Latest / Vegas Revealed / Longtime Entertainer Misses Being On Stage in Las Vegas | Ep. 36

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Longtime Entertainer Misses Being On Stage in Las Vegas | Ep. 36 · Vegas Revealed

• 0:00
  Dayna Roselli: Welcome to Vegas Revealed episode 36.
• 0:03
  Dayna Roselli: We have some fun talking with longtime entertainer Frankie Shinta.
• 0:08
  Sean McAllister: He's been going absolutely crazy not being able to perform.
• 0:12
  Sean McAllister: What's next for him and what he thinks will happen to Las Vegas as it tries to bounce back?
• 0:18
  Sean McAllister: It's time for Vegas Revealed.
• 0:33
  Sean McAllister: Hey, thanks for uh putting Vegas Revealed into your ears once again this week.
• 0:37
  Sean McAllister: It's Sean and Dana here, and today we're coming to you from uh downtown Summerlin, which is on the west side of town.
• 0:44
  Sean McAllister: If you're not a Las Vegas resident, kind of butts right up to uh the Red Rock resort and casino in the Red Rock recreation area.
• 0:52
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, and uh great shopping area out here and lots of things to do.
• 0:55
  Dayna Roselli: So we came out to check it out.
• 0:57
  Dayna Roselli: And speaking of things to do, you know, entertainers here in Las Vegas are literally going crazy not being able to be up on stage.
• 1:06
  Dayna Roselli: But we have had some announcements lately that have been encouraging.
• 1:10
  Dayna Roselli: They're more for the future, but it is exciting, nevertheless, Usher coming to the Coliseum next summer.
• 1:15
  Dayna Roselli: Tickets already on sale for that, so we were excited to hear Caesars announce that.
• 1:19
  Dayna Roselli: Plus, we learned Magic Mike is coming back, and a theater is being renovated over at the Sahara.
• 1:25
  Dayna Roselli: So that's great.
• 1:26
  Sean McAllister: Yeah, it looks like all signs are pointing to Las Vegas making a rebound.
• 1:31
  Sean McAllister: And today we're getting unique perspective on that rebound.
• 1:35
  Dayna Roselli: Boy, we have so much to talk about with our next guest, Frankie Shinta.
• 1:39
  Dayna Roselli: Just, you know, an icon in Las Vegas, Buffalo, New York, all around the country.
• 1:44
  Dayna Roselli: Everyone knows through the years the Shintas.
• 1:47
  Sean McAllister: They do.
• 1:48
  Sean McAllister: I I grew up seeing commercials on on TV for the Shintas shows.
• 1:53
  Sean McAllister: And then I moved out to Vegas 15 years ago, and the Shintas are here too.
• 1:57
  Sean McAllister: Um I love that there's this connection no matter where we go.
• 2:01
  Sean McAllister: Frankie, how's it going?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm I you know what?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: This whole um I it's the first time in my life I haven't been performing.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_05: But it gave me a lot of time with my grandkids and my family that I probably wouldn't have.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll tell you what, there was a plus side to all of this.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: Because I've watched them literally grow up before my eyes.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_05: And every day they're at the house, especially the twins, the two-year-olds, papa, papa, papa.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: Everything is papa, and that really makes me feel good.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I can't wait to get back on stage.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, in front of a live audience.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_05: I'm aching for that because that's been my whole life since I was six years old.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_05: And it it's unfortunate that we can't do it right now, but I really believe we'll get through this and I'll be back doing what I do like every other entertainer in this town.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: So, this is the longest stretch you've ever gone without performing.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_05: Ever in my life.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, never.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_05: Usually, like New Year's Eve was my last performance, really.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um, it was at the South Point.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_05: It was like 1,100 people, it was an incredible night.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I usually take a sabbatical, January, February, because you know, everybody blows all their money in Christmas, New Year's, and Hanukkah.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_05: And so January, February slow down everywhere.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_05: You see how Vegas is.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_05: So I take a sabbatical.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: I'll go to Florida, I'll go back to Buffalo and visit family.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but and then when I go back to work in March, there was no work.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm going, oh, this will be over.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's only gonna last a couple weeks.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_05: Here we are six months later.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and no work for like there's lounges and there's ambient music they're singing, and I'm definitely not ambient.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 3:46
  Dayna Roselli: I was just telling Sean on the way over, we were chatting on the and I said, uh, listen, Frankie's not only struggling because he's not performing, but he's used to like popping in and seeing his friends or jumping on stage and I don't know, not only singing, but doing comedy bits.
