Memorial Day Madness

Thousands of people are headed to the Strip this three-day weekend to shed their metaphoric shackles.

Comedian Tracy Morgan will be wearing a real one.

The "30 Rock" co-star is slated do his stand-up act Saturday at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay wearing a court-ordered ankle bracelet, which monitors for alcohol in his system.

"I have to wear the bracelet because of my legal woes," he says, referring to a drunken driving arrest in New York in November that violated probation for an earlier charge. The SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring) bracelet will test him for 90 days.

"I'm gonna still enjoy my weekend in Vegas," he says. "Just because I wear the bracelet doesn't mean I'm not going to enjoy my success. I don't have to drink any alcohol, so I'm good."

The 38-year-old comedian figures instead, he and his wife will "hit the roulette table. That's our game right there, roulette. Lose all our earnings."

Memorial Day weekend traditionally rivals New Year's for tourism, so Morgan will be surrounded by other headliners: Robin Williams, Mike Epps and Andrew Dice Clay, among them. In fact he's probably the least known as a stand-up, thanks to his years as a sketch comic on "Saturday Night Live."

"Stand-up comedy is the foundation of my career," he says, but "not many people know it. ... I started off doing stand-up in Harlem and that's my foundation.

"Whenever I have a chance to get back to my roots of comedy, I love to do that," he adds. "You have to water the roots, you know?"

Often, big-name comedians sidetracked by TV series will drop into clubs for unbilled sets to brush up their acts. Morgan says he prefers to test new jokes on his grandparents or his lifelong friends. "I still have my same old friends that I'm funny around. If they laugh at it, then it's funny and I put it onstage."

The three-day weekend falls in the middle of shooting a movie comedy, "First Sunday," with Ice Cube. Morgan says he looks forward to getting back to work on "30 Rock" later in the summer, playing a high-maintenance TV star who is a major head case.

"Everybody thinks everything that (the character) Tracy Jordan is doing is something Tracy Morgan has done," he says. "It's not like that. Maybe it's somebody that I know that's like that. ... I've never ran down the street in my underwear, but I know people who have done that."

Morgan has enough to deal with, given his alcohol arrests and a Florida radio personality alleging he groped her at the station.

"Even though me and Alec (Baldwin, his co-star) got in a little trouble, it will pass, and the show's gonna be great this season," he says. "Everybody supported me in my little drama. Life gets a little bumpy. It's not smooth for anybody. Nobody's exempt.

"Part of my life is public so people know about it. If I was a plumber and I had to wear a bracelet, nobody would care. But I'm on '30 Rock' and I'm Tracy Morgan, so I have to live with it. I'm not defending it," he adds. "It's not cool to drink and drive. I have young kids who look up to me."

But he forecasts a change in the weather. "It got a little bumpy in the beginning, but it looks like it's going to turn out to be a beautiful summer."

Other shows that will help get the summer off to a positive start for visitors and locals:

ON THE STRIP

Robin Williams recently was in town to present the "VH1 Rock Honors" to Genesis, which of course gave him a reason to do his fundamentalist preacher routine: "In the beginning, Genesis did it with sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Thirty years later, they're still doing it, but now it's with Propecia, Lipitor and Viagra!"

The rapid-fire comic vamped for time while the band tuned up by riffing on celebrities and his stint in rehab: "So much for what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." He performs Sunday at the MGM Grand Garden.

What happened to Andrew Dice Clay's career hasn't stayed private either. The comedian who ruled the roost in the late '80s took his comeback struggles public via reality TV with VH1's "Dice Undisputed." The latest chapter matches him with another struggling operation, magician Steve Wyrick's theater at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, today through Sunday.

Liza Minnelli returned to Las Vegas in October after an eight-year absence, then made up for lost time with a quick return in November and a retooled show in March that also celebrated her 61st birthday. The singer, who returns to Luxor today through Sunday, gives the right punch to the "too much pills and liquor" reference in "Cabaret" when she sings it these days, but the bigger emotion is one of triumph.

OUTSIDE

A booming summer for poolside concerts continues today at the Hard Rock Hotel with Dread Zeppelin, a favorite of beer drinkers and perennial answer to the oft-asked question: "What would happen if an Elvis impersonator fronted a band that played reggae versions of Led Zeppelin and other classic rock anthems?

There's no spoofery, and probably no Sly either, when the Original Family Stone plays the Suncoast on Sunday. And probably no Elvis jumpsuits worn by anyone in the Little River Band, poolside at the Silverton on Saturday and Sunday.

The king of the beach venues is Mandalay Bay, where Styx vies for attention with the wave pool on Sunday. The classic rockers are the subject of two current books: "The Grand Illusion" is by an actual band member, Chuck Panozzo; "The Grand Delusion," on the other hand, is an outsider's look at the intra-band bickering. Try not to get the pages wet.

LOCALS FRIENDLY

Las Vegans who couldn't flee town for the three-day weekend might begrudge the tourists on the Strip who could. There are several ways to avoid hostile traffic and parking vibes.

Green Valley Ranch breaks in its new Ovation concert venue with a two-night stand by underrated rock band Collective Soul today and Saturday. Chris Daughtry opens the big Tiger Jam benefit at Mandalay Bay, but Bo Bice, aka, "that other rock dude that was on 'American Idol,' " plays Santa Fe Station today.

Boulder Station offers a study in contrasts with rough-and-tumble Texas blues-rocker Delbert McClinton today, followed by the slick L.A. '70s pop of Toto on Saturday.

Those who live on the southern edge of the valley sprawl can pretend they're leaving town and go as far as the state line, where Smokey Robinson sings the Motown Classics in the Star of the Desert arena at Buffalo Bill's.