Latest / Vegas Revealed / Las Vegas Headliner Will Return to The Stage | Ep. 39
Transcript
- 0:00Sean McAllister: Welcome to Vegas Revealed, episode 39.
- 0:03Dayna Roselli: A bunch of shows in Las Vegas have announced opening dates.
- 0:06Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it's another step closer to reality here in Las Vegas, and we're going to talk with Flamingo headliner Pith the Magic Dragon.
- 0:14Sean McAllister: Plus, our first hand experience staying down on the Las Vegas strip.
- 0:19Sean McAllister: Since this whole shutdown was lifted, we talk the good, the bad, and the ugly too.
- 0:25Dayna Roselli: Coming up on Vegas Revealed.
- 0:41Dayna Roselli: Hello everyone and welcome back to Vegas Revealed.
- 0:44Dayna Roselli: We are excited to be here.
- 0:46Dayna Roselli: I'm Dana Roselli along with Sean McAllister.
- 0:49Dayna Roselli: And today we're on the Las Vegas strip in the Flamingo Showroom.
- 0:53Sean McAllister: Yeah, and we're happy to talk about new entertainment and shows coming back here on the Las Vegas Strip.
- 0:59Sean McAllister: Just announced Absinthe is coming back over at Caesar's Palace.
- 1:05Sean McAllister: And Piff, the magic dragon, returning to the stage at the Flamingo Showroom this time, and Piff is with us.
- 1:12Sean McAllister: How's it going, man?
- 1:13Sean McAllister: I'm very good.
- 1:13Sean McAllister: Yeah, we're back.
- 1:14Sean McAllister: We're back.
- 1:15SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
- 1:16Dayna Roselli: It feels good, doesn't it?
- 1:17SPEAKER_04: It feels very good.
- 1:18SPEAKER_04: And we're in the big room this time.
- 1:20Dayna Roselli: I know.
- 1:20SPEAKER_04: So scaled up.
- 1:22SPEAKER_04: Literally, I'm a dragon.
- 1:23SPEAKER_04: It's a room of them.
- 1:25Dayna Roselli: And that's going to allow for some good separation, right?
- 1:28Dayna Roselli: Some good social distancing, but a good, nice, big, healthy crowd.
- 1:31SPEAKER_04: Well, fortunately, I'm not in charge of that.
- 1:34SPEAKER_04: Yes.
- 1:35SPEAKER_04: Somebody who is very responsible and clever has made sure that everyone is safe.
- 1:40SPEAKER_04: I'm wherever I need to be.
- 1:42SPEAKER_04: Because I've spent my whole life socially distanced.
- 1:44SPEAKER_04: I'm English.
- 1:45SPEAKER_04: You know, we that's that's how our people have thrived for many years.
- 1:49SPEAKER_04: So this is par for the course.
- 1:51SPEAKER_04: This is like keeping everyone at arms length.
- 1:53SPEAKER_04: It's a dream come true.
- 1:54SPEAKER_04: So so the audience is is uh spread out amongst the much bigger room, and uh as time goes on and that relaxes, then we'll start bringing pi more and more people into it.
- 2:06Dayna Roselli: And I love the the name of the show, Too Soon Question Mark.
- 2:10Dayna Roselli: Question mark, yeah.
- 2:11SPEAKER_04: Too soon.
- 2:12SPEAKER_04: Yes.
- 2:12SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, that's what everyone's thinking, isn't it?
- 2:15SPEAKER_04: Really?
- 2:15SPEAKER_04: Really?
- 2:16SPEAKER_04: You're doing shows, really?
- 2:18SPEAKER_04: So uh I always think it's better just to uh say what everyone's thinking.
- 2:22SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's true.
- 2:22SPEAKER_04: Um but like you know, like like I said, we we've actually spent um six or six months now doing virtual shows over Zoom and um so we've had this whole we've had this whole uh like battle of how to make the show funny in in COVID times.
- 2:42SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 2:43SPEAKER_04: And um honestly, like that's the thing that I found is that people watch wanna they want to laugh, they want to have fun, and they want to forget what's happening outside.
- 2:51SPEAKER_04: And I'm on board with that.
- 2:52SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know.
- 2:53Sean McAllister: And it I mean, a a lot of people here in in the US got to know you from America's Got Talent.
- 3:00Sean McAllister: So do you feel like that TV exposure got you ready to do these virtual shows and and made it a familiar uh platform for people to see you?
- 3:11SPEAKER_04: I think so because there were you know, when we started, there were people like they'd have their like laptops out and their webcams, and that's how they were doing the shows.
- 3:20SPEAKER_04: And we we said, hey, what about if we just like bulldoze our garage and rebuild it as a TV studio?
- 3:27SPEAKER_04: So we got the Pifton Magic Dragon television studio, formerly known as my single-car garage, and we are doing uh the shows from there.
- 3:35SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's basically like an interactive TV show, and being able to do it like that meant that we could work on tricks which were like big, and then we could bring them into this room.
- 3:45Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 3:46Dayna Roselli: And and talk a little bit about your show for folks like we have listeners from all over the world, so if people aren't familiar with you, if they come to Las Vegas, they come to the show, what can they expect?
- 3:54SPEAKER_04: Grumpy Dragon doing uh unbelievable magic tricks with the uh very cute Chihuahua and a genuine Las Vegas showgirl.
- 4:04SPEAKER_04: So we gotta we're trying to tick a lot of boxes.
- 4:06Dayna Roselli: It's all it's everything all in one, isn't it?
- 4:07Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 4:08Dayna Roselli: And Mr.
- 4:08Dayna Roselli: Piffles is here, by the way, sitting between Sean and I.
- 4:11SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 4:11Dayna Roselli: Very calm.
- 4:12SPEAKER_04: He's coming out of hibernation.
- 4:14SPEAKER_04: That's what he that's what this pandemic has been.
- 4:17SPEAKER_04: It's been a seven month because before we were doing 400 shows a year.