• 3:58
  Dayna Roselli: That's what you do.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's what I live to do.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_05: I just love being in front of a live audience, man.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: I miss it so much.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_05: And you know what's helped me get through this is those silly little live things I've been doing on Facebook.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_05: And my kids talked me into it.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_05: Dad, you gotta do this.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody's doing it, and you could make money, and I go, I'm not gonna do it for money.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but dad, everybody's, you know, they could, I go, I'm not gonna do it for money.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: I'll do it because people are in their homes.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_05: And that was the truth.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_05: At that time, we weren't going anywhere.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_05: Nobody was.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_05: Nobody was, and I had up to 18,000 views on Saturday nights, and I'm like, I can't believe people are watching me this long.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, but it gave me an outlet, man, to do what I love to do, and it brought me back to a time when my brother Joe and I started way back in Buffalo.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_05: We didn't even have a drummer, it was me at the piano, my brother on a bass, and we just the only thing we discussed was what song are we gonna open with?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_05: And then everything else was ad-libbed, and that's how my lives have been, and it's been fun, but I kind of really want to get on stage.
• 5:07
  Sean McAllister: Yeah, it's hard.
• 5:09
  Sean McAllister: Well, and and aside from having an outlet for performing, have those lives kind of helped fill the void of the connection that we've all lost?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you both work in TV, even though you're looking at a lens, you still feel the people out there, you know they're watching.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_05: And it took me a minute because I'm a live performer, even if I'm on TV, as always, a live audience, and it was it was a little weird for me.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: I I would guess maybe for the first 20 minutes, but then I started hearing the comments coming in, and you start feeling the people.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_05: I'm going, wow, this is really nice.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: You know, Frankie, you brought me to tears.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_05: You made me laugh.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_05: My mom passed away, and you first time I smiled.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: These are the kind of comments we get at our shows.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: So it kind of, yes, exactly.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_05: It did.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_05: It definitely filled the void for me.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I think I'd probably be in a nuthouse right now.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_05: If I really, I'd be like in a straitjacket somewhere, like in a corner, going, Yeah, that he used to perform.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_05: There he is over there.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_05: He sits in a corner, says he's Frankie Shinta.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that would be me.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_05: So I I thank God that I could I could do that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:20
  Dayna Roselli: And and and fill people in and the for the the history of the Shintos.
• 6:24
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, you guys came to town, what was it, the Rio, the first place that Hilton.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: The Hilton in the Cabaret room.
• 6:30
  Dayna Roselli: Okay.
• 6:30
  Dayna Roselli: And and from then, you've seen Las Vegas entertainment evolve, change.
• 6:35
  Dayna Roselli: Some parts, in some ways it's better, in some ways it's worse.
• 6:38
  Dayna Roselli: But what do you feel is gonna happen now?
• 6:40
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, are you up for the challenge?
• 6:42
  Dayna Roselli: Do you think things are gonna go back to the way they were, or things might change in a in a direction that might be more positive for the entertainers and the people in the audience?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you see, guys like me and other headliners that were like me, like uh Clint Holmes and people that were not international stars, but we were head Las Vegas headliners, they kind of we've been pushed to the side for the big names, and I understand, because you put Bruno Mars in an arena, you're drawing uh 16,000, 18,000 people, and they could pay him a half a million dollars, but my thought process now is they're not gonna be able to put 18,000 people anywhere right now.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_05: So guys like Bruno Mars, they're not that they're in a bad position because he's a mil multimillionaire, it's gonna be easier for a guy like me to go back to these showrooms, I think, because they could put 300 people in a 600-seat room, still make money, still pay the entertainer, and have entertainment in their casino.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that might be a positive.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm praying to God that the vaccine comes out and we can all go back to our normal lives.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_05: But as you see with the flu, even with a vaccine, still tons of people are are dying.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I think that's still gonna be the case.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_05: But I do believe, and Vegas has changed, man.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, when we came in, there was Siegfried and Roy, there was Clint Holmes, there were the Shintas, there was uh Lance Burton.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: And when was this?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_05: When did you guys first?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_05: 2000.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_05: And then when 9-11 happened, I had an idea in my heart.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_05: Let's do something for Las Vegas, let's do a concert with all the headliners.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: Now I never got a lot of credit for this, but I didn't care.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_05: I was brand new to the town, so I was kind of pushed in the back of the of the theater, but it was my idea to do this concert.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_05: So every headliner in Vegas did a show, and it was the biggest show ever in this town.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_05: Wayne Newton, Lance Burton, uh, Siegfried and Roy.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Danny Ganz couldn't do it, but he wanted to.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: But every headliner at the time did this show, and it was absolutely heart-wrenching.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen to work with all these people.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_05: And as years passed, they started forewalling entertainers, which means you paid for the room because some young kid went in and said, Why are we paying entertainers when they'll pay us to perform in our room?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_05: And some entertainers did it, hence for walling.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_05: After our contract ended at the real, they said, we'd love you to stay, give us 24 grand a week for the room.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm going, 2024, I mean, we're a family, and I was making a lot of money at the time, but I was dispersing it to my people because that's the way I was brought up.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I didn't have 24 grand a week.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_05: So we started four walling at other places, like the Sahara, which I like to call the Titanic at the time.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, no discredit, but at the time I they must have been, don't close those doors, get the shit touched.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_05: So we put almost a quarter of a million dollars into the room of our own money.
