Latest / Vegas Revealed / New Las Vegas Shows including Zayn and Jelly Roll, Candid Interview with Longtime Vegas Headliner Frank Marino | Ep. 290
Transcript
- 0:00Dayna Roselli: It's episode 290 of Vegas Revealed.
- 0:02Dayna Roselli: We have Las Vegas residency news, and we're talking comedy and music this time.
- 0:08Sean McAllister: Plus, we sit down with longtime Las Vegas headliner Frank Marino.
- 0:12Sean McAllister: He's a female impersonator best known for portraying comedian Joan Rivers.
- 0:17Sean McAllister: Frank also just celebrated 40 years in Vegas.
- 0:21Sean McAllister: It's a great, wide-ranging conversation.
- 0:24Dayna Roselli: Yeah, can't wait to share that.
- 0:25Dayna Roselli: And the Sopranos actor that used to work in Las Vegas for years and years shares his take on Vegas today.
- 0:32Sean McAllister: Plus, Jelly Roll helping to bring in the new year, Vegas style.
- 0:37Dayna Roselli: All that more coming up on Vegas Revealed.
- 0:40SPEAKER_02: Vegas Revealed, presented by Galindo Law, starts now.
- 0:45Dayna Roselli: Welcome to Vegas Revealed, episode 290.
- 0:48Dayna Roselli: Dana Roselli and Sean McAllister here.
- 0:50Dayna Roselli: And just when we thought we had nothing to talk about, we started listing off a bunch of new shows that are coming to town.
- 0:56Dayna Roselli: A wide variety, I must say, of residencies and one-offs.
- 1:00Sean McAllister: Yeah, it really is.
- 1:01Sean McAllister: It's interesting.
- 1:02Sean McAllister: And I think one of the um one of the recent residency announcements that came out caught a lot of people by surprise because Zane Malik from One Direction uh is doing a run of shows over at Dolby Live in 2026.
- 1:20Dayna Roselli: Now, yeah, I had to ask you because I feel like One Direction is a little off my like my era.
- 1:28Dayna Roselli: You know what I mean?
- 1:29Dayna Roselli: Like you know what I'm talking about.
- 1:30Dayna Roselli: So I was like, I and but when I saw Zayn, I was like, wait, I knew the name from One Direction.
- 1:35Dayna Roselli: I was like, Zayn from One Direction, and then you were like, Yeah, that's him.
- 1:38Dayna Roselli: Um, and I didn't know that he had done like a lot of stuff solo.
- 1:43Sean McAllister: Yeah, well, he hasn't done a ton.
- 1:46Sean McAllister: So it was back in 2015 when One Direction kind of broke up, and it had been a while.
- 1:54Sean McAllister: Uh Zane kind of stayed away from the stage for a while, and he cited a lot of anxiety and um issues like that that kept him away from the stage until recently he went out on a solo tour.
- 2:06Sean McAllister: It was called the Stairway to the Sky Tour, and that was kind of like his big comeback.
- 2:12Sean McAllister: So uh this residency kind of uh follows off the success of his uh solo tour.
- 2:18Dayna Roselli: Okay.
- 2:18Dayna Roselli: Oh, yeah, because now I'm seeing he's set for this 2026 residency, and it's a highly anticipated return to the stage with his first ever residency in Las Vegas at Dolby Live Park MGM.
- 2:32Dayna Roselli: So this is a big deal.
- 2:33Dayna Roselli: I bet a lot of people are excited about this, and these tickets are gonna go quick.
- 2:38Dayna Roselli: They are on sale now, and let's see, you know, it's funny too, because uh like now we're getting all the 2026 residency news.
- 2:46Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 2:46Dayna Roselli: It almost feels weird, but everything we're now.
- 2:49Sean McAllister: Because it doesn't it doesn't feel like we're at the end of 2025, even though unfortunately we are.
- 2:56Dayna Roselli: But the residency uh will be uh, let's see, seven nights long, January 20th through the 31st of 2026.
- 3:03Dayna Roselli: So, really right at the beginning of the year.
- 3:05Dayna Roselli: So that'll be great uh for all the Zane fans, the One Direction fans.
- 3:10Dayna Roselli: I'm sure that he'll do well.
- 3:11Dayna Roselli: And then you never know, he might extend.
- 3:14Sean McAllister: Yeah, and by the way, I just saw uh that Harry Styles ran a marathon in Germany.
- 3:20Dayna Roselli: I saw that too.
- 3:21Sean McAllister: And I was like, oh wow, yeah, good on Harry.
- 3:24Dayna Roselli: He's out living his best life.
- 3:25Sean McAllister: That's what he does to fit into those one piece jumpsuits.
- 3:29Dayna Roselli: Yeah, definitely.
- 3:30Dayna Roselli: We need uh Harry to return to the stage.
- 3:33Sean McAllister: Oh my gosh.
- 3:33Sean McAllister: We we need Harry to pop up and do something with Zane and then announce his own show.
- 3:39Sean McAllister: Ooh, I could see Harry's styles at Sphere, though.
- 3:42Dayna Roselli: Yeah, that's been talked about for a long time.
- 3:45Dayna Roselli: We actually thought it was happening and then it never did, but maybe it will.
- 3:50Sean McAllister: I would like it to happen.