- 4:21SPEAKER_04: You know, we would do about 250 here in Vegas, and then we tour every single weekend all over the country, all over Canada, Europe, all over the world.
- 4:30SPEAKER_04: So uh w we've been able to uh stop and pause and and uh now we just want to stay in Vegas.
- 4:37SPEAKER_04: I didn't realise how how much I liked living here.
- 4:41SPEAKER_04: You know, because we were living here and but we were always doing the show and You're busy.
- 4:46SPEAKER_04: You're busy, and then I stopped and I was like, wait a minute, we've got a really nice house and a really nice place and like and Vegas is great.
- 4:53Sean McAllister: You finally got to stop and enjoy it a little bit.
- 4:55SPEAKER_04: Well like years ago, I came when I first came to Vegas, I I came to do a show called Vegas Not Turner, the Cosmo.
- 5:03SPEAKER_04: Um and I was like, Oh, I don't really think that I'm gonna um that this is for me.
- 5:09SPEAKER_04: And I came here to do like a two-week rehearsal period in 2000 I don't know, 13 maybe and immediately I was like, oh my god, I love Vegas.
- 5:21SPEAKER_04: As soon as I got off the plane, I was like, oh this is it, this is where I should be.
- 5:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 5:25SPEAKER_04: So uh but then over the years we got so busy that um it's been great to sort of like remember that, oh yeah, we live in Vegas and let's like so hopefully next year we do like 46 weeks or something a year here instead of uh five days and then on a plane.
- 5:41Sean McAllister: Yeah, well, and it does seem fitting that uh Vegas is a good home for a magic dragon.
- 5:46SPEAKER_04: Well, it's a desert, yeah.
- 5:47SPEAKER_04: You know, a lot of caves.
- 5:49SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, I think it's a pretty good, you know, I'm cold-blooded, it's a perfect fit.
- 5:54SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 5:54Sean McAllister: It keeps you nice and toasty.
- 5:55SPEAKER_04: Where are we?
- 5:56SPEAKER_04: Oh no, there's a mirror.
- 5:57SPEAKER_04: Oh, there's a mirror.
- 5:59SPEAKER_04: The dog is now attacking his um his rival.
- 6:02Dayna Roselli: His reflection.
- 6:04Dayna Roselli: I love it.
- 6:04Dayna Roselli: He's so cute.
- 6:05SPEAKER_04: He's looking for somewhere to relieve himself now.
- 6:07SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
- 6:08SPEAKER_04: That's really what that dog spends most of his life doing.
- 6:11SPEAKER_04: I built this back garden out, you know, you know, because when you when you buy a house in Vegas, it just comes with gravel when it's like a new house.
- 6:18SPEAKER_04: Because it's a desert.
- 6:19SPEAKER_04: So we had to like buy a back garden for it.
- 6:22SPEAKER_04: So I I was like, look, the dog's done so much for me, I'm gonna reward him.
- 6:26SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna get this like real grass and like an oasis for him.
- 6:30SPEAKER_04: And he loves it.
- 6:30SPEAKER_04: He runs it there every morning, lies in the sun for hours, every every day, um, sunbathe for hours, and then he stands up and he trots inside and he just poops in the house, and then he just goes straight back out again, and it's like, are you kidding me?
- 6:45SPEAKER_04: Um at my feet, and he'll look at me and just be like, Yeah, I paid the mortgage.
- 6:48SPEAKER_04: Yeah, oh my gosh.
- 6:49SPEAKER_04: I did this.
- 6:51Dayna Roselli: Isn't that true?
- 6:52Dayna Roselli: Isn't that true?
- 6:53Dayna Roselli: Oh my gosh.
- 6:54Dayna Roselli: Now talk about what does Piff the magic dragon do on his off time?
- 6:57Dayna Roselli: Like, do you do different things than than normal Vegas people do?
- 7:01Dayna Roselli: What are your some of your favorites?
- 7:02SPEAKER_04: Uh golf.
- 7:04SPEAKER_04: Golf golf! You're a golfer dragons love golf.
- 7:07SPEAKER_04: Wow, yeah, so and Vegas is perfect for it.
- 7:10SPEAKER_04: Like, this is really like it's amazing um how how the stars have aligned to uh to work out here.
- 7:17SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I like I like playing golf, but then but then to be honest, we the thing that I love doing is making the show, uh performing the show, thinking of new material.
- 7:27SPEAKER_04: You know, um one of the things that's been great about living in Vegas has been becoming friends with um Pan and Teller and David Copperfield and these guys, they just you know they love to work.
- 7:39SPEAKER_04: And I love to work, and it's like when when it's like that, it's like, oh yeah, I guess I play golf like once every three months, but basically it's just me like sitting around either doing the show or having fun making new material.
- 7:52SPEAKER_04: Because it never feels like a job, it's always just like you know, with like working out ways to shoot a dog out of a cannon or uh you know get someone.
- 8:02SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, that's why he's so concussed.
- 8:04SPEAKER_04: Look at him, he doesn't know where he is.
- 8:06Sean McAllister: I love it.
- 8:07Sean McAllister: And the the magic community here in Las Vegas, is it a tight-knit group of people?
- 8:13Sean McAllister: Do you guys all get along or is it competitive?
- 8:15SPEAKER_04: Well, I don't think the good thing about being a magic dragon is uh I don't have many other competitors.
- 8:22SPEAKER_04: That's true.
- 8:22SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm at least in the top ten of magic performing dragons in Las Vegas.
- 8:26SPEAKER_04: It's pretty good.
- 8:27SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's not bad, is it?
- 8:29SPEAKER_04: Maybe in the world, I don't know.
- 8:30SPEAKER_04: Um so it's been great.
- 8:32SPEAKER_04: I've been able to sort of build friendships with like Matt King and Matt Franco and um Lance Burton and and and these guys, and we just did a a show, um Tournament of Laughs, which is a TBS show, and every week we had to make these videos, and uh Penn was in one, David Copperfield was in another, Lance Burton um ended up presenting the final video, so um and then at the beginning of this year before lockdown when Teller hurt his back and was at surgery.
