Flavor Flav clocks in at On The Record industry opening
The Kats@! Bureau at this writing is aboard a flight to an undisclosed location. More to be revealed, but I can tell you that the highly vocal infant across from me could have her own stage show like right now. This kid can bring it.
Onward:
OTR gets the Naughty
Naughty By Nature performed as expected and Flavor Flav — conveniently a Las Vegas resident — showed up unbilled on the first On The Record “OTR Wednesdays,” the club’s industry night at Park MGM. He wore the clock necklace, and also the leather trench coat.
To quote the capacity crowd, “Yeah Booooeey!”
The club hosted Questlove on Friday night, and Pete Wentz is up Saturday.
Magic Mark no more
Mark Shunock gave his notice Thursday night that he would no longer perform one of the two emcee roles in “Magic Mike Live” at Hard Rock Hotel. His last night is Jan. 13.
Bringing to mind some of the mannerisms of his Lonny character from “Rock of Ages,” Shunock was part of the show’s original cast when it opened in spring 2016. Lindsay Hailey remains in the primary host spot. Hotel officials say they want to keep the popular male revue running even through its planned four-month closing in early 2020, as it is renovated into Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
As for Shunock, he has a lot of other projects out there, and posted his plans on his Instagram account late Thursday night, thanking co-producers Channing Tatum and Base Entertainment and the Hard Rock Hotel. “Most importantly, thank you to the best cast & crew! These guys are incredible & will I miss the nightly shenanigans!”
Aaah, “Nightly Shenanigans,” a great title for something … maybe to showcase at The Space.
Ellie’s feelin’ ‘Blue’
Yes, this would have been more, uh, usable information prior to Friday night, BUT! The 2014 Miss Nevada America titlist Ellie Smith was cast as “drunk woman” in Friday night’s episode of the CBS series “Blue Bloods.” Smith’s portrayal was far out of character, but she is clearly toasting what is a major move in her career. She appeared opposite star Tom Selleck, and she’s sported what looked like a fur jacket and certainly oversized shades.
So you might not have recognized her, but it was her. Smith is also a great singer, and we’re always watching as her career advances … even if a bit tardy.
Higgins, too, feelin’ ‘Blue’
Actor John Michael Higgins and his family attended Blue Man Group at Luxor on Thursday night and posed for the requisite backstage photo with one of the Blue Men (not Vida) afterward. You might know Higgins from “America Says” on Game Show Network; I know him from the canine-comedy classic, “Best In Show,” with this fantastic exchange: “We’re in Philadelphia for 48 hours. How many tea services do you need?” “I have seven … Make it eight.”
Your Puddles moment
No water anymore at Cleopatra’s Barge, but we’ll have Puddles! Puddles Pity Party, 6-feet-8 inches tall (or 7 feet in heels) is headlining the dry-moated enclave Jan 17-19, Jan. 24-26, and Feb. 7-9. A sample of his YouTube hit parade is his David Bowie cover, “Space Oddity.” Puddles, whose legal name is Mike Geier, has 120 million views of these clips, many in collaboration with Postmodern Jukebox. There’s nothing else quite like him, in Las Vegas or anywhere.
Great Moments In Social Media
New to the column, #GMISM to the pre-show body roll sessions posted by by “Little Miss Nasty” on the show’s Instagram feed.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts.Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.