think it was this weekend that they started covering that.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_04: I'm pretty sure I don't think I don't think I didn't know of anybody who used a ticket for that party.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, Derek started with uh a thousand tickets available, and those sold out within, those are snapped up within 90 minutes, and then added 700 and then added another 300 throughout the day.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_04: And they and he said later that he could have um given away 14,000 flights.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: And these are all one way, one-way flights, guys, and uh to Las Vegas.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, how brilliant is that?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it's the best money Derek spent here in Las Vegas, that that campaign.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: And he's the envy of a lot of operators.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_04: I've talked to talk to a few other resort officials who said, man, that's it was brilliant.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: It was a brilliant marketing tool.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_04: It was a br it was great for business, and it was a great message.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: It was a great civic message.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that that happened right before the uh right before the opening, a couple days before uh it was Monday that he put that up and opened on at midnight Wednesday.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and one picture and video that's been going around is is the go-go dancer with the face shield.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go over the you know, the observations.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know you've been down to the Bellagio all over and the D up in downtown and all different resorts.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: What have you seen that uh we didn't see before?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think I even saw a Jubilee show girl with a sparkly face mask on.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we've had um we've had that, what you saw there.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_04: That was at the D, and that's also at the Golden Gate where they have the dancers.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's either the shield or the face mask.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: At one of my favorite restaurants, the the uh bootlegger, all the servers wear the plexiglass.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: So it looks like it looks it's almost a little militant, you know, yeah to be approached by somebody wearing that.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's um I've seen uh yeah, people are being inventive about their face covers.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: The Caesar and uh Cleopatra models at uh Caesars Palace on Thursday morning were wearing uh designer masks.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: I understand Elvis, uh big Elvis Pete Bally is gonna have an Elvis style mask over his face, but he comes back to the piano bar there at Harris on Friday.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: You're seeing people be inventive about it and trying to get the message across.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: But but I will be serious about this.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: People are not really wearing these masks.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: They're not really wearing the face covers as as they probably as protocol dictates.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm writing about that right now for tomorrow.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's very difficult to get a Las Vegas crowd to to wear these things in real in the real world.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: I think the concept you can buy into and you know intellectually that this will help.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: But once you get out there, I was at Mayfair Supper Club the other night, uh, you know, at the Bellagio, I've been I've been to you know various a couple other restaurants.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_04: When you're in when you when you're in Las Vegas mode, it's hard to deal with them.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: They're not comfortable to eat, you have to take them off.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: To be at the bar, you have to take them off.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and and uh that's something we're gonna have to address and deal with as as people because the resorts have done their part.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: They've they've uh you know uh set up their systems according to the to the state's phase two directives really well.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's us.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_04: We have to now play uh do our part uh for this to work.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_04: But and then you throw in the mass gatherings of protests and everything else into it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: So it's I've never seen anything like it in my life with these face covers, so I mean it it's it's a very um challenging thing to to work with, to remember to put on.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_04: You have to remember to do it.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_04: And uh the the I've run into weight staff uh employees, they all do it.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_04: Dealers do it, everybody on property who's supposed to do it does it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_04: Not that many uh resort guests or restaurant guests do it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I uh there was one video in particular that I saw on social media, it was kind of uh a walkthrough over at the Cosmopolitan, and there were so many comments of people just saying, look at this, there's not a single face mask anywhere in the video.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: And from the guest point of view, you know, from the workers' point of view, obviously they're they're following guidelines that that are state mandated, but um but yeah, what do you think uh the I mean there's a big mental obstacle for people to overcome, especially when Vegas is the place in people's minds from out of town where anything goes, you can come here and do whatever you want.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then to come here and uh to kind of be encouraged and almost required to do something that's totally uncomfortable.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I mean, that's kind of a difficult thing for visitors to wrap their heads around, isn't it?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it runs counter to our message, you know, it runs counter to who we are in Las Vegas and probably everywhere else.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: But if you think about the messaging of Las Vegas, what are we telling people uh across the country and internationally?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: This is where you come to have freedom.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: We've adjusted our laws so you could come here and have have as much freedom as you could as as you want for a particular period of time.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: We're a loose city, we understand that.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: And the thing uh that what this reflects now is by the way, you can't breathe on each other.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: And and it looks unhealthy.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: Masks either look uh medically alarming or weird, depending on your point of view.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: You remember seeing when Michael Jackson used to visit Las Vegas?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_04: Remember the scene those photos of him?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, black silk mask?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_04: I personally thought that looked a little weird.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, I thought I know that he had to do it for whatever reason he had to do it, but I my instinctive reaction was, what is that all about?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_04: And uh when you see a whole group of people that way, it's it it can be a little bit uh can be a little bit off-putting, and and we we like to attract people here, you know.