• 10:12
  unknown: Uh-huh.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um, sound system, carpeting, and we we had to walk away from it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: We couldn't even take it out of there because of the unions.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_05: It would have cost us more to take it down and bring it back than to leave it there.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_05: So we lost basically everything.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_05: And then, through God's grace, we got back on our feet and we started performing around the country.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_05: We started performing back in Vegas.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_05: I made the decision for my family.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_05: We will never four wall again.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna get paid.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: It may not be the 50 or 60k we were getting at the Rio, but I'm not gonna perform unless I'm getting paid.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_05: You know.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_05: Good for you.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what we did, and it got us back on our feet.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_05: And then COVID hit, and here we are.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah at my one of my favorite places.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_05: Isn't this nice?
• 11:01
  Dayna Roselli: This is Treteria Reggiano.
• 11:03
  Dayna Roselli: Yes.
• 11:04
  Dayna Roselli: Because you know everyone everywhere, and there's always you're like, Do you want to go to my friend's pizza shop or my friend's restaurant?
• 11:09
  Dayna Roselli: I'm like, I don't know, Frankie, you pick it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_05: He was so kind.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_05: I called him, I said, Frank, Frank Bonano, he owns like 55 businesses here.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I said, he goes, geez, it's closed.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, but my manager, Becca's there, she'll let you in, and you could do whatever you want.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_05: You you're gonna have cameras.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_05: They go, no, it's it's a podcast with two friends.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_05: Well, yeah, yeah, just do whatever, whatever you need, she'll give you.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I thought that was so nice.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's that's one thing about and he's another back east guy.
• 11:35
  Sean McAllister: Well, and and I feel like this is a very Italian way to sit down and have a chat, too.
• 11:40
  Sean McAllister: Isn't it?
• 11:41
  Sean McAllister: We locked the door after you walked in.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_04: Now you can't leave.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Just don't take us out the back door.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_04: That'll be bad news.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: Remember the Brock's tail when we locked the door?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_05: Now you can't leave.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_05: I thought there was a great scene.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_05: But this is great.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm so glad to see you both see you both and that you're doing this.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_05: This is great.
• 12:00
  Dayna Roselli: It's been great to talk to so many people we've talked to through the years.
• 12:03
  Sean McAllister: Well, and you know, you talk about that four-wall situation, and I feel like that's the situation that we found ourselves in too.
• 12:11
  Sean McAllister: Yeah, it was almost like locking yourself into things with TV stations.
• 12:17
  Sean McAllister: And you know, now we've, you know, taken our destiny into our own hands and taken our future into our own hands, and the sky's the limit at this point.
• 12:26
  Sean McAllister: That's right, and you're your own boss.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: You were locked in a box, too.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_05: You really were.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_05: Oh no, you can't do go, no, can't do that, can't do that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_05: And if I don't know if you ever saw the footage of the newscasts across the country because of the teleprompter, how many hundreds of people read the exact same story, exact verbiage, and it was scary to me.
• 12:49
  Dayna Roselli: It's on the feed in the cut and paste.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_05: I thought people just said the news, you know.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: And that was only like six months ago.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: I saw that and I go, that's really weird.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_05: And you're you broke free from that, and I think that's great for you guys.
• 13:05
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
• 13:05
  Dayna Roselli: It has been great.
• 13:06
  Dayna Roselli: It's been great to be able to have conversations, you know.
• 13:08
  Dayna Roselli: I think we like to talk, so that's always good.
• 13:11
  Dayna Roselli: Um, I wanted to quickly say though, when you were talking about the um, because I'm thinking of things that you were talking about, when you were talking about, you know, the bigger artists coming in and all that kind of thing.
• 13:19
  Dayna Roselli: But I must say, through the years, the 15 plus years that I've lived here, when I bring people to shows, yes, it's great to see Bruno Mars, yes, it's great to see Gwen Stefani.
• 13:28
  Dayna Roselli: It's a great show.
• 13:29
  Dayna Roselli: But whenever I bring them to shows like yours, I feel like people leave and they go, man, that was fun.
• 13:35
  Dayna Roselli: Like people have a good time.
• 13:37
  Dayna Roselli: It's an experience.
• 13:38
  Dayna Roselli: It's an experience.
• 13:39
  Dayna Roselli: More and our and it feels like you're in Vegas because we can see those shows somewhere else at a War Memorial in Rochester.
• 13:46
  Dayna Roselli: Right.