- 3:51Sean McAllister: That would be great.
- 3:52Dayna Roselli: He's taking some sort of break or whatever, but but for the time it's all about Zane.
- 3:55Dayna Roselli: Yes, I know.
- 3:56Dayna Roselli: We don't wanna we don't wanna pivot.
- 3:58Dayna Roselli: Don't get mad.
- 3:59Dayna Roselli: Um, okay, so Zane is coming to Park MGM.
- 4:01Dayna Roselli: That's exciting.
- 4:02Dayna Roselli: I think that'll be a good show, and so many people will want to see what he does.
- 4:06Dayna Roselli: You know who else is coming in for one night and one night only?
- 4:11Dayna Roselli: Jelly roll.
- 4:12Dayna Roselli: And I just love saying jelly roll.
- 4:15Dayna Roselli: Do you?
- 4:15Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I don't know why, because it makes me giggle.
- 4:18Dayna Roselli: I don't know why, but I always feel like it's either like a dance, like let's do the jelly roll.
- 4:24Dayna Roselli: Or I used to love the white powdered jelly donut when I was young.
- 4:28Sean McAllister: Oh my god.
- 4:29Dayna Roselli: So I think about jelly, but anyway, jelly roll is fantastic.
- 4:33Dayna Roselli: So many people love him, and he's ringing in the new year in Las Vegas.
- 4:36Sean McAllister: Do you know what I always think of?
- 4:38Dayna Roselli: What?
- 4:38Sean McAllister: In my head, every time I hear jelly roll, see, let me see your jelly roll.
- 4:43Dayna Roselli: Right, that's what I'm saying.
- 4:45Dayna Roselli: See, that's a dance.
- 4:47Dayna Roselli: I'm not the only one.
- 4:49Dayna Roselli: That's what I think of, like a dance.
- 4:52Dayna Roselli: And then you see and you hear jelly roll, you're like, okay, I'm totally off.
- 4:56Sean McAllister: But yeah, jelly roll is not anything like the songs that we're playing in our head.
- 5:00Sean McAllister: Obviously, he's a rapper and singer.
- 5:02Sean McAllister: Um, Grammy nominated, award-winning.
- 5:06Sean McAllister: Uh, he's going to play the Cosmopolitan, uh, the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan on New Year's Eve.
- 5:14Dayna Roselli: Yeah, that'll be good.
- 5:15Sean McAllister: This year.
- 5:16Sean McAllister: Um, this is presented by Odyssey, who's been a longtime supporter of Jelly Roll's career.
- 5:22Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 5:24Dayna Roselli: I mean, I think this is going to be a popular place to be on New Year's Eve for sure.
- 5:28Dayna Roselli: It is.
- 5:28Dayna Roselli: Uh he has so many fans, and this is a one-off.
- 5:30Dayna Roselli: So, and it's an intimate experience uh there in the Chelsea.
- 5:33Dayna Roselli: Chelsea's big, but it's not huge.
- 5:35Sean McAllister: It is.
- 5:36Sean McAllister: And you know what?
- 5:37Sean McAllister: We've seen in the past uh there have been several uh uh entertainers who have done one-off New Year's Eve performances and then come back to Vegas to announce a residency.
- 5:50Sean McAllister: It's like a test waters.
- 5:52Sean McAllister: Yes, it's like a proving ground on New Year's Eve.
- 5:56Sean McAllister: Right.
- 5:56Sean McAllister: So I think Jennifer Lopez did that.
- 5:59Sean McAllister: Uh we've had many others that have done it too.
- 6:03Dayna Roselli: Oh yeah, J Lo, she's coming.
- 6:05Sean McAllister: Yeah, I forgot about that.
- 6:06Dayna Roselli: She announced it at the uh music awards there.
- 6:09Dayna Roselli: When does that start?
- 6:10Dayna Roselli: That starts.
- 6:11Dayna Roselli: Look at us on the fly.
- 6:13Sean McAllister: Not soon enough because Jennifer Lopez.
- 6:16Dayna Roselli: I think it is um is a great show.
- 6:19Dayna Roselli: Thanksgiving time.
- 6:22Dayna Roselli: No, holiday time.
- 6:24Dayna Roselli: Well, Thanksgiving is a holiday.
- 6:27Dayna Roselli: Or January.
- 6:29Sean McAllister: Or uh December 30th and 31st, January 2 and 3.
- 6:34Sean McAllister: So she's the end of the year.
- 6:35Dayna Roselli: Okay, so she's ringing in New Year's too.
- 6:37Dayna Roselli: So it'll be Jelly Roll ringing in New Year, down at Cosmopolitan, J Lo at the Coliseum.
- 6:44Dayna Roselli: Durand Duran is over at Fountain Blue that week.
- 6:48Dayna Roselli: I don't know if it's New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, maybe.
- 6:50Dayna Roselli: Uh Bruno, Tark MGM.
- 6:55Dayna Roselli: And we talked about someone else recently.
- 6:57Sean McAllister: There is somebody else.
- 6:59Dayna Roselli: Is Mariah Carey doing New Year's Eve with her Christmas show?
- 7:01Dayna Roselli: I don't remember.
- 7:02Dayna Roselli: No, she raps.
- 7:03Dayna Roselli: She can't be because Bruno's in there.
