Johnathan’s show goes on, even after crash

Some days it's harder to be funny than others.

The Amazing Johnathan recently returned to the stage after a Feb. 15 car wreck that was bad, but could have been worse. "You'd be amazed we crawled out of it," he says, with no ironic tie-back to his show-business name.

Johnathan (Szeles) says he and girlfriend, Anastasia, were clobbered head-on in his 1967 Camaro as he pulled out of a gas station. No air bags in those models, so she hit the windshield and the steering column broke off against his chest.

"Not being able to breathe because of my chest injury," the emergency crew at Desert Springs "knocked me out and put me on breathing tubes and stitched my face and broken nose."

Last weekend he returned to the Harmon Theatre and did his show mostly sitting on a stool to ease the pressure on cracked ribs. "I'm concentrating on the pain and my timing was suffering," he says.

But he found that by telling the crowd what was going on, "they're a little bit more forgiving. They are on your side because you're trying to do it for them." He's even turned the car accident into a five-minute routine.

A new pharmacy and retail center has gone up in front of the Harmon Theatre, blocking its view from the Strip and CityCenter, but Johnathan says it hasn't impacted business much either way.

"We're not killing and we're not dying," he says. "We're just making it."

He's taken to booking himself out of town one weekend each month, and says he ran into George Wallace at the airport doing the same. "It's been 12 years since I've done a comedy club," but found "it's amazing how much they appreciate you" (again, no irony).

The tables have turned from a few years ago, when Las Vegas was easy money compared to the road. Now, he says, fans are happy once again to let the entertainers be the ones who travel. ...

Might as well start at the top, right? When I saw the email subject field about impressionist Jeff Tracta coming to the Palms, I figured it had to be the lounge. Nope. Turns out it's the Pearl concert venue, May 17-20.

Tracta (apparently losing the "h" from Trachta, as he was formerly billed) has raised his value on the convention and trade show circuit since the former actor on "The Bold and the Beautiful" ran an afternoon show at the Rio in 2006. And he's worked to sharpen his material, judging by his recent work opening Liza Minnelli's show at the former Las Vegas Hilton.

He is now represented by John McEntee, who guided Terry Fator to his berth at The Mirage before the two parted company. McEntee says the Pearl's seating capacity will be scaled down, but the Palms was willing to back the venture to see what it might lead to.

"It's something the Palms doesn't have," McEntee says of Tracta's demographic skewing to couples aged 30 to 60. "They see the value in that (traditional casino customer)," already having a good share of the younger nightclub market.

If it works, it could be a move similar to the House of Blues booking Carlos Santana as an anchor tenant; a means of keeping the Pearl in business more nights -- and for an older audience -- as new venues compete for the younger concert acts. ...

The Jabbawockeez are now citing April 21 as the closing date of the "MUS.I.C." show at the Monte Carlo, before the theater closes for remodeling by the Blue Man Group.

Blue Man has been more circumspect about when it would wrap its show at The Venetian or open its doors at the Monte Carlo. The show's website still sells advance tickets through Sept. 29.

The last time the Blue guys casino hopped, they didn't allow much down time. They closed at Luxor on Sept. 15, 2005 and opened in a new, custom theater at The Venetian Oct. 1. Students who want to help unroll some paper one more time there can use the promo code "StuRush" to get day-of-show tickets for $49.75.

And the blank-masked dancers of Jabbawockeez may not be finished in Las Vegas; they are said to be looking for a place to move the show instead of closing it. ...

Lest you think any local comedy operation would give it up, fear not. The Tropicana room long occupied by The Comedy Stop, and more recently by Brad Garrett, will reopen as a Las Vegas branch of Los Angeles' durable Laugh Factory. Garrett's new MGM Grand club will be right across the street.

And the ever-mobile promoters of the L.A. Comedy Club will spend four days each week for the rest of the month in the Cabo Wabo Cantina at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort. Today through Sunday it's Todd Paul, the variety comedian who had a sit-down run at Hooters Hotel. Lisa Landry follows March 22-25, and Adam Hunter ends the month March 29-April 1. ...

A title adjustment was called for when the downtown Fitzgeralds announced this week that it will rename itself The D Las Vegas.

So Kevin Burke's one-man comic variety show "Fitz of Laughter" will now be known as "Mind-Blowing Comedy." And no, so far it's not spelled "ComeD."

Producer John Bentham says planned renovations include improvements in the small corner showroom that also houses "Marriage Can Be Murder." And he likes the plan for an outdoor escalator delivering Fremont Street pedestrians to the second floor.

"I would like the escalator to drop them right at the box office," he quips.

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