• 13:46
  Dayna Roselli: You know?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_05: I see what you're saying.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we never our show was never contrived.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_05: It was always, and it was always performed to the audience, not at the audience.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_05: So if there's a guy in the front row looking at his phone or not clapping or not interested, that's where my brother and I turned into Don Rickles.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that was us, whether no matter what race, religion, nationality, but people knew it was like a Don Rickles.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: They knew it was from our heart.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't to demean anybody.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_05: And it's still that way, even though I'm on my own now, which is another story, you know.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_05: And um, it's um, I love the fact that I could reach out and grab their funny bone and grab their heart at the same time.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I could turn a guy around that's miserable, that walks in going, What the hell is a shinta?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_05: I don't why are we here?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_05: Why am I here?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_05: And at the end of the night, I mean, literally, I remember performing in a place in Detroit, and there were these guys in the front row.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_05: These guys, they had the voices like this, and they're all talking, you know, they all got that same voice.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, but my sister's singing.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_05: So I started breaking the oranges really good.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, come on, guys, this ain't you're not back in Sicily.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_05: Calm down.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_05: So there you could hear them going, I want to know who this is.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_05: You know, they're getting mad.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I I know how to handle this.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I looked at them, I broke their oranges a little bit, and then I made my sister come out and she sang an old Sicilian song, Mama.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_05: Mama, I missed the day.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_05: Well, these guys went from angry to crying bubbles.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, they were like little kids.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_05: Beautiful.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_05: They're looking up at us, going, I love you.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_05: And we turned people around because some people don't know how to smile or laugh or feel.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_05: And the fact that we're able to do that, man, that's a blessing.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's easy just to sing and look at the back wall, but when you could reach their hearts, that is that to me is everything.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it I live for that.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's why people like our show, because we're real.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_05: You know, Joey was the guy, and my brother, who, if you don't know, my brother passed away two Novembers.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_05: It'll be three Novembers ago.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_05: It's 2017.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_05: You've had a lot of loss, massive stroke.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_05: And um, he was the one on stage when I would say, Hey, we're gonna come out and meet you, we'll sign some CDs.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, except for me, because I got I got crap to do, you know.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_05: And he meant it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_05: And I would look at him and go, Joe, you can't say that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, Well, I've I we're not gonna get paid if you I'll be right out there with the rest of them.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_05: But that was Joe's attitude.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_05: That's why it worked.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_05: We were yin and yang.
• 16:36
  unknown: Right.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, if if we offended anybody uh right here, my brother would do that.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_05: Joe, you can't say that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_05: Well, come on.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_05: And he's looking at the guy waving him, going, come on, come on up here.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm going, Joe, you can't, he'll kill you.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_05: No, come on.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_05: You know, and I go push my brother out of the way.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_05: And even though it was it was it was part of the show, the first time it happened, it was Ed Libb.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: So all that stuff, the Ed-Libbing, I think, is what made Carol Burnett's show for the older viewers or listeners.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, what what was the best thing?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: The outtakes, the mistakes, the the accidents.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_05: That's what people love about a real show.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_05: And I think we still have that, and I'm blessed.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_05: I'm blessed by God.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_05: I could walk on any stage, even in a lounge.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_05: I get up on a stage with a band.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not the best singer, I'm not the best musician, but I'm gonna make that audience watch.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna get them, and I'm gonna make, I'm gonna make them react.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_05: And that to me is life.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_05: I love that.
• 17:36
  Sean McAllister: I know.
• 17:37
  Sean McAllister: And so where did where did the whole Shinta family act come from?
• 17:43
  Sean McAllister: How did it start?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_05: It was it's funny you should ask.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_05: My brother had a band, uh he was in a show band, only as a bass player.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: This is going back, geez, I want to say uh I was 18 years old, so uh it's a long time ago.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um 50 years ago?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um no, not that long.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: No, 40, 43 years ago.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: Wow, I'm not that damn old.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_05: I'm 63, so I don't know at math.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_05: I was terrible.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_05: I went to vocational high school, so uh sit there.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um so um his show band, last gig was in Hawaii.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_05: I played the piano.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_05: They needed a keyboard player.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_05: The last eight weeks of this show band were in Hawaii.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_05: They decided they're gonna live there.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_05: My brother and I go 6,000 miles from our family in Buffalo.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, really, I had eight Sicilian uncles, seven uncles, two aunts.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: My grandparents were still alive.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna leave my mother and father, my brother.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_05: So we went back home with nothing.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we got home, my brother packed his van, he was gonna leave to move to Florida to sell alarm systems with a keyboard player that left the band that I took over.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I get a phone call from Paul McGuire.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_05: He was the ESPN commentator, ex-Buffalo Bill.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_05: He was a kicker for the Buffalo Bills.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, Frank, and we didn't have speaker phones, we had the phone on the wall with the long cord.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_05: If you had the long cord, you had money.
• 19:17
  Dayna Roselli: Oh my gosh.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_05: We had the long cord.
