Las Vegas customers gambling with face covers

Las Vegas’ reopening is reflected in my new collection of face masks. Early favorites include those provided at Bellagio, and also The Mob Museum. Friends have been making and sharing face covers, and I am awaiting delivery of a Majestic Repertory Theatre mask from my buddy and company artistic director Troy Heard.

One day we’ll have an impressive array of COVID-19 face masks. Maybe we’ll trade them, like Topps baseball cards in the old days. Or, stage an exhibit of face covers at a downtown art gallery.

But in the here and now, face covers are encouraged health-safety accessories. In my early experience, folks are either reluctant to wear them or have ditched the option entirely.

This is purely a result of my own observations and reports from the streets in the early phases of Phase Two reopening. Over the past four days I’ve experienced a widespread disconnect between casinos’ extensive implementation to social-distancing protocols, and customers’ resistance to follow those protocols.

I’ll tell on myself, too. I have not always kept my face under wraps while returning to the VegasVille scene. I walked through MGM Grand on Sunday, my face uncovered while I absentmindedly carried my Bellagio mask. It’s a process.

The resistance of masking has been evident downtown, at the D and Golden Gate, where dancers in the gaming pits are wearing face coverings (some in clear-plastic shields) while many customers are not.

At Bellagio, the hotel has thoughtfully set adhesive decals on floors inside its conservatory and separated the entrance and exit. But when guests are not standing on those spots, they are milling around, mostly mask-free, on the casino floor. Word from out of the Cosmopolitan is the casino was slammed Saturday night, and hardly anybody wore masks. At Red Rock Resort, friends report a naked-faced crowd assembled at the bar at Rocks Lounge, happily chatting and imbibing at close range.

In every instance, the hotel staff is properly prepared. But you can’t force customers to wear these masks. I spoke with a person waiting to be seated at a Las Vegas restaurant over the weekend who said, “I’ve been wearing a mask all day at work, and I’m not wearing one to dinner.”

The issue is left in the hands, and on the faces, of people who have been under a shutdown for three months. We’ll learn the consequences of this behavior soon, with the number of new coronavirus cases. But already, in the casinos and in spirit, we’re throwing the dice. Wish us luck.

We won’t C-her

(Nod to Carrot Top for that headline, inspired by a joke written by his nephew.)

Cher fans were abuzz over the weekend that the superstar who sings “If I Could Turn Back Time” was resetting the clock. It appeared that Cher’s return to Park Theater had been announced on her Facebook fan page.

Tickets were listed onsale beginning July 11. But no, this seems an automated post linking to 10 existing dates on Ticketmaster.

A rep for series promoter AEG Presents said Sunday that there was no announcement regarding Cher’s return. MGM Resorts International says the shows have not been taken down from the Ticketmaster site. The same is true of the July 10 listing for Joe Rogan.

All of Cher’s shows, and residency productions at Park Theater, are subject to Phase Three directives. In the interim she continues to post regularly to Twitter, saying Saturday she wished she could take part in ongoing Black Lives Matter protests but has been “very sick.”

Your reopening moment

The Golden Tiki, the Polynesian-themed nightspot in the Chinatown strip mall on 3939 Spring Mountain Road, returned to action this weekend. Esteemed DJ Professor Rex Dart headlined the party Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

And you know Vegas is back when Insomniac and Electric Daisy Carnival founder Pasquale Rotella is in the room, which he was Saturday.’

Golden Tiki Managing Partner Branden Powers has made the unfiltered decision to ban smoking at the club.

“I just didn’t want people blowing smoke around when we have a coronavirus pandemic,” Powers said. “We’ve had a few complaints, but not too many.”

Home of myriad shrunken heads and the animatronic Captain WTF (William Tobias Faulkner), The Golden Tiki is in position to fill some of the void in VegasVille nightlife. Just smoke outside, or in the past, or not at all.

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.