Piff, puppet, protocols permeate new show at Flamingo

In his new Flamingo Showroom production, Piff the Magic Dragon works with one real dog, one puppet dog and several metaphorical elephants.

This is because of pandemic protocols, naturally.

“There are lots of elephants in the room. In fact, we just put up a yellow fence onstage to make sure we are 25 feet away from the audience,” Piff said Saturday in a postmortem chat from his opening shows at Flamingo, where he returned Thursday night with a show titled “Too Soon?”

“We have the distance to deal with, the masks (everyone onstage wears one, except for the dog), the reduced capacity of a couple hundred in a thousand-seat room. A lot of elephants.”

The room seats 720, at full capacity. But point taken.

To account for wasted space, Piff has rolled out artificial turf in place of table seating in front of the stage, with a sign reading “Keep Off Grass By Order Of Mr. Piffles.”

The comic magician is the first headliner to return in COVID, but he’s working in an ensemble format. His cast is showgirl Jade Simone, Squire Brett Alters, comic/writer/magician/podcast host Matt Donnelly as The King with The King Cam onstage video device.

Piff has also promised guest drop-ins, and on opening night Toby Allen of Human Nature sang and danced “Sway” with Simone.

Of course Mr. Piffles remains the show’s canine sidekick. Piff (legal name John van der Put) has unveiled the Mr. Piffles ventriloquial figure, voiced and operated by Alters. The puppet Piff seems as if he’s channeling a past-his-prime, Borscht Belt comic, singing what sounds like a modified cover of “New York, New York.”

“Where’s the buffets?” Piffles sings. “The Cirque du Soleis have all gone awaaaaaay.” The puppet also repeatedly calls out to an unseen individual, “Hey, Milt! Where was the that place we used to get steak and pancakes for three dollars!?”

“Who’s out there?” Piff asks, standing several feet away.

“Milt!” the puppet shouts, gesturing far off, to the balcony.

We never meet Milt.

Piff later explained the vision behind the character.

“He’s kind of like those acts who are shouting up there, they need to know where the stage is and which way to face the audience,” the headliner said. “He’s performing until he drops.”

Piff’s shtick is to be mildly inconvenienced by everything around him, which works effectively amid all COVID directives in the updated show.

“If I’m frustrated by COVID situation, I’ll vent it,” The “America’s Got Talent” alum said. “The audience is frustrated, too. But we are doing it to stay safe.”

Piff’s audience-participation segments require guests called, who use a hand-sanitizing station at the top of the steps, to be 6 feet away. He uses retractable wands to move them around the set.

The costumed dragon complains incessantly through these routines. “No! Stay distant, now move over there! Face the camera! Pull on the gloves! We need to be safe!”

Those bits, at least in the opener, ran uncommonly long. The woman whose iPhone was retrieved in a glob of peanut butter (if memory serves, I began daydreaming during this bit) seemed onstage for an eternity.

“I’m used to doing a joke every four seconds, but bringing a show into the Flamingo Showroom, I’m improvising my way through the show,” Piff said. “We are really compressing the audience participation. It’s like any show, you need to really work on it over a few months. For us, it’s been a matter of days and weeks.”

Sixteen days of prep time, to be exact, to move from Piff the Magic Dragon Theatre Bugsy’s Cabaret to the former Donny & Marie Showroom. The show has sold tickets without any broker support, a uniform concern for shows returning who are going directly through the box office or Ticketmaster (though Vegas.com is came back online over the weekend).

Signage and rack cards around the casino are lagging behind the show’s return, which was fast-tracked after the state allowed gatherings up to 250.

“Every single night, we are dealing with major changes,” Piff said. “We are adapting to what is going on at the moment. But I’ve always said, we have to come back somehow, and seeing and hearing people laugh again, there’s nothing else like it.”

Emmet’s single

Daniel Emmet, also an “AGT” finalist, has released his latest single ‘The People,” a collab (or, “collaboration,” if you will) with rapper Faded Breezie. If the title seems familiar, it should. The two debuted the song during Emmet’s run at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace in August 2019.

Emmet is a classically trained tenor who samples an array of contemporary styles. Breezie is a Dominican-American rapper. Both live in Las Vegas. The artists’ differing genres has created an anthem of unity.

“I hope those who hear ‘The People,’ will believe in its message,” Emmet says. “Every person has a voice that deserves to be heard. In these unprecedented times, the need to listen to one another, and to feel that you have been heard is even greater.”

Z.B. and DJT Jr.

Chris Phillips, better known around these parts as Zowie Bowie, sang the national anthem at Donald Trump Jr.’s $1,000-per-ticket, VIP gala at Ahern Hotel on Sunday afternoon. ZB is a lifelong Republican who considers himself a “moderate conservative,” but says he would sing the national anthem for either candidate. Say this for Phillips, he brings the party — political, costume, New Year’s Eve, whatever.

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.