• 19:18
  Dayna Roselli: My mom had the long cord.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you could go like, look, I could go over the bathroom.
• 19:22
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_05: For your privacy.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_05: You could walk all the way around the corner with the cord.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_05: And then it would always get tangled.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: So I would hold, I held the phone up, but he's going, Yeah, this is Paul McGuire.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_05: Is this Frankie Shanton?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_05: I go, yes.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, I hear you play great piano and uh sing.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: I need a piano bar player.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_05: And my brother's sitting across from me, my father.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I go, geez, I don't work alone.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_05: I work with my brother.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_05: And my brother's flailing his arms, going, no, no, no, no.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm moving.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_05: I'm my father looks at my brother like, shut up.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_05: So I go, yeah, we'll audition.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yep, yep, yeah, we'll do whatever.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: We'll do the whole weekend for free.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_05: So we we audition, we go down to my dad's basement.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_05: This was a Sunday.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_05: We practiced Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_05: I think three days, we gathered equipment that we was we didn't have a lot of anything.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_05: And we went an audition.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_05: Three nights we played.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_05: The Sunday night we played.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_05: Paul McGuire walks up and goes, You guys got the job.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_05: I'll pay you$200 a piece a week.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_05: Me, my dad, and my brother walked out of there crying.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_05: Could you believe it?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_05: $200 a piece a week.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_05: And we signed us to like six months.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_05: So within three months, you could not get in this place.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_05: All the Buffalo Bills were coming in.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_05: All these judges, lawyers, we would get tips of$100,$200.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_05: And people, come on, sing this one.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_05: You guys are great.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was like that piano bar thing.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_05: But we really broke oranges, man.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_05: But it was a piano bar.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_05: But the people in the back of the room couldn't see us.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_05: My dad told Paul McGuire, you gotta move those stools around the piano.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_05: No, those are my my dad lived with it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_05: One night my dad walked in and whispered when he got mad.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_05: He said, Paul, if those stools aren't gone by tomorrow, my boys are leaving.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_05: When we went in tomorrow, the stools were gone.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_05: So we played there another three months.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_05: Jimmy Cosantino, who owned the Playboy Club in Buffalo with the Club 747, came to us and said, I don't know what he's paying you, I'll pay you double.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_05: We went to the Playboy Club.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_05: We were there 15 years, I think.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: And five, six nights a week, you couldn't, a thousand people, eight hundred people, you couldn't get in this place.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_05: And we didn't have a drummer, we couldn't afford one.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_05: The drummer from the other band would come in early and play behind the curtain on their drum pit.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: And Jimmy got us into Playboy clubs.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_05: And then that's where we met a drummer in Great Gorge, New Jersey.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_05: We added him.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_05: He was with us 10 years.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_05: He left to do magic.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_05: Pete O'Donnell joined us.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_05: He was with me 30 years.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: He just moved to Florida to run a family business.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_05: And that's how the whole damn thing started.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_05: We didn't know what Vegas was.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_05: I came to Vegas, played for Steve Sharippa, who was Bobby Buckala, right?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_05: I never watched Sopranos.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_05: A Sicilian.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: I just didn't get into those shows.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um he we played at this Riviera.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_05: Uh he was the entertainment director.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_05: And after two weeks there, I looked at him, I said, thank you very much, but I'm never coming back to Vegas unless I'm a headliner.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_05: That was the last time we were here.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_05: Until we came back as headliners.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: And God blessed us.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_05: And one thing led to another.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_05: The Hilton, the Rio came to get us.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_05: We were there five years, and then the four-wall thing started, and the carpet was pulled out.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: But it's a lot of home ever since.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's been, yeah, I love it here.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_05: I do amazing.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_05: And uh little secret, I'm working on opening my own place.
• 23:13
  Dayna Roselli: Good.
• 23:14
  Dayna Roselli: You should, because what you just described sounds fun.
• 23:16
  Dayna Roselli: Is that what it's going to be like?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_05: It'll probably.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_05: First, I want to open a gaming place, you know, a bar, gaming, buffalo themed food, some of it like beef on whack, you know, real buffalo wings, real buffalo pizza.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_05: And uh some of the recipes I've gathered from my father, my grandparents, and uh I got a great partner who used to own Paychecks, the company Paychecks.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: And uh he lives in Salem, Ohio.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_05: I'm starting to look at property now.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_05: Probably won't be till the new year.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_05: But and then I want to own the land, and then in three to five years from there, I want to build onto that my own dinner nightclub.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_05: Amazing.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's so you, and that will be that will be that's what you need.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I want to do.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: Save us a booth.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: We'll be regular.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_04: I'll have it, I'll have your name up.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'll have your name up.
• 24:09
  Dayna Roselli: I love it.
• 24:10
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
• 24:10
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, it's funny because we talk about we're we're from the Rochester area and Buffalo and Vegas, and you think like it's completely the other side of the country that it's so different, but there are a lot of similarities, and there's a lot of people that we run into that are from that area.