- 7:04Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 7:05Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
- 7:06Dayna Roselli: Um, okay, well, there's a lot of different uh New Year's Eve shows.
- 7:09Sean McAllister: At any rate, J Lo uh comes back and does performances in March as well.
- 7:15Dayna Roselli: So is it J Lo and J Row?
- 7:19Dayna Roselli: No.
- 7:22Sean McAllister: I don't think that's gonna stick.
- 7:23Dayna Roselli: Jelly Roll, J-Row.
- 7:25Dayna Roselli: No?
- 7:26Dayna Roselli: J-Ro over at the Cosmo, J Lo over at the Caesar's Gallus.
- 7:33Dayna Roselli: Oh my, we are gonna see.
- 7:34Dayna Roselli: I turned 50 and I've already turned into total cheese ball jokes.
- 7:39Dayna Roselli: This is why they call them dad jokes.
- 7:42Dayna Roselli: Because it's like the dumbest jokes that don't really work, but they kind of make you giggle.
- 7:49Dayna Roselli: All right.
- 7:50Dayna Roselli: Well, moving on.
- 7:54Dayna Roselli: What else are we doing?
- 7:55Dayna Roselli: Oh, Nikki Glacier and David Spade come into the cause Coliseum at Caesar's Palace.
- 8:00Dayna Roselli: They've been doing their show over at the Venetian, and I don't know if I was surprised by this, but I thought, huh.
- 8:06Dayna Roselli: I don't I kind of was when I got the press release.
- 8:08Sean McAllister: Well, I was entertained by um how they were dressed.
- 8:12Sean McAllister: They were dressed as like Cleopatra and Caesar in the poster for these shows.
- 8:19Dayna Roselli: And we had asked Nikki, we recently saw her at the music awards that were held at the Fountain Blue.
- 8:26Dayna Roselli: American Music Awards?
- 8:27Sean McAllister: American Music Awards, yeah.
- 8:28Dayna Roselli: Um, if she liked, you know, playing Vegas and she was saying she loves it, and she loves being able to do it side by side with uh David Spade, who she's such a huge fan of and has become a friend, obviously.
- 8:40Dayna Roselli: And so now to hear they're doing this residency makes sense.
- 8:43Dayna Roselli: And yeah, their their poster is very entertaining.
- 8:46Dayna Roselli: It's cute.
- 8:47Dayna Roselli: They're funny.
- 8:48Dayna Roselli: Uh really, this is this'll be good.
- 8:50Dayna Roselli: Uh January 16th and 17th, May 22nd and 23rd, and September 4th and 5th.
- 8:57Sean McAllister: And these are all uh long weekends.
- 9:00Sean McAllister: So there's Martin Luther King Day weekend in January, Memorial Day weekend in May, and Labor Day in September that they're going to be here.
- 9:09Sean McAllister: Because that's usually when we get a lot of people in town.
- 9:11Dayna Roselli: Yeah, I've seen them, they're great.
- 9:13Dayna Roselli: I don't know if they'll do this residency um the same as the shows that they did at the Venetian, but when they did do that, just so you know, David comes out and does a set, and then Nikki comes out and does a set.
- 9:23Dayna Roselli: So they kind of do it separate.
- 9:24Dayna Roselli: I think a lot of people think maybe they're coming out together.
- 9:27Dayna Roselli: It's not like that, but maybe they'll change it up for this.
- 9:29Dayna Roselli: I don't know.
- 9:30Dayna Roselli: But um, it's so funny.
- 9:32Dayna Roselli: It's like, and they're two different styles of comedy, which makes it great because you're really getting a well-rounded night.
- 9:38Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 9:39Sean McAllister: You know what I mean?
- 9:39Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 9:40Sean McAllister: So you know what?
- 9:41Sean McAllister: We've listened to uh the interview with Nikki Glazer before.
- 9:45Sean McAllister: Should we revisit that?
- 9:46Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 9:47Sean McAllister: Let's do it.
- 9:48SPEAKER_03: Are you enjoying doing Vegas here?
- 9:50SPEAKER_03: I love it.
- 9:50SPEAKER_03: I love Vegas.
- 9:51SPEAKER_03: It's just like everything is just outside your door.
- 9:53SPEAKER_03: There's tons of people.
- 9:54SPEAKER_03: It feels like kind of New York City in terms of like how crowded it is.
- 9:57SPEAKER_03: But everything is air conditioned, it's nice, and um, and the shows are so fun because I'm doing them with my friend David Smade.
- 10:03SPEAKER_03: And usually I do shows alone, so when I get to like go on stage, perform, and then I get to go watch my favorite comedian perform.
- 10:09SPEAKER_03: And it's so fun.
- 10:10SPEAKER_03: Do you think Vegas is a town?
- 10:11SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, there has to be a lot of jokes here.
- 10:13SPEAKER_03: Like things you see.
- 10:15SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, there's it's just like whatever's happening at the sphere is kind of taking over the town.
- 10:20SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm I'm usually here during, you know, when the den are in town, some it looks like the walking town, you know, it's like there's a lot of patrolling and and weed smell coursing through the casinos, but yeah, I mean, this place is insane.
- 10:33SPEAKER_03: There's nothing like it.
- 10:34SPEAKER_03: It's dry.