- 9:03SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 9:03SPEAKER_04: So me, Penn, and Matt King did uh Penn and Friends at the Penn and Teller Theatre for a couple of weeks.
- 9:09SPEAKER_04: So that's why I love the community here, and we're gonna be bringing a guest in the show each each night here um to because because part of it is yes, we're coming back, a lot of people can't come back yet.
- 9:22SPEAKER_04: And also the way we're coming back is is gonna be very different, and so we just wanna um you know, I love how Vegas as a community has embraced me.
- 9:32SPEAKER_04: Probably because of the dog, but I'll take it.
- 9:35SPEAKER_04: And um and and we we sort of wanna be able to say thank you for that by bringing people up and talking to them about what they're doing and yeah, yeah.
- 9:44Dayna Roselli: I mean it's interesting though, though like you said, like I moved here 16 years ago, never looked back, and I was like, wow, I never looked back, never looked back.
- 9:50Dayna Roselli: I was like, whatever, I like it here, and I have no desire to move anywhere else, you know.
- 9:54Dayna Roselli: Something brought me there.
- 9:55Dayna Roselli: But there are so many pluses, right?
- 9:57Dayna Roselli: The weather and the you know, you know, no state taxes.
- 10:00SPEAKER_04: 20 minutes, 20 minutes for my my house to hear.
- 10:03SPEAKER_04: Let me tell you, in in England, right?
- 10:06SPEAKER_04: I in England the roads are the width of one car.
- 10:10SPEAKER_04: Like, but that's both sides of the road.
- 10:13SPEAKER_04: So you can't have two cars on a road.
- 10:15SPEAKER_04: Like you can't, so like you have to look for gaps in the parking in order to like pass it.
- 10:21SPEAKER_04: That's like in London.
- 10:22SPEAKER_04: That's like where everyone Whereas here it's like 19 lanes.
- 10:26Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I know, I know.
- 10:27Dayna Roselli: It's true though, right?
- 10:28Dayna Roselli: It's such a difference.
- 10:29Dayna Roselli: And and I have friends that moved here from LA when I'm like, oh, you live where?
- 10:33Dayna Roselli: It's gonna take me, you know, 25 minutes to get there.
- 10:36Dayna Roselli: They're like, so what?
- 10:37Dayna Roselli: Because in LA it would take you two hours.
- 10:40SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 10:41Dayna Roselli: So it's true, it's true.
- 10:42Dayna Roselli: But we have listeners, um, like I mentioned from all over the the world.
- 10:45Dayna Roselli: It's interesting because Sean and I have been in local TV for such a long time, and we knew the local community cared about so many things, and then we saw the interest on social media from people outside of Vegas, but now we have people listening in in Israel and the UK and Australia.
- 10:59Dayna Roselli: And it's interesting the fascination with Las Vegas.
- 11:03Dayna Roselli: Like so many people we've realized all over the world are fascinated by not only visiting here, but like the fact that we live here, they think it's strange, you know?
- 11:12Dayna Roselli: So what do people, do your friends at home and family are like, what is it like to live in Vegas?
- 11:16Dayna Roselli: Are they fascinated by it?
- 11:18SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they they and um you know, I think I get a really crazy inside view, like, you know, this this um this this showroom, RuPaul is is like crushing it in this showroom.
- 11:34SPEAKER_04: It's like one of the best shows in Vegas.
- 11:36SPEAKER_04: Donnie and Marie were were here.
- 11:37SPEAKER_04: I'm in Marie's dressing room right now.
- 11:40SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, my like one of my best friends now is is Penn from Penn and Teller.
- 11:47SPEAKER_04: So it's like this whole crazy world that I would just never have dreamt of.
- 11:51SPEAKER_04: And so yeah, my friends are like, wait a minute, what?
- 11:53Sean McAllister: You're like, Yeah, like yeah, you're across the road from Wayne Newton?
- 11:57Sean McAllister: What's happening?
- 11:58Sean McAllister: So so what's Marie's dressing room like?
- 12:00Sean McAllister: Are there are are there still rhinestones stuck to the mirrors or yes, it's uh it's all our own furniture.
- 12:06SPEAKER_04: It's uh you could the price tags and everything, you can still buy it from um from many furniture stores.
- 12:13SPEAKER_04: No, it's great, it's fair it's it's much nicer than I would decorate a a a dressing room.
- 12:18SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 12:19SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, so and um it's just crazy, but like the flamingo is like one of the the oldest casinos in all of Las Vegas, so it's like the history here it's very difficult to get my head around it being a um you know I I grew up in London and never ever I I I had a once I had this girlfriend, right?
- 12:44SPEAKER_04: And her parents really, really uh did not like me.
- 12:49SPEAKER_04: And in the end I was like, hey, what's going on?
- 12:52SPEAKER_04: Because we're probably gonna be together a while, so we might as well just get this out in the open.
- 12:55SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 12:56SPEAKER_04: And they said, Well, we just think that you're gonna uh you're gonna become more and more successful, and then one day you're gonna get your own show in Las Vegas and uh and and lead the country.
- 13:10SPEAKER_04: And I was like, What?
- 13:12SPEAKER_04: I let me tell you, if I can promise you one thing, I will never forget my own show in Las Vegas and move countries because I just thought that's the last thing that could ever happen, and it's just been incredible that you know, through like seeing all the steps, you know, I first came here with Spiegel World doing a show at the Cosmo, and then uh I went on America's Got Talent, and then you know, every single step that has led to us now opening in the big room at the Flamingo Showroom is just like it's unbelievable.
- 13:40SPEAKER_04: You could never ever predict it.
- 13:42Sean McAllister: So so what kind of uh changes to your act have you been developing in the garage that you're now bringing to the stage here at Flamingo?
- 13:50SPEAKER_04: Well, this is this sounds stupid because it is stupid.