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: It's we're in a city like that likes to to show its appeal, and that's something we have to get around for the time being.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so can you walk us through um because uh entering a casino, hotel casino, I know there's the temperature taking, and some people were saying you get little packets with a mask and some hand signals, or what have you experienced?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: What's it like entering a hotel casino now?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they take your uh temperature, a lot of them do, not all of them.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_04: At the D and Bellagio, for instance, they take your temperature on, you put your wrist up like that, and uh and and boop, and it's a pass or fail.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I haven't I don't know what happens when you fail yet.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um but uh I joked with Derek Stevens.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_04: I went down to the D the other day uh before they opened to interview him in the afternoon on Wednesday afternoon, and I went through and I did the thing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: I had never experienced that before, and then I went upstairs and uh and he goes, How did it go down there?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I go, I got my temperature taken, and he goes, Good.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I said, they gave me a full physical too.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_04: What's up?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, that's our next step.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_04: He goes, How'd you do it?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I'm here, you know.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: But uh, so you do that, and then there's hand station, hand sanitizing stations everywhere.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: At the Bellagio, they have actual hand washing stations, like you'd see at an outdoor festival, like you'd see it, um, they're more refined, but like you'd see at uh Life is Beautiful, you know, those stations where you can go and wash your hands, those are in the middle of the casino floor.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_04: Plexiglass around the tables, uh, three to a table at Blackjack.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think uh that's also true of crabs.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: There's a reduced number of crabs positions, uh a lot of hand sanitizer, a lot of people offering hand sanitizer sanitizer around the floor.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um they offer they have offered masks and little kits with hand sanitizer in them at the Bellagio.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have to get your temperature taken at um where is it?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: Uh no, the Bellagio doesn't do the temperature.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: The D does, wind does temperature.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_04: It's there's not a uniform process that way.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um but you're you're going to be reminded of especially keeping your hands clean, and you're gonna see on the floor of a lot of these hotels decals where that's six feet apart at the bar at the conservatory at the Bellagio, six feet to line up at the Bellagio now to go to the conservatory, that's a new thing.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Six feet apart, and then inside the conservatory when you move around, it's six feet apart there.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: The problem is, as I'm writing about now, is that you can control that that environment uh in the conservatory, and you can spatially seat a restaurant.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Mayfair has the tables are reduced to 50%, and they're distant, and the people can be distant that way.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_04: But when you are in the casino floor and walking around, you're milling around again.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, you mentioned I was just at the MGM Grand today and went to the mansion, but I walked through the the um casino and people are just smoking and hanging out like they normally do.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_04: Uh cosmopolitan last night, I heard, was slammed, was slammed last night, the Cosmo.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: And and uh, you know, we've let the yeah we've done we've let the stable open, man.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: We've opened the chutes, and people are tired of being cooped up, and it's gonna now we have to remind them, hold on here.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, in order for this to work, we're gonna have to take some personal responsibility.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we are.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've seen a lot of people saying, you know, sometimes they're sitting close to someone and they'd realize, oh, wait, um, this table's a little close.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: You got to speak up and say, hey, can we be moved and that kind of thing?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I tried to get a reservation at a win restaurant last night.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was completely booked.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, had a friend in town.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: I it's it's it's good to see that people are, you know, embracing the resorts and the casinos and the opening and getting the economy back.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and then we've got the other side where we say, well, you know, hold your horses.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: We need to still make sure that we are being careful because we don't want to spike in cases.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something that we're gonna have to obviously keep watching, right?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I'm I'm thinking there it's a two-pronged uh analysis here, a two-pronged review.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: One is um is the business side.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and and so far, I think that the business side we've we our expectations have been at least met with demand, at least through the local crowd.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: Now the next frontier there is going to be midweek and it starts this week.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: How is business gonna be Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week, after the big bubble at the beginning, with very few flights coming in, and our locals crowd has already done the thing where they're they've done the weekend.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, I don't know if you know if we can guarantee the same type of response over a seven to ten day period as we did over the the first weekend.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm I'm thinking that we're gonna have further emphasis on airport air travel, you know, as this goes forward.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_04: As far as from a health standard uh standpoint, I believe it'll be two or three weeks before we really see what this opening period has been like and what it means.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um I would anticipate that we'd better be prepared to see a spike and to be uh reminded from our uh health uh officials and our elected officials that we have to be careful.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: There's nothing that has changed, you know, there's not it's still with us, COVID's still with us, the same measures have to be taken, and uh we need to, I think I think we're gonna need to be reminded of it or have to be reminded of it if we're gonna make this work.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's a very interesting thing, but I'm I'm waiting to see what the what the results of these statistics are gonna be from our first weekend and if there's gonna be a spike in cases.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't know how there wouldn't be.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see those numbers when they come out.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: We are talking uh Las Vegas opening weekend observations with Las Vegas Review Journal entertainment columnist John Catsalamides.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: And uh when we continue here on Vegas Revealed, we're diving into the entertainment part of Las Vegas and when we might see that scene opening up again.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Stay with us.