• 24:23
  Dayna Roselli: That's what Vegas is.
• 24:24
  Dayna Roselli: People moved here and they stayed.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_05: You know, not your age group, but I'm older than you, but there's people our ages, you know, not teenagers, that are starving to be entertained.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_05: They want to just go out, eat good food, laugh, have some fun, sing along.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_05: I want to do the TV screens with the bouncing ball, have people sing along.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_05: I want to do all of that.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_05: I want to have different theme nights, and I'm I'm not gonna stop until I get this done.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I'll still be able to perform, travel when I want to, but I need something that's mine, and I want to have Frankie Shinta's.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_05: That's it, man.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_05: I want I'm gonna do it.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm going.
• 25:04
  Dayna Roselli: It's gonna do, it's gonna do well.
• 25:06
  Dayna Roselli: I mean, there's no no doubt, no doubt, right?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_05: No, from your lipstick got here.
• 25:11
  Dayna Roselli: So, what are your plans?
• 25:12
  Dayna Roselli: So now you were at the South Point before COVID.
• 25:15
  Dayna Roselli: Are there plans to go back there?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I'm I was scheduled to be there the end of August, and then I got the phone call.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'm sorry, the governor.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_05: So as soon as it opens, um, I'm gonna do something.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_05: I wanted to do something even at the Italian American Club.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_05: No ticketed events.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I just I'm not gonna go, I'd rather perform for free than go work somewhere for$200.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_05: I'll do it free.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_05: Good thing I saved all that mob money from my uncle.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_05: Good thing.
• 25:44
  Dayna Roselli: Good thing.
• 25:44
  Dayna Roselli: Me too.
• 25:45
  Dayna Roselli: I'm listening to that.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_05: In case the IRS is listening.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_05: It's true though.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_05: But I mean, I I just won't do that.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, and I want to do my show.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna go in.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you know, instead of bringing your whole band, why don't you bring in two guys?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_05: It don't work that way.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't work that way.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: It don't.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_05: Is that Buffalo?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's like saying you.
• 26:10
  Dayna Roselli: Hey, how are you doing?
• 26:12
  Dayna Roselli: Oh my gosh, all the time.
• 26:13
  Sean McAllister: It's it's coming out.
• 26:14
  Sean McAllister: It's coming out.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's coming out.
• 26:17
  Dayna Roselli: Do you think do you think Vegas is gonna turn around as someone who's been here a long time?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_05: I think people have seen enough.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_05: Not that there's anything wrong with the big cirque shows.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_05: I think people, that's my wife calling it.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, good.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_05: I think people have seen enough of that.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_05: People literally want to be entertained, they want to be touched, they want to laugh, especially now.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_05: They want to cry.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you know what?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_05: I cry at the drop of a hat.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_05: My grandbabies, they'll just do something.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like the one of the twins will walk up to me and just look at me, Papa, and he looks up to kiss me, and I start to cry.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: We're emotional right now.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_05: America is starving for affection.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody is.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I don't care if you're right or left, white or black, you know, whatever religion you are, everybody is hungry for something of the heart.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't know what the answer is.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if it's God, I don't know what it is, because I'm not that smart, but I know it's we need the heart back.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's what we need.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_05: Because you see these kids, I love protesting because I think it's what you gotta do if you believe, but breaking stuff and ruining businesses and tearing down things, somebody's lost their heart somewhere.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_05: Because there's a way to do it without Martin Luther King Jr.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: was the best at doing it without without violence, without, and he got his message out crystal clear.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_05: And it changed the world.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I think what's happening, man, people are just there's no heart anymore.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_05: People are growing up without a heart, they're looking at their cell phones.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, even my grandbabies, the two-year-olds know how to navigate an iPad to go to the YouTube video they want to see.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_05: Of course, a kid's YouTube.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_05: But still, it's still like, it isn't like, come here, let's do this.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_05: Let's let's see.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I put like little things.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_05: My grandbabies will run in the house, they'll run to the fruit bowl, they'll grab an apple and an orange and a towel, and they bring it to me to peel for that.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_05: Papa, papa, papa.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what they I've done that for all the kids, like my dad did for us and our kids, my babies.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_05: And when I do that stuff, it brings me back.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_05: I see my father's hands now cutting that fruit.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_05: That's what's missing.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_05: That tradition that, you know, everybody loved their grandparents, everybody loved their mom and dad or one or the other.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_05: They we need that back.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_05: And I I think we could get it back.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_05: I really believe that.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_05: I think going back to your question, because my brain, you see a vector.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um Vegas can come back, and I think it will because people are starving to be touched.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_05: They want to laugh, they want to feel, they they want to cry, they want to release, they want to, you know, like get you know when you cry and you feel better, they want that.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: They want to laugh and feel sometimes.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_05: I laugh so hard I cry.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what people need.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I think, yes, I think that's what's gonna change.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_05: And that's I think a plus for a guy like me, because I think I'm gonna be wanted back in these showrooms.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_05: And if not, I'm gonna have my own place to do that.