- 13:53SPEAKER_04: But I did think okay, there's a the you know, there's a shutdown.
- 13:58SPEAKER_04: At some point the shows will come back, probably with some distance between people.
- 14:04SPEAKER_04: Maybe we might have to go into the flamingo showroom, therefore I should probably spend six months and hundreds of thousands of dollars working on a very large show that would fit there.
- 14:13SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
- 14:14SPEAKER_04: So we did that, sort of on the off chance.
- 14:16SPEAKER_04: Nice gamble.
- 14:18SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I was like, oh, turned out it happened.
- 14:20SPEAKER_04: So um when we tour, we play anywhere from like a thousand to two, three thousand seats on the road.
- 14:27SPEAKER_04: So we're very used to doing shows in big theatres all over the country and like I say, Canada and the world.
- 14:34SPEAKER_04: So we're and then when we're in Vegas, we've been in um the Piff the Magic Dragon Theatre, which is like a 200-seat showroom um in the flamingo, which is almost feels like a comedy club, which is great, because when you're in those rooms, you can do jokes every four seconds.
- 14:50SPEAKER_04: Um whereas in a bigger theatre everything has to play bigger, so we've we've got like the big piff set out, we've got the big screens out, the big tricks, and uh we're ready to do the the large, you know, the big large Piff the Magic Dragon show.
- 15:06SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah, so uh a ton of new tricks, a ton of um like just uh brand new material.
- 15:13SPEAKER_04: Mr.
- 15:13SPEAKER_04: Piffles has been uh working on some um some some uh killer stuff, and Jade will finally be able to do all a showgirl dancing all over the stage.
- 15:24SPEAKER_04: Because usually she's kind of like, you know, she takes three steps and she's fallen off the front.
- 15:28Dayna Roselli: Now she's got the whole thing.
- 15:29Dayna Roselli: Now she's got the whole thing.
- 15:30Dayna Roselli: Yeah, she's like, you know, she's on the stage at RuPaul's drag races.
- 15:33Dayna Roselli: Yeah, yeah.
- 15:34SPEAKER_04: So she's crazy about that show.
- 15:38SPEAKER_04: She's um watched that for every single season, she never misses an episode.
- 15:42SPEAKER_04: So I've sort of like watched it by proxy.
- 15:45SPEAKER_04: So it's great to be sharing a theater with them.
- 15:48Dayna Roselli: Now, will you incorporate uh like does the coronavirus come into the act?
- 15:51Dayna Roselli: I mean, because right now, like with these shows kicking up, like we haven't really had the chance to hear comedy about it or anything.
- 15:58SPEAKER_04: We'll do a little bit, but I'm gonna say it's just that thing of like I you know let's leave our troubles at the door.
- 16:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 16:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 16:05SPEAKER_04: You know, and and and this has been really you know, we've like this has been very hard.
- 16:10SPEAKER_04: We've had some successes over this period, but we've had a lot of uh it's been very, very hard for for all of us.
- 16:18SPEAKER_04: And so I can't imagine what some people have gone through with face like real tragedy and like and so this is again that's what we've seen on our virtual shows.
- 16:27SPEAKER_04: Uh being able to make people just laugh and forget that forget what's outside the door just for an hour uh is a big is a big thing right now.
- 16:36SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a feel feel good moment for sure.
- 16:38SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly, and everything's so divided as well at the moment.
- 16:41SPEAKER_04: And one of the things is like, hey, we all laugh at the same things.
- 16:45SPEAKER_04: So that's that's what I like about and we had it before the shutdown, you know, because it's been like that for a while, is that you get people who would never normally sit side by side, or in this case six feet apart, you know, they're they're sat with each other, they're all laughing at the same thing.
- 17:00SPEAKER_04: It's like, hey guys, maybe we just relax a bit.
- 17:03SPEAKER_04: It's nice to have a common denominator like that, isn't it?
- 17:05SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
- 17:06SPEAKER_04: Let's all unite against one common enemy, the dragon, you know.
- 17:12SPEAKER_04: You know, it's it's uh it's an allegory.
- 17:14SPEAKER_04: It's been uh dragons have been in many cultures for a long time.
- 17:19Dayna Roselli: I know.
- 17:19Dayna Roselli: It's nice to see you in a sweatshirt and shorts and chilling with us in the back room of the of the showroom.
- 17:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm in disguise right now.
- 17:25SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I love it.
- 17:26Dayna Roselli: I was like, who is that?
- 17:27Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 17:28Dayna Roselli: And then we've all got masks on, so that's always hard too.
- 17:30Dayna Roselli: Will you be wearing a mask on stage?
- 17:32SPEAKER_04: Uh there's there's these rules, like I say, somebody else is in charge of the rules, not me.
- 17:37SPEAKER_04: Uh there are all these times when I can wear a mask and when I can't wear a mask and the things you have to do.
- 17:42SPEAKER_04: So we'll yeah, we'll figure all that out and wear it when necessary.
- 17:47Sean McAllister: And add it into the choreography of the show.
- 17:49SPEAKER_04: Add it in and everything like that.
- 17:51SPEAKER_04: The only thing is, is that I found like I'm so sarcastic generally that um even without a mask, people don't aren't really sure when I'm joking or not.
- 18:01SPEAKER_04: But if you cover up half my face, it's a nightmare.
- 18:04SPEAKER_04: That's true.
- 18:04SPEAKER_04: So I'll save things to people and they're like, oh my god, and I'll be like, Well, I'm smiling, and then we're like, we can't see that.
- 18:12Dayna Roselli: So true though, without the facial expressions, and like you said, yeah, people aren't sure regardless.
- 18:17Dayna Roselli: How long have you been here now in Vegas?
- 18:19SPEAKER_04: I came here November 1st, 2013.
- 18:23SPEAKER_04: That was when I moved here for good, yeah.
- 18:25SPEAKER_03: Wow, time flies.
- 18:26SPEAKER_03: It really does.