• 19:06
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• 19:09
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• 19:24
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• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're back on Vegas Revealed talking to entertainment columnist John Castle Media's from the Review Journal.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we want to talk entertainment uh in this portion of the podcast.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you've covered it for years and years.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we already touched on the fact that it has pretty much gone away as far as shows and theaters.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: We mentioned last week on Vegas Reveal that the Smith Center is closed indefinitely.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Katz, I want to talk to you about I did see some little uh little pieces of entertainment.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like you mentioned, the Mayfair Supper Club.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now that has some entertainment, right?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think um Bellagio also has some of the piano players back.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And you said someone else was coming back too.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, uh Elvis, Pete Valley.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Big Elvis, Pete Valley.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_04: That's an open piano bar, free show.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: So are we starting?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're starting to see some of those little pieces of entertainment, but what about the shows, the big shows here in Las Vegas, what we're made of?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I had an interesting conversation with uh with Bill Hornbuckle at the um the acting CEO of uh of uh MGM Resorts International, um who obviously Bill's been around forever and he's seen the whole gig Bill has.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: And uh the conversation was centered on Cirque shows, but I'm applying it to my feeling about uh showroom and theater shows across the city and even resident performances.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: He said he hoped that Cirque would be back by the end of the year.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I have to see, I have to say, I think that time horizon is realistic for a lot of the shows.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_04: I think for Cirque they'll be, you know, with the kind of prep time they'll need and they'll get their whole company back in order, they might not be back until fourth quarter.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if any of the residency productions in the theaters will be ready to go uh before the late fall, early winter either.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we still don't know what the rules are gonna be for these shows.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um let's say that there's a a fairly uh swift directive from uh Governor Siselac that allows uh a realistic uh format for shows to return.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_04: If that happens within a week or in a week or within a couple weeks, I think within uh By the middle of July, you might be able to see some of these shows come back.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: I talked to Wayne Newton on uh Friday, and he was uh him and I both were kind of going through this thing, and we we came to the agreement that it would be a month or so from that conversation, maybe five weeks, which puts us in the middle of July for that show.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_04: He's at Cleopatra's Barge at Caesar's Palace right now.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't think Cleopatra's Barge is gonna be open.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: I think that they're gonna have to do something with uh with Wayne Newton and some other Caesars Entertainment headliners and put them in a in a f in a room that they can work uh more effectively with, or build out some uh ballroom space at uh Caesar's Palace, or work with Omnia at the nightclub that's all that's open right now.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: That's my my the most interesting thing in this whole conversation with Caesars Entertainment is the use of Omnia because that's an unoccupied, beautiful, versatile facility right now.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: They've got heart of Omni in there, that's basically a little a large lounge or little showroom.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: They've got the main room in there that can be worked around and and and constructed.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: And Wayne has walked it, Chippendales have walked it, and I have a feeling that that that venue is gonna be in play too.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: So they're not just sitting on an idea over there, they're gonna they're gonna move things around.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_04: But I as far as a time horizon, I think it'll be uh five weeks from right now that we at the earliest that we could start talking about going into a ticketed show.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_04: Every all the entertainment right now that we see in Las Vegas is is pretty much non-ticketed.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's not eventually, you know, the Sislac has said you can't be an entertainment event uh performance.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: But if you have a bar, if you have a restaurant like Mayfair that offers entertainment as part of the general experience, Petrosian bar, uh Don't Tell Mama downtown here, uh the Tuscany's Piazza Lounge, all have live entertainment, the bootlegger.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure when the Italian American Club reopens their restaurant, that lounge is gonna be open.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's where you're gonna find live entertainment right now until ticket shows come back.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I was gonna say, with so many hurdles uh in the in the path to reopening for these uh shows that have been uh historically staged in a theater environment, do you think that as we inch back to normalcy or the new normal in the entertainment world here in Las Vegas, we're gonna kind of go back in history and uh see kind of a resurgence of the lounge show, the lounge act.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: We're seeing it right now, to be honest.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_04: In my first weekend, that's where the hat that's where it's happening.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I wouldn't mind at all to see another uh Louis Prima Keeley Smith kicks gig somewhere where someone's just swinging their ass off in a lounge.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm all right, I'm fine with that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh I think that that is gonna be uh part of it.