• 29:36
  Sean McAllister: Yeah, that's right.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_05: I don't want to rely on anybody anymore.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_05: I trust me, and I trust my family, my brother Tony, who was the big guy, he was a homicide detective.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_05: He worked for uh Steve Wynn for 10 years, Garth Brooks bodyguard for three years.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_05: Garth loved him, man.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_05: And they still communicate once in a while.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_05: And uh Tony's gonna make sure nothing walks out the back door.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_05: Because people will steal.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_05: When I'm not there, Tony will be there.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I want to be there five nights a week.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_05: Even if I'm not performing, I want to walk through.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, how are you doing?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_05: How are you?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, what are you eating?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_05: You want another one?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_05: Bring this guy another loaf of bread.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_05: I want to be that guy.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_05: You like those clams?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_05: Bring him some more.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_05: Bring him another order of wings.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_05: What's it gonna cost me?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_05: I want to be that guy.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_05: I want people to feel like they're home.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: So that's what I'm aiming for.
• 30:30
  Dayna Roselli: Yep.
• 30:31
  Dayna Roselli: And spend hours there.
• 30:32
  Sean McAllister: Yeah, I I love that.
• 30:33
  Sean McAllister: But the whole idea of it, the whole idea of the entertainment and the heart and the emotion, and you know, having a place where people can go and sit down and and get that in uh an environment.
• 30:46
  Sean McAllister: We don't have anything really like that right now in Los Angeles.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_05: There really isn't.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, and the most of the stuff you see is when I see stuff contrived like they're trying too hard, that doesn't do it for me.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sorry, and I've seen it around.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, and I can't blame anybody because maybe it's just they don't know how to bring it out naturally.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I'm me wherever I go.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't use some of my vernaculars because the world's listening, but I mean that's me.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_05: When I get on stage, I'm me.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_05: I'm I throw the F-bomb once in a while, but that's me.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_05: People know that I it's coming from a good place in my heart.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_05: And I I believe I'm a good guy.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_05: I do love everybody.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_05: I hate everybody and I love everybody.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_05: If you're good to people, I love you.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_05: I don't care what you do, I don't care who you like, what side of the political fence you're on.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_05: If you're good, I love you.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_05: You hurt my family, I don't care who you are.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_05: You're you're no good to me.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_05: You know, and that's I that's how I've been brought up.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I thank God for that.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_05: I thank God for my father, who I haven't seen and you know, he passed uh it's 25 years now.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, and my mom, I just lost my mom to do it.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_05: I know.
• 32:05
  Dayna Roselli: But with all that said, your spirits are still so good.
• 32:08
  Dayna Roselli: They are an example, but I need to get back on stage.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_05: You do.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_05: And if you know, if anybody listening wants to be an investor in my place, you know, I wouldn't throw them out.
• 32:18
  Dayna Roselli: Okay.
• 32:19
  Dayna Roselli: But uh calling all investors.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, putting the word out.
• 32:22
  Dayna Roselli: All right, we're gonna take a super quick break.
• 32:24
  Dayna Roselli: We usually do this thing, Sean and I, where we do our secret tips, like little things we like in Vegas and things we so we want to ask you, because we're like, you know, Frankie's been here so long, we might as well ask what his tips are, right?
• 32:35
  Sean McAllister: And we know you know your way around this city a little bit.
• 32:38
  Sean McAllister: We are with uh lifelong entertainer, longtime Las Vegas resident Frankie Shinta, and we'll be back on Vegas Revealed.
• 32:46
  Dayna Roselli: Thanks for listening to Vegas Revealed.
• 32:48
  Dayna Roselli: We want to remind you of all the ways you can stay in touch with us, and one of our big ones is Vegas-revealed.com because on that website is all our information, all the ways that you can listen to the podcasts, and also links to all of our social media.
• 33:04
  Sean McAllister: And we put up some some great Las Vegas-related stories that and the happenings going on around town, so be sure to check that out.
• 33:12
  Sean McAllister: Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as we're out and about.
• 33:17
  Sean McAllister: That's where you'll see what we're up to, and of course, our YouTube page.
• 33:22
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, we've got it all, folks.
• 33:24
  Dayna Roselli: Go to vegas-revealed.com and see what we're all about.
• 33:30
  Sean McAllister: It is time for our tips of the week.
• 33:32
  Sean McAllister: We are with Frankie Shinta.
• 33:33
  Sean McAllister: And Frankie, I know that uh you have uh listen, I I know Dana knows this.
• 33:39
  Sean McAllister: There is always a quest to find the perfect pizza.