- 18:27SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, so I did like Vegas Nocturne was um the first was like the first six months of 2014, and then I was out of work for a whole year.
- 18:37SPEAKER_04: And then that was uh during that period I was on America's Got Talent.
- 18:41SPEAKER_04: And then and the whole po the whole idea of that was to because Terry Faita at the time he had this billboard, the winner of you know, Terry Faita, the winner of America's Got Talent, and I was like, it would be really funny to have Piff the Magic Dragon, the loser of America's Got Talent.
- 18:55SPEAKER_04: And I was like, I think I'm gonna go on America's Got Talent, get to the finals, and then shoot Pipples out of a cannon, which I've been doing at um, you know, at at the Cosmopolitan, and I was like, I'm definitely gonna go down in flames if I do that, and then I can have my billboard.
- 19:08SPEAKER_04: So I did it, got to the finals, shot out of a cannon, went down in flames the next day, got the show at the flamingo, ordered the billboard.
- 19:15SPEAKER_04: Amazing, and it's been up there ever since.
- 19:17Sean McAllister: Amazing.
- 19:18Dayna Roselli: Life goals, right?
- 19:19Sean McAllister: Yeah, life goals, yeah.
- 19:20Sean McAllister: Coming up on Friday, people can start to get tickets to come and see you here at the Flamingo.
- 19:25Sean McAllister: Coming up this Friday, yeah.
- 19:26SPEAKER_04: They go on sale 9 a.m.
- 19:28SPEAKER_04: Pacific time and um come, you know, now's the time.
- 19:32SPEAKER_04: Vegas is open again.
- 19:34Dayna Roselli: Laugh again and and enjoy.
- 19:36Dayna Roselli: It's uh the show's at 7:30 p.m.
- 19:38Dayna Roselli: It starts October 29th at the Flamingo Showroom.
- 19:42Dayna Roselli: We're excited to have you back.
- 19:43Dayna Roselli: Thanks for joining us.
- 19:44SPEAKER_04: Thanks for having me.
- 19:45Dayna Roselli: And Mr.
- 19:45Dayna Roselli: Piffles, you have been a pleasure.
- 19:47Dayna Roselli: Just so calm and sweet and proper.
- 19:52Dayna Roselli: And proper.
- 19:52Dayna Roselli: I know Mr.
- 19:53Sean McAllister: Piffles doesn't is a is a man of few words.
- 19:56Sean McAllister: Yes, doesn't talk much.
- 19:57Sean McAllister: But so sweet.
- 19:58Sean McAllister: Uh, Piff the Magic Dragon, thank you so much.
- 20:00Sean McAllister: Always great to see you, and congratulations on on getting back on the stage and being part of the the charge to get entertainment back in Las Vegas.
- 20:08SPEAKER_04: Well, it's gotta restart somehow, hasn't it?
- 20:10Sean McAllister: So why not like this?
- 20:11Sean McAllister: Love it.
- 20:12Dayna Roselli: Yep, setting the trend.
- 20:14Dayna Roselli: All right, we're back right up.
- 20:20Dayna Roselli: Thanks for listening to Vegas Revealed.
- 20:22Dayna Roselli: Remember, you can always go to our website at VegasDash Revealed.com.
- 20:26Dayna Roselli: There we have tons of videos, content, ways you can listen, and also an email, ideas at vegasdashreveed.com.
- 20:34Dayna Roselli: You can throw us a note and let us know what you'd like us to talk about.
- 20:41Dayna Roselli: Welcome back, everyone.
- 20:43Dayna Roselli: All right, we want to talk about Sean's recent visit to the strip.
- 20:47Dayna Roselli: Uh, Sean, you were celebrating an anniversary and you actually stayed at a hotel for two nights.
- 20:51Dayna Roselli: I love this.
- 20:52Sean McAllister: Yeah, we stayed down at Bellaggio.
- 20:53Sean McAllister: This is the first time uh staying down on the strip since, you know, this whole quarantine and shutdown and COVID, all the all the craziness that's ensued since since March.
- 21:07Sean McAllister: And um it was an interesting experience.
- 21:11Sean McAllister: There was kind of a wide range of experiences down there.
- 21:15Sean McAllister: Things have changed a little bit.
- 21:16Dayna Roselli: Yeah, you were saying they've changed, and also there were some positives, and then there were some negatives.
- 21:22Dayna Roselli: So why don't we start with the positives?
- 21:25Dayna Roselli: But we're gonna get into the negatives, folks, because we we do want people to hear about this.
- 21:28Sean McAllister: Well, and you need to hear the the full story of what you know what it's like if you come to Las Vegas right now because it's not what it always has been, it's not the experience that you've probably known before.
- 21:41Sean McAllister: Um, on the positive, uh, so Bel Bellagio is where we stayed, and uh staying at Bellagio, they always do a great job.
- 21:51Sean McAllister: It's such a a nice property, they're very attentive and very clean.
- 21:58Sean McAllister: So that's always Great.
- 22:01Sean McAllister: Um, entertainment-wise, we did have dinner at uh Mayfair Supper Club, which is at Bellagio.
- 22:07Sean McAllister: Right.
- 22:08Sean McAllister: And one of the only places right now that there is live entertainment.
- 22:14Sean McAllister: There are, you know, some lounge shows that are starting to open up, but Mayfair Supper Club has been going since they were able to reopen.
- 22:24Sean McAllister: And um it's like a full show that goes on inside that restaurant while you eat.
- 22:30Sean McAllister: So uh that was that was a great thing too.
- 22:34Dayna Roselli: You were saying it's kind of cool because the performers did actually branch out into the audience, right?
- 22:39Dayna Roselli: But they then whipped their masks on so that they were safe, which was you said it kind of like a in a way a showy kind of function.
- 22:45Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 22:45Sean McAllister: So they had dancers that are a part of the show.
- 22:48Sean McAllister: They have their their main singers up on the stage, and even they had, you know, coordinating masks for their for their costumes.