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know that we'll see a huge um uh uh extensive return to the lounge era over the course of the foreseeable future, but I do think that for the short term, these places that we've talked about.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm talking about the Casbar now at the Sahara, for example, um, are gonna be where you find uh entertainers doing their thing.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_04: Kenny Davidson on Friday night coming up is gonna have Lorraine Perrell singing with him from Fantasy.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that that's a free show.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_04: That's yeah, Lorena Perrell is a is a destination performer, you know, in fantasy.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_04: People go buy tickets to see her.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and and that if you think about what the city's lounge scene used to be like and the energy generated, that's the kind of show you're thinking about.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: Is Kenny with Lorena, don't tell mama.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_04: They're even doing they're doing comedy at Notoriety.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: That that they're selling tickets for, but they're doing a comedy lineup there that reminds me a lot of uh of the the comedy performances I used to hear about at Casbar Lounge that Don Rickles used to host, and they'd have six or seven comics come in.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's what they're doing at Notoriety on the at the top level of uh Neonopolis downtown.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um so you know that I think that is something I uh that is um if there's any kind of a positive uh consequence to this, it is the incidental return of the lounges in Las Vegas right now.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_04: They're the only game in town.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: They really are the only entertainment.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, yeah, I do too.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I think resorts are looking for ways to keep people happy at all times, right?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you hear some live music going on when you're walking by, it's gonna keep your customers happy.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what we need to keep people coming here and wanting them to stay here is you know, some entertainment along the way if they can't go to a ticketed show.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and speaking of that, I was thinking, you know, about comedians like you, like you had mentioned, but I was thinking about Caratop, how I can't wait to hear all his his or see all his new props and hear all his new COVID-19 jokes and just you know lighten the mood a little bit because I'm sure he's got them all built up.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've been watching them on Instagram.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: So someone like him, though, he doesn't have any audience interaction really if he doesn't come down and do shots and stuff like that.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it seems like, okay, that would be a good show to to kick off.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: But then you think about all the people, you know, stuffed in that theater, because he usually sells out.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: So what does some what does an artist like him do?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Does it go to a bigger venue and spread it out like an Omnia?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Or what do you do?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: It would be it would be something like that.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_04: And you bring up an interesting point because Caratop Show, or you could even uh like I saw Mayfair the other night, and and the way the stage show was performed was not that far off.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: They don't have the dancers, but the the individuals on stage were relatively close to each other.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, Steve uh Judkins, a singer, and LaShawn De Reese, the female singer, were dancing with each other at close range and they weren't wearing masks.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: All that was going on.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but the the key thing with somebody like Caratop is the word ticketed.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because that show is is set up as an entertainment experience, it's under different rules right now.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Scott could go over Caratop, Scott Thompson.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: We've talked about this in the column too.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_04: He could move his show conceivably over to uh the Thunderland Showroom, which is bigger at the X caliber.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's where Thunder from Down Under, Hans Klock, and the Australian Bee Gees perform.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_04: You could bring Scott in there and have him have whatever trunks he wants up on stage himself and have that audience, the way the place is laid out, spread out enough that he could he could perform a show there for 200 people, 200 ticketed ticket uh audience members.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: We've talked about this.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: I've talked to uh Anita Mann to bring what would it mean to bring fantasy over to that room and have them choreograph a show that was different where they don't come out into the crowd.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, those are ideas that are being uh, you know, or that are coming back and forth.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: Adam Steck from Spy Entertainment says he'd be up for it.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_04: They're in the same MGM Resorts International family, um, and they can sell.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: Scott would sell out, he would sell out now with a show like that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and we have been talking about this.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he did something, it burns me up, man.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: I was talking to his manager yesterday, and we were talking about his beard, Keratov's beard.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: Did you see his beard on stage?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, slowly grown.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was saying that we should have when he comes back on stage.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_04: This was just yesterday.