‘In for the Long Haul’

The four Australians known as Human Nature feel a lot more welcome after a year in Las Vegas -- and they don't have to sing for their supper anymore.

Donny Osmond talked up the vocal quartet on his website.

Teller, of Penn & Teller, came to the show on his birthday and has gone indoor skydiving with some members of the group.

They get recognized at Fresh & Easy.

They were delighted to discover, "there's snow next to the desert" and "a ski field" at Lee Canyon.

And they don't have to harmonize off the clock at Rao's.

Around the time of their Imperial Palace debut, the group found itself on the wrong end of a bocce bet with Harrah's executive Don Marrandino at the Italian restaurant at Caesars Palace. Marrandino offered to pick up the pricey check if the lads would stand up and sing for the whole dining room.

Now, "We have a cool relationship with the owner," says co-founder Andrew Tierney. Rao's proprietor Frank Pellegrino was "in a vocal group when he was younger and fell in love with us."

"It's actually kind of a small town, says Michael Tierney, Andrew's brother. "It's amazing how quickly you get to know the people in the town." Before the four made the trek from Sydney, "We probably thought it's a much bigger place."

Ticket-buyers now have two more years to get to know Human Nature. On Tuesday, a special show with mentor Smokey Robinson celebrated a two-year extension of the original year's contract.

The Motown legend's name is above the title with a "presents" endorsement, lending credibility to the quartet that introduces itself at the top of every show as "four white Aussies singing Motown."

Robinson also sends in friends, who reaffirm the reaction he had when the Australian lads first came to sing for him in a Los Angles recording studio. The most recent guest of honor was Eddie Holland of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote six of the Motown classics Human Nature covers, including "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "Stop! In the Name of Love."

"He said we have the same passion for the music. That 'You do it with the same passion that we did it with.' I think that's the best compliment we could get," Andrew Tierney says.

Human Nature has been together 20 years, but assumed it was starting over in the United States. Besides, the baggage the group arrived with wasn't necessarily the type that would earn them additional respect: Their fame was as a "boy band," an Aussie version of 'N Sync.

When the show opened last Memorial Day weekend, "We were scared," recalls singer Phil Burton. "Would we be on the next plane back to Sydney?"

Las Vegas-based producer Adam Steck convinced Harrah's Entertainment the group could fill the showroom long synonymous with "Legends in Concert" (which moved next door to Harrah's Las Vegas).

But it was an all-or-nothing bet. "We couldn't come and test the waters (with trial weekends) and go home. We'd go broke from the airfares," Burton says. "We had to just dive in the deep end and go for it."

Now, bass singer Toby Allen remembers his sister's chin dropping when he "made the mistake one day, it was fairly early on, of referring to here as 'home.' "

"We're in for the long haul now," Burton says. "The fears of leaving with our tail between our legs are gone."

The Human Nature story so far has a recession-defying happy ending, but the quartet hasn't ruled out impromptu restaurant recitals. "We're happy to get up and sing," Michael Tierney says, "to show people what we're good at."

They also demonstrate each night onstage, in matching retro tuxes and synchronized choreography, hard-charging through "Dancing in the Streets" and "Just My Imagination."

Motown is a universal language: Robinson told the group that in the early days, he and Berry Gordy Jr. decided, "We're not gonna make music for black people, we're gonna make music for everybody."

The four singers say the next step is to try record some new or non-Motown music later this year and to get some national talk show exposure.

Although, they laughingly recall, some patrons think they've already had it: "I saw you on Oprah," or "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." When they tried to set the record straight and say they haven't appeared on either, one lady insisted, "Yes, you have!"

Must have been Il Divo. But it confirms Burton's opinion, "There has to be a bit more familiarity with the group before we start doing original material onstage."

Maybe next May.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.