- 22:56Sean McAllister: But the the dancers, they also had their coordinating masks, but it it was, it was kind of integrated into the choreography to have them put their mask back on before they left the stage and came back out and kind of work work around the room a little bit.
- 23:12Dayna Roselli: Well, and as we always say, reservations, reservations, reservations, because I know even you looked a week out and barely got in by the skinnier teeth.
- 23:19Dayna Roselli: There was like only like 5 p.m.
- 23:21Dayna Roselli: reservations available.
- 23:22Dayna Roselli: I have also tried to book there or uh Rose Rabbit Lie does offer some entertainment too at the Cosmopolitan, and that too books up.
- 23:30Dayna Roselli: Like you cannot get in if it's a week and a half ahead on open table.
- 23:34Dayna Roselli: So if you're coming and you want to go to any of these venues, book, book, book, book, book ahead.
- 23:38Sean McAllister: And make a reservation, even if you're not a hundred percent sure that you're going to go.
- 23:44Sean McAllister: It's always better to have a reservation and cancel it the day ahead of time than it is to, you know, get here and be stuck without a reservation.
- 23:53Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 23:54Dayna Roselli: And you also visited Italy.
- 23:56Dayna Roselli: Uh, you were gonna go see some entertainment at the Paris that didn't work out so well.
- 24:00Dayna Roselli: So what else?
- 24:01Dayna Roselli: Well, tell me a little about some other things.
- 24:02Sean McAllister: Yeah, so Park MGM is one of the uh relatively recently uh reopened resorts on the strip that's got uh Italy, the big Italian marketplace, on the front.
- 24:13Sean McAllister: First of all, with Park MGM, they've gone uh smoke-free.
- 24:17Sean McAllister: You're not allowed to smoke in there.
- 24:19Sean McAllister: I did see uh I think there were probably uh three or four people who I saw, you know, kind of lighten up SIGs here and there.
- 24:27Sean McAllister: Um, it didn't seem like they were being defiant, just like it was they just felt like it was common sense.
- 24:33Sean McAllister: Like, hey, a casino, you can smoke here.
- 24:35SPEAKER_03: They didn't know.
- 24:36Sean McAllister: So I think it's still kind of new.
- 24:37Sean McAllister: They do have signs around and they did have uh announcements uh that were you know gently reminding you that they are now a smoke-free property, but it does make a big difference when you're in there and there's no smoke, you're like, wow, this is like the cleanest casino air that I've ever breathed.
- 24:56Sean McAllister: Um and then going into Italy, which we are really excited to go back, it's one of our favorite places to go and eat and hang out.
- 25:05Sean McAllister: Um, but we were sad to see that it's not open at full capacity yet.
- 25:11Sean McAllister: Um there are little food stations.
- 25:13Sean McAllister: There's a meat station, a seafood station, a fresh pasta station, um, several different bars throughout.
- 25:21Sean McAllister: They only had one of those food stations that was open, and you kind of chose from a paired back menu um the items that you want, and they package it all up in a box, and then you go and you know, find a little table in that eatly area.
- 25:37Sean McAllister: Um so they're operating at the capacity that they can, but again, it was sad to see that it wasn't fully back to what you know we had become become known.
- 25:51Sean McAllister: Yeah, it's I guess it had become known for.
- 26:04Sean McAllister: Well, uh so our buddy Johnny Katz did a uh column a week or so ago about different lounge acts that were uh opening up in uh in different properties on the strip.
- 26:15Sean McAllister: Johnny Katz, a columnist for the Review Journal, the newspaper here in Las Vegas, and uh the little lounge at Paris was one of one that he mentioned.
- 26:25Sean McAllister: And so we went over there, we're like, oh, it could be cool to sit down, have a couple cocktails, watch some music.
- 26:30Sean McAllister: And there was a line uh to get into the little lounge, and it was there was a little stanchion that prevented you from going in, and a sign, please wait to be seated.
- 26:42Sean McAllister: And we stood there for at least five minutes, and there were people ahead of us, and nobody was attending to the line of people who were waiting to be seated.
- 26:53Sean McAllister: And there were open tables, and I have to imagine that they would only place tables in the showroom if they were able to be uh occupied.
- 27:05Sean McAllister: They wouldn't have extra tables in there.
- 27:07Dayna Roselli: Unless they wanted to show that they were going to have every other table set.
- 27:11Dayna Roselli: Maybe it's like a like a marker.
- 27:13Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I don't know.
- 27:14Dayna Roselli: Yeah, but it wasn't set up like that.
- 27:15Sean McAllister: Okay.
- 27:16Sean McAllister: Um so they were just kind of like ignoring the people who were waiting in line to get in, and I don't know.
- 27:24Sean McAllister: I feel like in some aspects service has kind of slipped a little.
- 27:29Dayna Roselli: I mean, I feel like it's everywhere, and I hate to say this in a negative way.
- 27:32Dayna Roselli: We were just talking about this.
- 27:33Dayna Roselli: Like, I know that it's difficult right now, and people are trying to get up and up and running with limited staff, you know, because they don't expect, you know, full capacity.
- 27:43Dayna Roselli: But it is hard too, because it's like, well, if you're gonna go out and and spend your money that you might be putting aside for maybe a night out or a dinner or even something, a casual dinner, you want to have a good experience too.
- 27:54Dayna Roselli: So it's just hasn't been the best all around, service-wise.
- 27:57Sean McAllister: No, it hasn't.
- 27:58Sean McAllister: So we ended up uh staying over there.
- 28:00Sean McAllister: We gambled a little bit over at Paris, and then we just kind of we were like, you know what, let's go back to Bellagio.
- 28:07Sean McAllister: It's you know, closer, closer to where we're gonna be sleeping.
- 28:10Dayna Roselli: Exactly.
- 28:10Dayna Roselli: You can roll it, you know, have the cocktails just roll over and roll into bed.
- 28:15Sean McAllister: But one of the great things at Bellagio, which I I don't know if people realize that um you might hear some piano music as you're walking through, but the the bar that's just off the lobby there at Bellagio, that's kind of like a hidden gem.