- 10:35SPEAKER_03: I wake up coughing in the night, like that scene in that movie seven.
- 10:39SPEAKER_03: Like I'm choking every night.
- 10:40SPEAKER_03: I have to get a humidifier next time I come to town.
- 10:42SPEAKER_03: It's so dry here.
- 10:42Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it is dry.
- 10:44SPEAKER_03: You have age a couple of years after I'm here.
- 10:46SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, you look good.
- 10:48Dayna Roselli: And Nikki is a huge Taylor Swift fan.
- 10:52Dayna Roselli: She is.
- 10:52Dayna Roselli: She went to like, I don't even know what she said, 14, 18 shows, something like 13 shows.
- 10:57Dayna Roselli: Anyway, um, speaking of Taylor Swift, her album is coming out, and her weekend of well, her big event, the the movie.
- 11:06Dayna Roselli: Um now, this is dropping, and then if you listen to this after when it's already out, but just noted we have loved the the life of a showgirl theme because we feel like it's very Vegas-esque.
- 11:18Dayna Roselli: So we are excited to see what she does with this.
- 11:21Dayna Roselli: But so far, the pictures on the album and the showgirl outfits, I mean, we love a good Vegas tie-in.
- 11:28Sean McAllister: We love a good Vegas tie-in, and I think it's gonna be exciting to see what uh Taylor does in this uh album release movie event.
- 11:40Dayna Roselli: Yeah, me too.
- 11:41Dayna Roselli: I'll be there.
- 11:42Dayna Roselli: I'm buying tickets uh for October 3rd.
- 11:45Sean McAllister: Okay.
- 11:45Dayna Roselli: I'm going to f the Friday night.
- 11:47Dayna Roselli: I notice there are still a few places I can get tickets, so I was just checking with a friend, and I think her daughter's gonna come.
- 11:52Dayna Roselli: But um I'm excited to see it.
- 11:55Dayna Roselli: And yeah, I mean, I know that she had said that she did a lot of when I went to the show in Vancouver, they were doing a lot of filming.
- 12:02Dayna Roselli: And that was the last weekend of her shows of the Eros Tour.
- 12:05Dayna Roselli: And so um we kind of thought, I mean, I know they film big shows and re regardless for them, but it just felt a little bigger.
- 12:14Dayna Roselli: Do you know what I mean?
- 12:15Dayna Roselli: Like there was a lot going on, and I feel like a lot of that will be or parts of it will be in the release movie.
- 12:23Dayna Roselli: Um, she does say that the album was recorded during this whole Eras tour.
- 12:29Dayna Roselli: So it'll be interesting to see what she does.
- 12:31Dayna Roselli: There's always some surprises.
- 12:32Sean McAllister: When I believe that I saw something that she was going to um go through a bunch of the different showgirl looks that she's you know put out on the artwork so far, and that they're uh she'll incorporate some lyric videos uh into the experience.
- 12:49Sean McAllister: Plus, you know, she'll be talking about you know the st stories behind the music.
- 12:55Sean McAllister: So that will that'll be a great uh that'll be a great uh cinematic event that coincides with the album release.
- 13:03Dayna Roselli: And it's supposed to be an upbeat album, so it should be good.
- 13:05Sean McAllister: Um all about Travis Kelsey.
- 13:08Dayna Roselli: I guess.
- 13:09Dayna Roselli: Well, and I I mean, I don't know.
- 13:10Dayna Roselli: It's so exciting because you know, the albums that I love were the slow I I really like some of the slower albums, but I love her lyrics and everything.
- 13:19Dayna Roselli: They use a lot of her songs in the popular show The Summer I Turn Pretty.
- 13:24Dayna Roselli: And um, everyone kept asking the creator of that show, the series, the book, and then the series, um, how did you get all Taylor's songs in your show?
- 13:35Dayna Roselli: And she's kind of beaten around the bush in all the interviews.
- 13:38Dayna Roselli: She's like, Oh, I'm just so happy to have them.
- 13:40Dayna Roselli: I'm just so excited that I was able to use them.
- 13:42Dayna Roselli: But she won't say like everyone keeps asking her like the cost, and like, because literally there are like two at least Taylor Swift songs in almost every episode.
- 13:52Dayna Roselli: Oh, really?
- 13:53Dayna Roselli: It's it's throughout the entire series.
- 13:55SPEAKER_05: Oh, wow.
- 13:56Dayna Roselli: So everyone was dying of what she was gonna use in the final, you know, the finale, and she used uh the dress, the song the dress, and out of the woods.
- 14:04Dayna Roselli: But um, so it's been this whole thing.
- 14:07Dayna Roselli: But anyway, that whole story, the trials and tribulations of love, the ups and downs, the breakups, the get togethers, the tugs, the family, you know, all of it um has kind of been told through this popular television show that most people were watching.
- 14:23Dayna Roselli: A lot of people recently, it's kind of gone viral.
- 14:26Dayna Roselli: And now it'll be interesting that she's gonna release this album and we know she's in a good place now that she's engaged, and it's gonna be upbeat.
- 14:33Dayna Roselli: So we're gonna see this turn.
- 14:35Sean McAllister: But this music doesn't even account for the time in Taylor's life when she got engaged.
- 14:40Sean McAllister: So that's like a whole other album down the road.