• 33:43
  Sean McAllister: And uh I'm wondering, have you found that out here in Las Vegas?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_05: There's so many.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_05: You know, there really is a lot.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um, like my friend Frank Bonanno's New York style pizza is incredible.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_05: The crust, it's a thin pizza, delicious, sweet sauce.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_05: But there's one that is kind of a secret, I think, because I'd never hear anybody talk about it.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_05: But me being a Sicilian, it's a Sicilian crust pizza, and it's a thick crust, but not a doughy, it's a thick, crunchy crust around the edge.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_05: And uh they use margarita pepperoni on it and the sweet, I think San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_05: Sweet basil on top with the mozzarella, and it's so good, it's like grandma made it.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's that thick, like it just comes out of the oven and it's like you bite into it, and the crust is like it even though it's like almost uh three-quarters of an inch thick, like a quarter of an inch of it is just thick, like crust.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's like you hear that crunch, and it's so good.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's that buttery golden crust.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_05: That's one of my favorites.
• 34:53
  Dayna Roselli: And you said the pepperoni is margarita pepperoni.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: Now, see, people cut corners.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know why, but back east, like in Buffalo, you can't go anywhere without getting a if you ask for pepperoni, that is nobody's gonna put anything but margarita pepperoni.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_05: Because the way it cooks down, it's a little more greasy, but you're eating pizza, you're not looking to diet.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_05: But I'm telling you, when it burns a little, the pepperoni on the top, and it just starts to shrink.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_05: And it's just so good.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_05: And it's you could buy it here though.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_05: You could buy margarita pepperoni here.
• 35:30
  Dayna Roselli: Okay.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_05: There's a few places.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_05: That's one of my favorite things.
• 35:34
  Dayna Roselli: And then it's Dom DiMarco's Pizza, right?
• 35:36
  Dayna Roselli: That's on Charleston's Marco's.
• 35:38
  Dayna Roselli: It's on Charleston, right?
• 35:39
  Dayna Roselli: Charleston and Wallapai.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's in the Smiths Plaza.
• 35:42
  Dayna Roselli: Okay.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_05: Dom DeMarco, El Scaliot owns it.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_05: Places I one of my favorite secrets, I gotta say, is the Italian American Club.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: They've moved the lounge into the big room, everybody's spread out, and you can hear live music.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's great to sit down and hear real, you know, and every night there's somebody different.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_05: I love that atmosphere.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_05: Not because I'm Italian.
• 36:06
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_05: Because you don't even have to be a member to go there.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_05: No, you can be.
• 36:10
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, we talked about that last week.
• 36:11
  Dayna Roselli: It's when I was there one time celebrating a friend's birthday, and you just showed up and got on stage.
• 36:17
  Dayna Roselli: Remember that.
• 36:17
  Dayna Roselli: And you were doing things.
• 36:18
  Dayna Roselli: I don't what was that thing?
• 36:19
  Dayna Roselli: You put the little napkin around your head and came in as an old woman.
• 36:23
  Dayna Roselli: What was that?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_05: Jerry Tiffy.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he was being uh Grandpa Nunzio, and I was I was being grandma somebody.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_05: And uh yeah, the argument we sang cia lalo no menzo.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_05: See, just we stuff like that, right?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: I love that stuff.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I live for that.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_05: But you know what?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_05: You if you look around, no matter where you're from, Vegas is I it's kind of still the melting pot of the world.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody comes here.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not sure about the entertainment capital anymore.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I think we could, it could be.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_05: And I think they gotta strive for that.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_05: Because, you know, when you call a city the entertainment capital of the world, you gotta have entertainment.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_05: Not just shows that, you know, that look at the back wall.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like nothing against, again, like I said, the big circuits.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_05: Those could go on with nobody in the audience.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_05: I want to show that's working to me.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_05: If I'm sitting there, I want them to look at me, talk to me.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_05: I want to feel that.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_05: And I think people are starving for that.
• 37:25
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, Frankie, what a pleasure.
• 37:28
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, it's great to see you.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_05: What a pleasure.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_05: And you know what?
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_05: One of my favorite pasta dishes, uh Penny vodka.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_05: Right in this place that we're seeing.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:38
  Dayna Roselli: It is and it's a great location, downtown Summerlin.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_05: We get it to go.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_05: It's I never order Italian to go.
• 37:44
  Dayna Roselli: Yeah, that's that's big time.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_05: And everything here is great too.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I I'm so glad we were able to meet today.
• 37:51
  Dayna Roselli: Yes, it's been great as usual.
• 37:53
  Dayna Roselli: So much to talk about.
• 37:54
  Dayna Roselli: We could talk to you forever, and we will continue to keep in touch and we'll see you back there.
• 37:58
  Dayna Roselli: Listen, thanks everyone for listening, and we'll of course be back next week here on Vegas Reveal.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_04: Top it's for the 15th.