- 28:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's it called?
- 28:31Dayna Roselli: It begins with a P.
- 28:32Sean McAllister: It's the Petrosian bar, so it's just off of the lobby.
- 28:36Sean McAllister: And uh one the coolest thing about that is that they do have a big grand piano that's right in the middle of the the bar area there.
- 28:45Sean McAllister: And the piano player, his name is David Osborne, and if you look him up, he's known as the presidential piano player.
- 28:53Sean McAllister: He's played for just about every president, I think dating back to Jimmy Carter.
- 28:58Sean McAllister: And I uh recently before the um whole COVID situation, I think they had a a little reunion.
- 29:05SPEAKER_03: Okay.
- 29:06Sean McAllister: They uh they met up somewhere, but um, yeah, I mean, David Osborne is a an incredible pianist, and he's played at the White House several times, but you can see him on a regular basis right there at the Petrosian bar at the Bellagio.
- 29:22Sean McAllister: So that's where we we sat down for a little bit, had some, you know, some of the little snacks, had a couple cocktails, and and that was that was nice and relaxing.
- 29:30Dayna Roselli: Yeah, that's awesome.
- 29:32Dayna Roselli: Um, okay, let's move to the negative.
- 29:34Dayna Roselli: Um, just because uh so many people have reached out to us, even on social media, saying, when are you guys gonna talk about all this stuff that's going on, the violence on the strip and this and that?
- 29:42Dayna Roselli: I'm like, well, we need to get out there and see for ourselves what it's like.
- 29:46Dayna Roselli: Um, over the last month, I've definitely gone to the strip many times.
- 29:49Dayna Roselli: However, I usually pull in, park, go into the resort that I need to go in.
- 29:54Dayna Roselli: And so I don't do a lot of walking.
- 29:55Dayna Roselli: If I sat on a patio and I did observe, I definitely noticed the crowds are a bit different.
- 30:00Dayna Roselli: There's more scooters.
- 30:02Dayna Roselli: We've talked about that.
- 30:03Dayna Roselli: Um, and I do see more police presence more recently, like when I was at the win, maybe like three weeks weeks ago, three weekends ago, my friend was visiting.
- 30:12Dayna Roselli: I did see, I believe it was metro officers, you know, patrolling the floors of the casino.
- 30:17Dayna Roselli: So did make me feel a little bit better, but you can also tell they're needing to step up their security.
- 30:21Dayna Roselli: So, and you had an experience because you really walked the strip for a while.
- 30:26Sean McAllister: Yeah, we went from Bellagio and we walked down to uh Park MGM to Italy.
- 30:32Sean McAllister: And so from Bellagio to Park MGM, that's a that's a good stretch right there.
- 30:37Sean McAllister: You have to cross through, you know, Aria, the crystals shops, um, and then get over to Italy.
- 30:44Sean McAllister: So that's a a good chunk of the strip.
- 30:47Sean McAllister: Um, walking down there to Park MGM, we kind of walked through the different properties because everything is kind of interconnected there.
- 30:56Sean McAllister: Uh so that was fine.
- 30:58Sean McAllister: That was that was cool, and we got to Park MGM.
- 31:01Sean McAllister: Um walking back though, we crossed the strip over to the side where um Planet Hollywood and Paris is, uh, because that's where we're ending up.
- 31:12Sean McAllister: So we crossed the strip and walked that entire way from essentially uh Tropicana up to um you know Harmon Flamingo area, and it it was just it was a different experience.
- 31:30Sean McAllister: There were a lot of people in their groups that you know, they obviously groups of people who came together, th they weren't necessarily even seeming like they had a destination.
- 31:42Sean McAllister: They would have a cooler and just be kind of like pulled up on a section of sidewalk, and that's where they were gonna hang out for the night.
- 31:51SPEAKER_03: That's it.
- 31:52Sean McAllister: Which is which is just weird and it's a little uncomfortable too when you're trying to be a pedestrian and party.
- 32:00Sean McAllister: Yeah, a group of people who have kind of claimed that section of of sidewalk.
- 32:05Sean McAllister: Um and you know, if you've come to Las Vegas before, that's not something that is common.
- 32:11Sean McAllister: There are street performers, certainly, but but not groups of people who just have decide that that's you know their jam for the night.
- 32:20Sean McAllister: Right.
- 32:20Sean McAllister: Um so that was a a little kind of off-putting, I would say, plus the scooters, as you mentioned.
- 32:27Sean McAllister: And then as we got up in front of Planet Hollywood, we heard uh uh this running, like heavy, heavy running coming up behind us, and it was two security guards.
- 32:36Sean McAllister: They they sprinted past us, and as we walked a little further in front of Planet Hollywood, they were breaking up a fight.
- 32:45Sean McAllister: And it it seemed to be uh really kind of nasty.
- 32:49Sean McAllister: We heard the the yelling, we saw the commotion going on and the security guards pulling people apart.
- 32:55Sean McAllister: And we had actually, given the instances that have happened on the strip, you know, over the past several weeks, we kind of ducked behind a big column and we were like, let's just wait wait it out here until everything is cleared up, because you know, you never know if the if any violence is going to spill out or or erupt into something bigger.
- 33:20Sean McAllister: So we kind of ducked and waited for people to be hauled away.
- 33:24Sean McAllister: But that it was a little unnerving.
- 33:26Dayna Roselli: Yeah, and you were saying uh the cosmopolitan's limited.
- 33:28Dayna Roselli: I I think it's just the weekends now.
- 33:30Dayna Roselli: If you are not a hotel guest or don't have a h restaurant reservation, you can't go in the hotel after what 6 p.m.
- 33:36Dayna Roselli: They're trying to you know clean it up, and so but you were saying outside of the cosmopolitan that was confusing too for people that were gathering and trying to get in and didn't know, and then that caused kind of a ruckus.