- 14:43Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 14:45Dayna Roselli: But you know what?
- 14:46Dayna Roselli: Taylor Swift can like, I feel like she can do an insert or do a separate draw.
- 14:51Dayna Roselli: You know what I mean?
- 14:52Dayna Roselli: She might say, because she already said I'm only releasing these this this album, only these songs, there's no hidden things coming.
- 15:00Dayna Roselli: But she might be like, Well, I said blah, blah, blah, and then she'll twist the words.
- 15:03Dayna Roselli: Or I don't know, there could be an engagement song coming out.
- 15:06Dayna Roselli: But yes, we may have to wait for that, which is great because then it makes people wait and anticipate.
- 15:10Sean McAllister: See, that'll probably come out around their wedding time.
- 15:12Dayna Roselli: Yeah, let's see.
- 15:15Dayna Roselli: So it'll be good.
- 15:16Dayna Roselli: Um, we'll keep you posted on all that um and see if there are any Vegas tie-ins.
- 15:20Dayna Roselli: A lot of people talk about her playing the sphere someday, so I don't know.
- 15:23Sean McAllister: Very true.
- 15:23Dayna Roselli: Or maybe having a showgirl show or maybe a one-off, or who knows?
- 15:28Dayna Roselli: You know, she could do more tie-in with Las Vegas than we think.
- 15:31Dayna Roselli: We don't know.
- 15:32Sean McAllister: Well, we can hope.
- 15:33Sean McAllister: We can only hope.
- 15:34Dayna Roselli: Well, speaking of tie-ins, we recently interviewed actor Steve Sharippa at the Wizard of Oz World premiere and learned, by the way, popular actor from The Sopranos.
- 15:45Dayna Roselli: He's gonna be in the new Hallmark Bill's love story movie, he told us.
- 15:49Sean McAllister: He is.
- 15:49Sean McAllister: I'm excited to see that.
- 15:51Dayna Roselli: And a lot of other things, but we didn't know that he had actually lived and worked in Vegas for years and years and years.
- 15:56Dayna Roselli: Wasn't that interesting to learn?
- 15:58Sean McAllister: It was, and to hear the uh different roles that he played uh in real life at a classic Las Vegas strip property.
- 16:08Sean McAllister: Um, uh take a listen to the conversation that happened over there at the Sphere and Steve Sharippa's long Las Vegas connections.
- 16:17SPEAKER_00: I worked at the Riviera, I started acting, uh, started getting bit parts as I was blah, blah, blah.
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: Went to New York for an audition, and I moved back to New York.
- 16:26SPEAKER_00: But I lived there for a long time.
- 16:27SPEAKER_00: I liked it here very much.
- 16:29Dayna Roselli: Do you love what do you think of all the changes in Vegas?
- 16:31SPEAKER_00: I wish Vegas nothing but the best.
- 16:33SPEAKER_00: It was very good to me, but it certainly is different.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: I haven't been back in a while.
- 16:38SPEAKER_00: A lot of concrete, big, massive, used to be small, 350,000 people, but I'm sure before me it was even better.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: So things evolve, right?
- 16:47Dayna Roselli: Listen, I appreciate Steve's honesty there.
- 16:50Dayna Roselli: You know, a lot of people don't like change or they like the way Vegas used to be.
- 16:54Dayna Roselli: And he was very honest.
- 16:55Dayna Roselli: He didn't skirt around it, but you know, that's a Sopranos actor for you.
- 17:01Sean McAllister: That is.
- 17:01Dayna Roselli: They tell the truth.
- 17:02Sean McAllister: Well, and the fact of the matter is that Las Vegas is a town that's always evolving, it's always changing, and you know, it is a town that gives you different eras.
- 17:14Sean McAllister: Yeah.
- 17:14Sean McAllister: Just like Taylor Swift does.
- 17:16Dayna Roselli: Right.
- 17:16Dayna Roselli: It's true.
- 17:17Dayna Roselli: And, you know, he's back here visiting and enjoyed the Wizard of Oz, and um, he has a lot of fond memories.
- 17:24Dayna Roselli: Um, it's interesting.
- 17:25Dayna Roselli: So here's the connection.
- 17:27Dayna Roselli: So then we realize that he worked at the Riviera when Frank Marino worked at the Riviera.
- 17:34Dayna Roselli: Frank Marino was in Lacage, and he was saying at one point Steve was a Maitre D, worked his way up to entertainment director at the Riv.
- 17:43Dayna Roselli: And so it's so interesting how all these people, you know, intertwine.
- 17:47Dayna Roselli: And then Steve got this part in Sopranos and then went and had a big movie star career.
- 17:55Dayna Roselli: Yeah, so it's it's it's crazy.
- 17:57Dayna Roselli: So, anyway, let's go back to Frank Marino.
- 17:59Dayna Roselli: Frank Marino started at the Riviera in 1985.
- 18:02Dayna Roselli: Um, he was in Lakash, he just celebrated his 40th anniversary here in Las Vegas as a continuous Las Vegas headliner.
- 18:09Dayna Roselli: Frank is known for impersonating Joan Rivers for years and years and years.
- 18:13Sean McAllister: Yeah, and uh there was a 40th anniversary celebration weekend that happened over at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, where Frank was putting on his Divas show.
