Las Vegas rockers to livestream during Strip event
Aisha Tyler says she and Joel McHale share DNA. She emphasizes, this is a good thing.
“We’ve both hosted ‘Talk Soup,’ and have known each other for years,” Tyler says. “He’s an old friend of mine. This all came through him.”
Tyler speaks of co-hosting, with McHale, the annual Imagine Dragons Tyler Robinson Foundation Rise Up Gala on Friday night at Wynn. The annual gala benefits the fight against pediatric cancer. TRF is named for Tyler Robinson, the young Imagine Dragons fan who died of brain cancer in 2013.
Imagine Dragons, with its latest roster of Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon and Ben McKee, will livestream their show-closing acoustic performance. The music segment starts at 9:30 p.m. Friday. Click to the Imagine Dragons’ YouTube page for info.
Tyler’s time in Las Vegas dates 25 years, to her early years as a stand-up at the since-razed Riviera Comedy Club in 1999. She’s working on the third season of “Criminal Minds: Evolution” and is directing several episodes in the coming season.
Tyler has also hosted “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” on The CW since 2013.
The comic-actor joins TRF for the second straight year with McHale, who has hosted the event on several occasions since it launched at then-Hard Rock Hotel (today’s Virgin Hotel) a decade ago.
Tyler is a fan of the band, beyond the music. She was impressed by the 2018 documentary “Believer,” which she called “extraordinary.”
Largely a project of Reynolds, the doc examined the conflict between the LGBTQ+ community and the LDS Church. The film followed Reynolds’ efforts to organize the Loveloud Festival in Orem, Utah.
“I have fallen for them in their ethical mission,” Tyler says. “When I watched ‘Believer,’ which was an incredibly affecting film, I just saw they were great guys taking on a great cause. To do this was a very, very easy yes for me.”
The Rise Up Gala raised more than $3.5 million last year at Resorts World, a record for the event, and has collected about $18 million since 2014. More than 85 percent of the money raised goes to families in need (go to TRF.org for more intel).
Imagine Dragons are currently touring behind the terrific new release, “Loom,” closing with four shows at the Hollywood Bowl the last two weekends of October.
Tyler has branched out to her own cocktail company, the organic, ready-to-drink margarita brand Losophē. Tyler is a former bartender who says, “I never want to see a Sex on the Beach again unless I’m having it.”
That material is to promote canned margaritas, not for the stand-up stage. Tyler says she’s closed the chapter on her years as a comedian. But she does remember her first nights under the lights at the Riv.
“I was a baby comic, and it was such a big deal for me, my first big gig,” she says. “I think I got, like, $1,000 for the week. It was a really big thing to be going to Vegas. It was a blast for a young comic, and it still is for me.”
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 X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.