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_04: When Scott comes back, he has his whole beard, and we make the shaving of the beard part of the show.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: His beard is the shaving of the beard and make it a whole thing.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_04: He goes off before the word got to Scott, he shaved it yesterday.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, darn to do to do his Freddie Mercury thing.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: Did you see his post of he was doing it?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: I missed it.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: He kept the mustache.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was so pissed.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, that's a good example.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_04: You brought up an example, or somebody like the magicians, Murray Sawchuk, headliner at Light Factory, Jen Kramer over at um at Westgate.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, they could do something like that.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_04: George to the comics, George Wallace right down the line, uh Brad Garrett.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, the the the semi the headlining comics could they could do that.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: They could come into a room and the the Westgate cabaret could be set up for Kramer's show pretty quickly, uh, and and Wallace's too, you know.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I thought too, with that without um, you know, really conventions going on or really events in the ballrooms, like when I was talking to to Matt Goss, who performs at the Mirage, uh, one of my best friends, but I said, why couldn't you use a ballroom, a huge ballroom, spread out all the tables and have everyone socially distance?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you can kind of get the same amount of people in there, but you've got a bigger space and everyone's just going to be separated, and then you've got you in the band.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, there are ideas obviously that can be floated around, but for now, I guess right now, the priority is get people in, get them staying in the rooms, get them gambling, starting to go out to dinner, and then we'll see from there.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think you're right.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I think, well, you you Matt shows another one.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: If you apply the Mirage model, or any, you know, any of the he's in the MGM Resorts family, you could move him anywhere.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: And apply that model of what they're talking about with Wayne, with Matt, you could bring the band out to the wings and they could be they could play in a different way.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_04: He could be in the middle, and he could have the rhythm section right behind him.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_04: There's a way to do it.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: There's a way to that's another one.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the the um uh uh showman, star policy showman can make this work.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I think we're gonna see more and more ideas like that to try and and work with the with the uh the directives while keeping people safe and keep putting entertainers back to work and giving these casino customers something to do other than eat, gamble, and walk around, you know.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's pretty much what we're doing right now.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so uh if people are on social media and they see these uh invite event invites that go out on Facebook.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_03: I know that uh there have been indications about share tickets going on sale.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I just sent you something about uh sting tickets for August.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: Should people be optimistic about that?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: Or what's the story with these things?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: Not yet, especially the share show.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_04: But there's no way share's playing July in the park theater, let's be honest.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: No way Joe Rogan's gonna headline there.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_04: We don't even know what the do's and don'ts are to, you know, to to set up a stroke uh show like that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_04: The the the a lot in a lot of cases, these alerts are automated.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_04: The share one came up, I think, on Facebook.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's what got everybody excited.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, oh, June 11th, you know, through the through August, share you're gonna be able to see Share.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: That was that's there's no announcement about Cher.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: I know that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: I talked to the AEG people there to yeah, for her to return to the stage.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sting is more interesting because he's in a he's in a timeline that kind of is almost there, that August date, um, which is the same date around the same time that Garth Brooks is supposed to play uh Allegiance Stadium, by the way.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_04: I would say this, and until I wouldn't be optimistic for anything in a theater uh this year until our governor lays out the phased directives.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_04: I really wouldn't.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think you can be prepared, they're being prepared at season entertainment, they're being prepared as they can with CERC, but until that happens, you can't be really confident that you're gonna be seeing Sting in August.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: You just can't.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: We do it's too unknown.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_04: What if we have you know, what if we can't come out with it with numbers in a couple of weeks that are just off the charts and we don't have any any phase three directives, and you're holding a ticket to to um Sting at the Coliseum in a month and a half, uh I it's you can't resolve that.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_04: I I personally would tell anybody that I would be um very uh discriminant about your expectations for for um theater shows, residency shows, whether it's a park theater or at the cosmopolitan or at the at Caesars or uh Zappos Theater until we get the do's and don'ts, until we get an idea of how those shows can be performed, then you'll know.