- 18:25Sean McAllister: Um, we went to his dressing room suite and sat down and talked with Frank all about his uh history performing here.
- 18:35Sean McAllister: Um, but he wasn't quite expecting what happened on stage during his 40th anniversary celebration.
- 18:43Sean McAllister: Listen to this.
- 18:44SPEAKER_02: What I thought was gonna happen was I was gonna do these 40th anniversary shows, and they were gonna be my last three shows.
- 18:50SPEAKER_02: And maybe I would have produced a drag show or, you know, without me in it, because I want to do other things like television stuff.
- 18:56SPEAKER_02: And then the president of the hotel, uh Cliff Atkinson, um, we did a video with all the celebrities saying congratulations.
- 19:05SPEAKER_02: And at the end, I see him pop up and he actually said, Frank, if you want to stay, we would love to have you here at The Virgin.
- 19:11SPEAKER_02: So I guess I'm gonna be working for a little bit longer.
- 19:15Dayna Roselli: Remember, we talked in a previous podcast about how we did not think Frank was going to retire.
- 19:20Dayna Roselli: And we were right.
- 19:21Sean McAllister: We were right, we called it.
- 19:24Dayna Roselli: But I don't I don't see Frank retiring just yet.
- 19:26Dayna Roselli: He looks better than ever, first of all.
- 19:29Dayna Roselli: Um, you know, Frank started back at Lacage at the Riviera.
- 19:32Dayna Roselli: He was there for 25 years.
- 19:33Dayna Roselli: He performed in Tony and Tina's wedding at one point.
- 19:36Dayna Roselli: He was in uh legends in concert, and then, of course, has his own show called Divas, which was at the Imperial Palace, which then turned to the link and is now at Virgin.
- 19:46Sean McAllister: But rather than uh hear us talk about Frank's history here, why don't we turn it over to the headliner himself to hear his view on 40 years in Las Vegas?
- 19:59SPEAKER_02: I do reminisce about the old days and miss them so much.
- 20:02SPEAKER_02: I'm this kid coming from New York and I'm gonna be in the star of this big show.
- 20:06SPEAKER_02: And it it was so good.
- 20:08SPEAKER_02: I mean, the energy in the air, I loved it, you know?
- 20:11SPEAKER_02: And then after our shows, we'd go to nightclubs, we'd go to other people's shows.
- 20:14SPEAKER_02: There was a lot of lounge shows back then.
- 20:16SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was just more electric in the air.
- 20:19SPEAKER_02: So in 1985, when we got here, doing a drag show was a little bit, you know, risque.
- 20:24SPEAKER_02: So um, people still came though, because it was a little naughty thing to do back then.
- 20:28SPEAKER_02: You'd come to Vegas, you'd see the male or the female strip shows, you'd see the drag show.
- 20:33SPEAKER_02: Because they didn't have this in your backyard.
- 20:35SPEAKER_02: Nowadays, though, this is like you could- It's a library, yeah.
- 20:38SPEAKER_02: You could go to the library, the librarians in drag.
- 20:42SPEAKER_02: But it's like run in the middle.
- 20:44SPEAKER_02: It kind of upsets me because I liked being unique, but now it's very popular.
- 20:49SPEAKER_02: I do realize what I've done here in Las Vegas, but because what I do, it is sometimes shunned or looked down on.
- 20:58SPEAKER_02: So I don't get this, I get to go to the same parties as everybody else, but I'm always the last one invited.
- 21:04SPEAKER_02: You know, I always felt like Sammy Davis Jr.
- 21:06SPEAKER_02: used to say everybody came in and in the beginning he had to go in the back door.
- 21:09SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
- 21:10SPEAKER_02: I feel like, oh, let's have Frank come, but he's gonna use the other entrance.
- 21:14SPEAKER_02: So yeah, half I have to find, I have to work twice as hard to get half as far because of the cut type of entertainment it is.
- 21:21SPEAKER_02: But that's okay, like Chabro said, I just laughed my way to the bank, so.
- 21:25Dayna Roselli: But it is entertainment.
- 21:26Dayna Roselli: You're entertaining.
- 21:27SPEAKER_02: And the my audience, they'll always scream, they'll always yell, they always have a good time.
- 21:33SPEAKER_02: But not everybody knows what it is.
- 21:36SPEAKER_02: Some people, you know, say, oh, is it dirty or rum?
- 21:40SPEAKER_02: It's none of that.
- 21:40SPEAKER_02: It's just fun.
- 21:41SPEAKER_02: It's good, clean entertainment.
- 21:47SPEAKER_02: Lots of crazy moments.
- 21:49SPEAKER_02: One that I really sticks out in my head, 1986, Joan Rivers sued me for five million dollars.
- 21:54SPEAKER_02: It was my 15 minutes of fame on the cover of the National Inquirer.
- 21:58SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I was.
- 22:00SPEAKER_02: Really young then, five million dollars.
- 22:01SPEAKER_02: Uh thank god thank god I won because I was like 80 bucks short.
- 22:05SPEAKER_02: And um I used to have jokes like, Do you think it's easy for a 22-year-old boy to look like a 53-year-old woman?
- 22:15SPEAKER_02: But I was served the law papers on stage.
- 22:23SPEAKER_02: But it all worked out, we settled it, I understood what the lawsuit was about.
