Vegas has a big midweek comedy show to help the troops
I usually interview Ron White about his fondness for weed or falling off of porches while drunk, but this time it’s serious because on Wednesday he will stage a big Vegas TV special for the Armed Forces Foundation.
“Ron White’s Salute to the Troops” fundraiser is White’s seventh at The Mirage. White will perform with comic friends Kathleen Madigan, Rocky LaPorte, Shane Torres, Gene Pompa and Finesse Mitchell.
“It’s a great lineup,” White told me. “It’ll be a hoot.”
He said Vegas is a good fit for the annual fundraiser because the Terry Fator Theatre is “as good a room as you can have for this” and Vegas offers nonstop flights for cast and crew.
“We work on this all year. It’s always a preoccupation,” White said. “We spend a whole year writing my set and dialogue and just talking about it.
“I guarantee there’s people who watch television who have no idea how complicated it is to make a television show.”
White knows it’s easy for all of us to forget the infinite war is still going on.
“But this country is still at war. These guys and gals are coming home, blown to smithereens, worse than any war in the history of war,” he said.
“They’re ours — they’re our young men and women forever, and we have to take care of them. They’ve given a sacrifice to this nation that should humble every one of us.”
Country Music Television will record the show for a later airing. Tickets cost $91-$122 via Ticketmaster or at the door.
‘TAXICAB CONFESSIONS’
Did you know cabbies get kickbacks from strip clubs and brothels to drive tourists to their front doors? Vegas drivers also deal with scary, gun-toting customers on occasion, and they get randomly drug-tested.
In this week’s episode of the “Doug Elfman Show,” one of Las Vegas’ most influential Twitterers, a driver by the handle of @LVCabChronicles, talks about all of that craziness, plus he dishes details about women who did certain things in his backseat.
Just for you, I have made the “Doug Elfman Show” available for free and immediately on iTunes, Android podcast apps, and DougElfman.com.
UPDATES ON SIMON, DRAI’S
A lot of people seemed quite upset to read in my Saturday column that Simon at Palms Place is shutting down, while chef Kerry Simon battles a physically debilitating disease.
But I neglected to mention you can still eat there until its final day, May 22. The Palms opens a “new, casual concept operated by Palms” on May 23, the hotel said in a news release.
The Palms’ statement also thanked Simon and his team for “7 wonderful years,” promising to offer “Best of Simon” items on the new menu.
I also forgot to mention in a piece on dayclubs that Drai’s Beach Club reopens at The Cromwell this Friday, with upcoming DJs Warren Peace (Saturday and March 20) and Shift (Friday and March 15).
YOU’LL WALK FOREVER
If you haven’t heard, a gargantuan music fest called Rock in Rio is coming to Vegas on May 8-9 and May 15-16, starring Taylor Swift, John Legend, Deftones, Metallica, Mana, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Linkin Park, No Doubt, The Pretty Reckless, Sepultura, Bruno Mars and Joss Stone.
So here’s the thing. This festival expects up to 85,000 people will take over that 40-acre space at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, right?
So how are you going to get there?
Oh, you’re going to walk your rear off, my friend. You better shine your pedometer for this trek.
On Monday, the show’s local corporate partner, MGM, let us media know that Rock in Rio organizers have developed a plan! And the plan is …
“With no parking allowed in the area surrounding the venue, attendees are encouraged to arrive each day by the Las Vegas Monorail, shuttle or foot.”
Yay, feet!
But let’s be real. Every music festival has sucky arrival/exit options. I’ll go a step further and proclaim I have hated driving to, parking at and driving away from every single concert I have ever gone to. Hated.
So we can all be cynical and complainy about how we’re going to arrive at Rock in Rio, but you might as well suck it up, revelers, for Taylor Swift and Metallica will make you sweat. Your feet. Your pits. Sweat. You’re going to have to deal with it.
Although, if you’re not going to Rock in Rio and you dread the traffic it’s going to cause, complain away.
Monorail tickets cost $5-$22. (Tickets.lvmonorail.com/rockinriousa2015/).
You can pick up prepaid shuttle passes at MGM Resorts Village, the Downtown Events Center or World Market Center (RockInRio.com/USA/Festival-travel-options/).
Shuttles will drop people off way over at the Gold Lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where you will still have to walk a ways to get to the concert.
Sooo, I don’t know what to tell you. I would just walk, if I were you, even if it’s from Summerlin, because, I mean, come on, these options do not sound pleasant.
GRONK SMASH!
A month ago, Gronk (Rob Gronkowski) caught footballs as a tight end for the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, and on Saturday night, here’s how everyone treated him like a king at Surrender nightclub.
He and his brothers and friends ate at Andrea’s restaurant, then they walked into Surrender, where confetti greeted them, and then a Vince Lombardi-themed cake was carried to his table, plus a cake shaped like a football, and then the club led chants of “Gronk Spike,” because he spikes footballs he catches, so he smashed some cake on his brother’s head, and then he drank some Champagne right out of the bottle, and then he danced like Gronk on the dance floor. Gronk smash!
How terrific, unless you despise the New England Patriots, in which case this makes you sick to your stomach.
By the way, why does Gronk remind me of Mongo (“How Mongo get air?”) from “Blazing Saddles?”
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