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh but not until then.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I guess uh be be uh uh a little have some skepticism when you have those things pop up in your uh in your little alert list.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_04: Because those are automated, just be educated that until we really, really know what uh the theater uh uh protocols are gonna be, um we we can't say yes to it, you know, to any of these bookings.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: And something that's been happening simultaneously along with uh the COVID-19 crisis and the the shutdown of Las Vegas as we start to reopen, uh there have been these Black Lives Matter protests that have taken over Las Vegas.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: And you found yourself, um, you've gone out to to report on those and um found yourself in um kind of situation that took your breath away a little bit.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Literally.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: Literally, yeah, yeah.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: It was and and the the whole my involvement.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: It was a week ago, Saturday.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_04: It was a big protest that wound around downtown Las Vegas where I live.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: And um I went I I went to the protest to cover it intentionally.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_04: I I knew what I was going to, you know, it wasn't like I was caught on the street or something.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: I I offered to uh uh supplement my company's coverage by uh doing a Facebook or a uh an Instagram live chronicle of the protest as it as it came through our neighborhood.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I went over to um uh container park where it started and we just went from there and I just recorded about two hours total worth of uh Instagram live video, you know, of it.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: And uh the the key, the the crucial there was a lot.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: There was it was a it was a very disquieting experience anyway, if you remember any one of these things.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: And this one was very uh it was very contentious, you know.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I found myself at the at the uh at the front of the um at the police line uh when they came back to the uh container park.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: And if you know the layout of container park, they were lined up with the container park who would be would be on my right, the line right here.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: I'm on the line.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_04: I was with uh Denise Tresello, a photographer, a friend of mine, a great photojournalist.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: She's next to me, and there was really a lot of anger in this line between the protesters and uh metropolis.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it was very chippy, very uh very unsettling, and you could feel it.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I'm moving myself to the end of the line, and Denise says, let's go up uh to this to the balcony after the the deck of this place called the City Center Motel.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's a it's a uh value of motel right on Fremont East, uh on Fremont Street.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: So we go up there and everything seems to be all right.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_04: We're we're kind of above it, and then all of a sudden, man, the the gas came out, the the peppers, the pepper pellets, whatever they call those things, the the crowds throwing bottles, and it was all beneath us.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: And then one blew up underneath us, and the the gas came up and it was over.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it no joke, it it is a paralyzing experience.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_04: I can only tell you that.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_04: We were not targeted.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: I was with other journalists.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: We they were not throwing stuff at us.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_04: We were not that we were just where we were as part of the the the crowd, but man, it uh yeah, it your face feels like it just blew up.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's just yeah, and uh so that happened, yeah.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we chatted the next day, Katz, and you were saying that you actually still felt it and you were almost sore from it, yeah.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_04: I was my ribs were killing me from the coughing, and my eyes were not right.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: I wasn't I was uh disoriented through the rest of the evening.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_04: I had two conversations that night that I do not recall uh having.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: I talked to two people that night when I got home at the end, and we went around again.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: We had another, a second attack that we missed.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_04: It was barely got we barely got away from.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Denise is part of that story.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: She she went up to uh uh the knocked on the door of somebody who lives at that motel and was asking for you know water or something.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: And the the guy inside said he she he couldn't let her in.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: There were two elderly people and there was parents, but he gave her two soaking wet towels.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_04: And when I found her, she was walking from that room and she gave me one and put it on my face.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: I I put it on my face, and I swear I felt it sizzle, you know.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_04: But it it's it, yeah.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_04: I I was I was messed up more than I I probably uh realized, you know.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: I was still pretty shaky that that next day, too.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now we know tear gas works, right?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's meant to disperse crowds.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_04: I was talking to my brother the next day, and they got my family, my poor family, what is going on?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what is happening?