- 22:27SPEAKER_02: She didn't want me using any of her jokes, but at the time, I was a 22-year-old impersonator.
- 22:31SPEAKER_02: So I was like, but Cher singing share song, like I have to do your type of humor.
- 22:37SPEAKER_02: What happened was Johnny Cost and her just got in that fight when she left him.
- 22:41SPEAKER_02: So a lot of comedians were mad at her and they were afraid Johnny would not let them on their show.
- 22:46SPEAKER_02: So they were against her and they'd send me material like this is very Joan Rivers-esque, here's this, here's that.
- 22:52SPEAKER_02: And I learned how to write a joke.
- 22:54SPEAKER_02: And probably that lawsuit was the best thing that ever happened to me.
- 22:58SPEAKER_02: And plus, we became friends after that, and I ended up being on all her shows, and I was on Fashion Police right before she passed.
- 23:04SPEAKER_02: So that was really nice.
- 23:05Dayna Roselli: You always are, I love how open you are about keeping up with your look.
- 23:10Dayna Roselli: And a lot of people might say, I can't believe Frank's on there doing his facials and showing us everything and letting us know we had a facelift.
- 23:18Dayna Roselli: And but but I I love that that you're really transparent about it.
- 23:22Dayna Roselli: Why do you choose to let everyone know?
- 23:24SPEAKER_02: I I don't understand why people don't let somebody know.
- 23:26SPEAKER_02: If you got a new haircut and everybody's going, oh my god, you look fabulous.
- 23:30SPEAKER_02: That feeling's wonderful, right?
- 23:32SPEAKER_02: So if you do so whether somebody gets Botox or filler or a facelift, whatever, I'm not saying it's for everybody and I don't advocate it, but if it makes you feel better, then I think you should do it for yourself.
- 23:43SPEAKER_02: And that's why I do it.
- 23:44SPEAKER_02: Everybody goes, oh no, no, no.
- 23:45SPEAKER_02: Um, you do it so everybody says you look good.
- 23:48SPEAKER_02: No, I really do it so that when I look in the mirror, I'm happy with it.
- 23:51SPEAKER_02: You know, not everybody, I I don't care if other people think I look good.
- 23:55SPEAKER_02: I want me to think I look okay for my age, 105.
- 24:00Dayna Roselli: I mean, you look incredible.
- 24:01SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
- 24:02Dayna Roselli: It worked.
- 24:03Dayna Roselli: It works.
- 24:04Dayna Roselli: Thank you.
- 24:04Dayna Roselli: Yeah, you look great.
- 24:05Dayna Roselli: So what are you doing now?
- 24:06Dayna Roselli: Working out?
- 24:07Dayna Roselli: You're fit?
- 24:07SPEAKER_02: I I I try.
- 24:08SPEAKER_02: I do uh, well, I'm on Ozempic.
- 24:10SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna lie to you, audience here.
- 24:12SPEAKER_02: Listen, I am a Majara spokesperson.
- 24:15SPEAKER_02: I lost 50 pounds on it.
- 24:17SPEAKER_02: I do exercise in the pool every day because, like, that's what old people do.
- 24:22SPEAKER_02: And um I'm very happy.
- 24:24SPEAKER_02: Listen, I I I'm not an exerciser.
- 24:26SPEAKER_02: You could throw jewelry on the floor and I wouldn't even pick it up.
- 24:29Dayna Roselli: So yeah.
- 24:30Dayna Roselli: Are you the only headliner with two stars?
- 24:32SPEAKER_02: I'm the only headliner with two stars, yes.
- 24:34SPEAKER_02: Vegas has been so good to me.
- 24:36SPEAKER_02: I have my two stars on the boulevard, I have a key to the city and to the strip, I have a street named after me.
- 24:42SPEAKER_02: But yesterday, I gotta tell you, it was the biggest honor ever.
- 24:45SPEAKER_02: Clark County gave me the day with the Las Vegas sign where it's normally clear light bulbs.
- 24:51SPEAKER_02: They changed all the light bulbs to um Ruby because Ruby is the 40-year anniversary.
- 24:56SPEAKER_02: And I gotta tell you, when we were doing the ceremony, it didn't hit me.
- 24:59SPEAKER_02: But I went back last night and I saw like thousands of people taking their photographs in front of it, and they had a big sign, it's red today because it's Frank Marino's 40th anniversary.
- 25:08SPEAKER_02: And I thought, this is like the most famous thing in Las Vegas.
- 25:12SPEAKER_02: Everybody's taking their picture, and what an honor it was that they went out of their way to change it and do that for me.
- 25:18SPEAKER_02: So that was one of the best highlights of my entire career.
- 25:21SPEAKER_02: So I'm very happy for that.
- 25:22Dayna Roselli: I think people know that you come out and you're the star of the show and you begin the show and you're so funny, but your hands are in it.
- 25:28Dayna Roselli: You're helping to pick the cast the show.
- 25:31SPEAKER_02: Yes, I I I pick everybody that's in the show, um, and and then I'll groom them and I'll help them, you know, make themselves better.
- 25:39SPEAKER_02: Uh, we pick the music together.
- 25:41SPEAKER_02: There's a lot that goes into it.
- 25:42SPEAKER_02: The video we're gonna use, the songs we're gonna use.