- 33:48Sean McAllister: There were uh lots of people who were uh clearly planning on going into cosmopolitan who were not staying there and didn't have reservations, and it wasn't until they saw the sign at the door and the security guards who were turning people away, and this was the the first weekend that they were really enforcing uh this new policy.
- 34:08Sean McAllister: Um, it really caused a backlog of people on the pedestrian overpasses, the bridges that kind of connect the sidewalks um on the either side of Las Vegas Boulevard, and even you know, down on the uh street level on the sidewalks, it really caused big backups, big groups of people who weren't happy that they were being turned away because they wanted to go inside of Cosmopolitan and they couldn't.
- 34:36Sean McAllister: Um, but like kind of being in that situation too was a little like, oh, what's what's gonna happen here?
- 34:44Dayna Roselli: Yeah, right, yeah.
- 34:44Sean McAllister: You know what I've not had that, I mean, living here for for 15 years, I've not had that kind of feeling and atmosphere walking up and down the strip.
- 34:55Sean McAllister: I've been on the strip countless times, and I've not really had that feeling of just being unsure.
- 35:03Sean McAllister: Yes, you know what I mean?
- 35:05Dayna Roselli: No, I think I think when we hear it and people say, Oh, and you're kind of like, oh, they're exaggerating.
- 35:09Dayna Roselli: I'm sure it's not that bad.
- 35:11Dayna Roselli: And then you go see it for yourself, and I felt the same way, and it's like, wow, it is different.
- 35:16Dayna Roselli: It's not, it is a little, you're a little uneasy, and you just don't kind of know, but but we don't want that to be that I I'm so worried, and obviously this is cause for concern for everyone that is concerned about these issues that you see on social media or visitors or whatever, but like we don't want that to be what people take away from our city if they're visiting and then they don't return.
- 35:36Dayna Roselli: So we gotta fix it.
- 35:37Dayna Roselli: And I know that they have put more of a police presence out there, they're doing even bag checks on the weekends at some resorts and they're trying their best, but I don't know.
- 35:46Dayna Roselli: I hope we can change it.
- 35:47Sean McAllister: Yeah, and I know that that you know there have been people who have suggested that that upping the room rates is something that will, you know, that could alleviate, you know, whatever is happening.
- 36:03Sean McAllister: I don't know that that's necessarily the answer to it.
- 36:08Dayna Roselli: Um is it people who I don't know it's taken in unemployment and haven't spent money and uh maybe they're from I'm just putt throwing it out there, uh Los Angeles where nothing indoors is open and they're over it and they want to get out and they're like, well, let's use some of this pocket money that we we've had and haven't spent and get away for the weekend.
- 36:30Dayna Roselli: And I don't know.
- 36:31Dayna Roselli: I don't know.
- 36:32Dayna Roselli: I don't know.
- 36:32Dayna Roselli: And then I've heard things about Raiders fans coming from Oakland, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know.
- 36:38Dayna Roselli: I mean, I don't want to stereotype or or put any categories out there.
- 36:42Dayna Roselli: We just know that people are coming here, they're not behaving like they normally do, whoever you are, yes, whoever it is.
- 36:48Dayna Roselli: It's something that's it feels off and we don't like it.
- 36:52Dayna Roselli: I'm seeing um some of those pedestrian bridges that are having uh spray paint on them more.
- 36:57Dayna Roselli: We never really saw that or it was cleaned up right away, but it seems like they can't kind of catch up.
- 37:02Dayna Roselli: So we need to keep the positive vibe going.
- 37:07Dayna Roselli: For the most part, like you, when I'm inside a resort, I've had a positive experience.
- 37:11Sean McAllister: So being uh on property at a resort, I've not had any of the uh any concerns whatsoever.
- 37:20SPEAKER_01: Um did the strip seem busy?
- 37:23SPEAKER_01: Like was it like felt like the old day?
- 37:25SPEAKER_01: Like was it that busy interesting?
- 37:28Sean McAllister: I mean the vehicle traffic was back to old, like pre- Oh, it was absolutely packed.
- 37:35Sean McAllister: Like, you know how it would be so busy that the intersections would be clogged with people who are trying to turn on to Las Vegas Boulevard from a side street, and they would try and uh get out into the intersection before the light turned red, but it was causing uh a traffic jam because they got out there, the light turned red, then traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard couldn't go because the side street traffic was sitting there trying to move.
- 38:02Sean McAllister: So it was it was absolutely packed, and there were a lot of people.
- 38:07Dayna Roselli: Okay.
- 38:08Dayna Roselli: I guess that's good.
- 38:10Dayna Roselli: I don't know, it's good bad, you know.
- 38:11Dayna Roselli: We we need we need people who to do exactly that, and just we just need everyone to behave and enjoy themselves.
- 38:18Sean McAllister: We want visitors to feel safe and have an enjoyable time while they're here.
- 38:23Dayna Roselli: For sure, for sure.
- 38:25Dayna Roselli: Um, we do have, like we mentioned, you know, great conversation we had with Piff, and we have shows, you know, uh slowly opening back up and we need to focus on getting things a little bit more back to normal and and I hope that it will.
- 38:37Dayna Roselli: But you had a good weekend anyway.
- 38:39Sean McAllister: It was a great weekend.
- 38:40Sean McAllister: We had a great anniversary, so so uh all in all, it was great.
- 38:45Sean McAllister: Yes, very memorable.
- 38:46Sean McAllister: Oh my gosh.
- 38:48Dayna Roselli: All right.
- 38:48Dayna Roselli: Well, you know, next week we're gonna talk a little bit about Halloween.
- 38:51Dayna Roselli: So if anyone has uh stories they want to share or haunted places in Vegas, throw us a social media tweet or an Instagram message or email us at ideas at vegashreve.com.
- 39:03Dayna Roselli: We want to hear.
- 39:04Sean McAllister: And we will uh be back with those stories next week.
- 39:07Sean McAllister: Thanks for tuning in to us.
- 39:10SPEAKER_01: Great week, everyone.