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, it's it's supposed to be having fizzy water in a showroom somewhere.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_04: My brother says uh my brother says he goes, Yeah, you all now you know why they've used that stuff since World War One.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no kidding.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: It works really and it was the power of your Twitter page too, Dana, because I didn't know why people were so all of a sudden I started getting these texts like all at once.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm like, how did these people I was telling Denise?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_04: How these people know this happened?
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I all I did was I had Instagram live open, but I didn't post anything.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: And then I realized that you said something.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, I was watching you live, it all went down, and I was tweeting, Johnny Katz is okay, just to let everyone know.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I didn't know I didn't, I wasn't, I wasn't aware that happened.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_04: It was just I just thought it was coincidental.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but anyway, it was a kind of a funny moment in the whole thing.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're glad you're safe.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're glad you're okay.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate your coverage.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: The things seem to be a little bit more peaceful these days with the protests, and folks are able to get their message across a little bit better.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and Sean, I I know we could talk uh on and on with with cats about all sorts of stuff.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's been an interesting week here in Las Vegas.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it uh really an interesting uh few months here as um everybody's just tried to figure out um their way through this and and see how how things come out on the other side.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh cats, as Dana mentioned, we appreciate the coverage and and we'll keep watching.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate you guys.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: You do my favorites in all that personally.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um anything you guys need, uh feel free to fill in at a last moment or whatever you need.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Kat.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Stay with us.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Our tips are coming up.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back, everyone, to Vegas Revealed.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's time for Dana and John's tips.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: And normally I do some tips that uh that I know or have, but you know, I wanted to take some questions from some of the folks on Twitter today and hopefully provide answers and some tips and and and what I know so far.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we did get a tweet from Marla NCA and she says, are food courts, et cetera, open, um, or can we get takeout at the restaurants?
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I did look around and I know that if you put in the property name and restaurants, like if you Google like Caesars Palace restaurants, a list comes up and you'll see which ones are closed.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: But then on the bottom it says pickup, um delivery or dine in.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it will have like an X if you can't dine in, a check mark if you can deliver.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you kind of need to do a little bit of investigating, but there are some that are doing delivery and pickup in hotels that are not necessarily open for dine-in.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I just suggest maybe you do your research on that.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that is on a case-by-case basis.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_03: There's not um there's not a big overarching policy about what is and is not open.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: So you will have to look into that.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I know Marla also wanted to know about shows um with larger capacities, like 700 people.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_03: And uh Johnny Katz talked about that a little earlier, that for something like that, we're probably looking at August at the earliest before uh any of those things start up again.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then Brian L.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: wrote us saying, have any put resort fees into the room rate instead of tacking it on at the end?
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I did some research on that too, didn't see any.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: I would even when I was looking at something like Expedia, like when I looked at the win, if it said 189, then you went to the next page, it would have 189, you know, how many nights you were going to do it, the taxes, and then it would say plus the resort fee.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: So your total would be damn resort fees.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: I know the total, uh, it's always so much higher than you know, you're like, you think you're getting it for 189, but then boom, 135 a night resort fee or whatever that is, or total.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, I think it was total in the resort fees um for how many ever nights that I picked.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think I put three nights in there.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you're gonna have to keep an eye out for that.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but look, make sure you go to that page where it it spells it out, you know, line by line.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you'll be able to see it.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: So don't be fooled by just the price that you see on this room cost, blah, blah, blah.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know Sahara did um get rid of resort fees for now.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is, you know, on the north end of the strip, but I haven't seen any other properties get rid of the resort fee, but we know that they did get rid of temporarily or maybe for good parking fees.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh Brian was also wanting to know about uh temperatures being taken at the resorts.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he wanted to know if someone does have a warmer temperature, are they given a chance to cool off?
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: And at the very beginning of when they were talking about resorts opening, there was a meeting here, and I did see some of the folks that I follow on Twitter in the gaming industry putting out some information.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and don't quote me on this, but I remember reading, and I think I had bookmarked, uh, I meant to go back and look and see if I could find that.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it was something about you would have like uh 15 minutes or so to kind of cool off.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: They would retake your temperature, and then if you were still high or above the limit, well, okay, that was cause for concern.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so you would have to get tested.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, say you do test positive for coronavirus, you flew all the way here, you know, which isn't a good situation to be in.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: But what do you do?
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you go?