- 25:44SPEAKER_02: Do they like the song?
- 25:45SPEAKER_02: Because if they don't like the song either, it's not they're not gonna portray it well.
- 25:49SPEAKER_02: So I want to make sure everybody's happy so that when they go on stage, the audience is happy because they're gonna really feel it.
- 25:55SPEAKER_02: It's gonna exude from them.
- 25:57Dayna Roselli: You have a passion for working and performing, and I really feel like you love Las Vegas.
- 26:02Dayna Roselli: What's your favorite part about Las Vegas and why you love it so much?
- 26:06SPEAKER_02: When I first got here, my favorite part was the 24-hour city.
- 26:09SPEAKER_02: I love to be able to work till one in the morning and then go to the grocery store and it was like it was the middle of the afternoon.
- 26:14SPEAKER_02: So I love that the gyms were open late.
- 26:17SPEAKER_02: Now it seems that a lot of these things are closing earlier, but that's what really made me excited when I got here.
- 26:23SPEAKER_02: That and then, of course, the glitter.
- 26:26SPEAKER_02: Everything I like is glitter.
- 26:27SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, here's the many more years of glitter glamour and not one pair of sensible shoes.
- 26:34SPEAKER_01: You guys are amazing.
- 26:35SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
- 26:39Dayna Roselli: Oh, it was great to hear from Frank.
- 26:40Dayna Roselli: I mean, we had some laughs, he was so honest, and you know, I think there were some heartfelt felt moments in that interview.
- 26:47Dayna Roselli: You and I were discussing it later, saying hearing him talk about how he's had to work so hard to be at the same level as everyone else through the years because of what he does for a living, female impersonation.
- 27:01Dayna Roselli: And like he said though, his show is not dirty in no, not at all.
- 27:06Dayna Roselli: And you and I talked about that.
- 27:08Dayna Roselli: That we have had friends and family in town, and we brought them to the show and they love it.
- 27:12Dayna Roselli: My dad loved the show, uh, my mom loves the show.
- 27:15Dayna Roselli: I brought my best friend whose parents who were visiting, they loved it.
- 27:20Sean McAllister: One of my friends, when uh she got married, she had a ton of family uh come out from the East Coast and set all of them up with tickets to go see the show, and they loved it.
- 27:31Sean McAllister: It was a diverse cross-section of uh people from different backgrounds.
- 27:35Sean McAllister: So I mean it is just it's great entertainment, is what it is.
- 27:41Dayna Roselli: It is all the hits.
- 27:42Dayna Roselli: I mean, you know, like he was saying, they they pick the you know, two or three songs that each artist is gonna.
- 27:47Dayna Roselli: I mean, the Liza Minnelli is just right.
- 27:50Sean McAllister: Liza is great.
- 27:51Dayna Roselli: It's like looking at Liza.
- 27:53Sean McAllister: It is she gets the the arm swing going, the arm circle.
- 27:57Dayna Roselli: Oh my gosh.
- 27:59Dayna Roselli: So good.
- 27:59Dayna Roselli: The Selene, the chair.
- 28:00Dayna Roselli: It's a fun show.
- 28:01Dayna Roselli: So here's your tip for the day on this podcast.
- 28:04Dayna Roselli: Go see Frank Marino Divas.
- 28:06Dayna Roselli: You will love it.
- 28:07Dayna Roselli: It's over at Virgin.
- 28:08Dayna Roselli: I don't think the new dates have been announced just yet, but we know he's continuing on with more shows there.
- 28:13Dayna Roselli: Um, and the cast of divas.
- 28:15Dayna Roselli: A great, great, great show, and it's a lot of fun.
- 28:19Dayna Roselli: It's clean.
- 28:19Dayna Roselli: And that that theater was was nice too.
- 28:22Dayna Roselli: It was a good, it has a bar right inside.
- 28:23Sean McAllister: Yeah, that's a nice little showroom over there.
- 28:25Sean McAllister: The Oxford, right?
- 28:26Sean McAllister: The Oxford, yeah.
- 28:26Sean McAllister: 24 Oxford.
- 28:27Dayna Roselli: All right.
- 28:28Dayna Roselli: Hey, thanks for joining us this week.
- 28:30Dayna Roselli: We are coming back next week with more Vegas Info News.
- 28:34Dayna Roselli: And remember, there are tons of deals out there right now, so take advantage and download that Vegas Near Me app.
- 28:39Dayna Roselli: It's great if you're coming to visit Las Vegas.
- 28:41Dayna Roselli: It's got maps, show listings, it also has a deals page, and there's some really good ones on there.
- 28:48Sean McAllister: And a big thank you to our presenting sponsor, uh Galindo Law.
- 28:53Sean McAllister: If you've been impacted by uh storms in Texas, by wildfires in Southern California, or monsoons here in southern Nevada, if there's been damage and you feel like the insurance company has underpaid you, uh, call Galindo Law.
- 29:09Sean McAllister: They will give you a free insurance claim review to see if uh there's money left on the table for you to claim, and then they'll go to bat for you.
- 29:17Sean McAllister: But you've got to give them a call first.
- 29:20Sean McAllister: That number is uh eight hundred two five one one five three three, or you can find them online at galindolaw.com.
- 29:30Dayna Roselli: Have a great week, everyone.