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: They were talking about having a non gaming hotel, and I forget which one it was, a basically a place for those folks that tested positive to go.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: And quarantine.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that way it was all grouped together in one place in order to not risk anyone else around them.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I believe that's kind of the process that they have in place for that.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, if you did have symptoms and you did feel like feverish that you wouldn't come here.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: But if that's the case, apparently that's what's going to happen.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: So just moral of the story, protect yourself, protect everybody else around you, wash your hands a lot, use hand sanitizer.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_03: Just do everything you can out of an abundance of caution.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully you'll avoid those little infectious droplets.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then one quick little secret tip for me.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said I've said it before in Vegas Reveal, but just want to remind everyone now more than ever, restaurants are not open at full capacity, and there aren't you know an abundance of restaurants open to begin with.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: So if you do come to Las Vegas or you are a local and you want to go to the strip and go to one of the restaurants, make reservations way in advance.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: The other night I went to do it last minute.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: They were all booked up.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I just want to remind everyone about open table.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: You can get on, you can see what time's available, and then you can keep adjusting or cancel on open table as well.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really great thing for booking reservations.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: So keep that in mind.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: But Sean, you just got off a plane.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about this.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did Tahoe to Vegas.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I was up in the northern part of the state, up at uh Lake Tahoe, where gaming has also resumed at the uh casinos on the Nevada side of uh of Tahoe.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I've gotta say, like what Johnny Katz was talking about earlier, there were almost no face masks.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: Face masks were a rarity and and not the rule up there.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we went up just to do outdoorsy stuff and just kind of get out of the house and get some fresh air and hike.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_03: We brought the dog up there, so we didn't spend a lot of time in the casinos, but I did.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: I just uh today flew back from the Reno airport and it was dead.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: It was like a ghost town there.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: But having said that, it was a breeze to get in and out.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know, they've taken all the precautions there, they uh take your temperature before you board the plane.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_03: I flew on Frontier because I was able to get a ticket for$23.10.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um but they took the temperature before boarding, and if you had a temperature higher than 100.4, you were not allowed to fly.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: Face masks were mandatory, they did not have any in-flight uh food or beverage services.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um fortunately, there were only 60 people on the flight.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so pretty much anybody who wanted a row to themselves was able to.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: There were uh several people who were traveling together and they were fine, you know, sitting in the same row together.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: But um, space on the plane was not an issue.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um one thing that I did notice once I got to Las Vegas at McCarran Airport down by the baggage claim, there were signs all over promoting just being healthy.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_03: So there's obviously a message out there that Las Vegas wants to welcome visitors, but we want visitors to be healthy and wash hands and use hand sanitizer and wear masks when it's suggested.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: So that messaging is very clear at the airport.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's really, really good.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I mean, obviously, this is what we we want people to do.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: At this point, we can't force them, like you said.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: So in re in Tahoe and Rena area in the casinos, quick question about backtracking to that.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: You said people weren't wearing masks, but employees were wearing masks, right?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_03: Employees were, yes.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, that's good to know.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, restaurants we went to at, and we're on both the California and Nevada side of uh Lake Tahoe, and employees were wearing uh face masks and gloves at the restaurants that we went to.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the casinos, obviously, they're under the same guidelines that um the casinos down here in Las Vegas uh have to abide by.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, the staff at all those casinos need to be wearing those protective uh pieces of equipment as well.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, it's interesting.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people on Twitter keep writing saying, Well, I'm not ready to go back to the strip yet, or I'm not gonna go in a casino, I'm gonna wait a few weeks.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, that's okay, you know, it's everyone's choice.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: And those that want to go, go and and and be safe, but you don't have to go.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's twisting your arm.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's a lot of talk about it online, and that can sometimes pressure people, but um, it's at your own pace, right?
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's if you feel comfortable and you're ready to do it.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was gonna say, whatever your comfort level is, do that.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_03: And that applies to eating at restaurants, going to the grocery store, everything.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like there are options for you to get the things you need without physically going.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, move forward at your own pace until we've got a uh vaccination and and wide availability.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we covered a lot of things in this podcast.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you all for listening as usual, and we hope you have a great week.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're inching toward official summer.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: So uh the heat is on it.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the heat is on it.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, it feels like it all went by in the blink of an eye.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: It sure does.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day, everyone.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you next week.