More shows are squeezing into Planet Hollywood

If you ride that ozone-bound escalator all the way to the second floor of Planet Hollywood, you will soon find a lot more shows there.

After moving his “Crazy Girls” into the Sin City Theatre last year, producer Norbert Aleman has now leased a former nightclub space a short distance away and is moving the “Sin City Comedy & Burlesque” show into it so he can open more shows in the original venue.

The older venue will host four titles: comedy-magician Murray at 4 p.m., a new musical tribute to boy bands called “Everybody” at 5:30 p.m. starting June 24, a new magic show by Xavier Mortimer at 7 p.m. starting June 6, and “Crazy Girls” at 9 p.m.

Across the hall, the Crazy Girls Cabaret will be the new home of “Sin City Comedy & Burlesque” starting June 5 at 8 p.m.

Hold on, the inner proofreader in you cries out. The “Crazy Girls” show is not in the Crazy Girls Cabaret, which is decorated with memorabilia from the 30-year history of the revue?

This is correct. Aleman says he spent about $1 million to remodel the Sin City club and give it a larger stage, better lighting and a curtain needed for the show’s transitions.

The new cabaret a short walk away is an environmental cocktail lounge similar to the bygone Pussycat Dolls lounge at Caesars Palace. Dancers create sexy shadows behind screens and pole-dance on a small stage, one that also happens to have room enough for the “Sin City” stand-up comedians and burlesque dancers.

Now that we have that straightened out, let’s confuse you again. The “Crazy Girls” show is topless but doesn’t serve alcohol. The Crazy Girls Cabaret has a bar, but the dancers are “covered.”

The explanation may be more than nonindustry folk want to hear. But, basically, topless shows are allowed under a casino’s unrestricted gaming license, while freestanding topless dance clubs are subject to the county’s most stringent and restrictive zoning.

What once was a simple separation has become murkier in the era of casinos surrounded by adjacent retail space or leasing out space within the casino.

Aleman has his own liquor licenses for the showroom and cabaret, but both would require topless-club licensing if he wanted to serve alcohol during a topless show. In his case, it makes more sense to turn off the taps during “Crazy Girls” and rake in bar revenue during the other shows than to let Planet Hollywood operate the bar and lose that revenue.

The Crazy Girls Cabaret opened quietly in March for a break-in period. Beyond the ticketed comedy show, the room will soon host the only open-mic night on the Strip. It otherwise serves as a no-cover charge lounge with music reined in to conversational levels, something often requested by a large demo of people who are, to paraphrase Jethro Tull, “Too old to EDM, too young to die.”

The new schedule does put two magicians into the same room. Murray Sawchuck says he was told this was happening rather than being asked, but his afternoon time slot somewhat distances him from “Xavier Mortimer’s Magical Dream,” along with all other evening competitors.

“Filling those empty seats, that’s the real art of making a show work in Las Vegas,” Sawchuck says.

And it sounds like their styles couldn’t be more different. Murray offers personality-based comedy magic, while Mortimer’s is theatrical and visual, rooted in his dance and mime training. Maybe you saw him on “America’s Got Talent” last year doing a physical comedy routine with cymbals.

“I studied theater and dance and I write my own music,” he says, “but I was scared about that. Vegas is more like magic, magic, magic. But a lot of people convinced me, ‘Let’s try it. Let’s do something different.’ ”

Mortimer established himself as a touring magician in France before Cirque called him to audition for the Jackson-themed show. He was doing well enough with his “Shadow Orchestra” that he had to think about it. He first told his magic backers he would spend six months in the Cirque show and “come back even stronger,” but six months turned into three years.

The new show is produced by fellow Frenchman Alex Goude, who helmed and starred in “Twisted Vegas” at the Westgate Las Vegas. Mortimer says the curtain and expanded staging for “Crazy Girls” will be maxed out for his show.

“Some of the tricks we are doing in this room,” he says of effects including holograms. If they work, “people are going to be (amazed) by just the fact that we are doing them in this room.”

For instance, in one bit — which he also will perform on Penn & Teller’s CW series “Fool Us” — “I’m skipping rope and I fly while I skip rope.” …

Vinnie Favorito, the comedian clouded by numerous claims of unpaid personal loans, is moving to Hooter’s Casino, where he reopens June 16. He has already closed at the Tommy Wind Theater, where he worked since June of last year, after the Flamingo dropped his show.

Tommy Wind, the magician whose family operates the freestanding theater, also says his family is taking over producing duties for the male revue “Men of Steele” from producer-performer London Steele. The show changed its name to “Men of Vegas” on Thursday without an interruption in the performance schedule.

Steele “came in at such a professional level with such a quality product that we made him an offer to purchase the show,” Wind says. Steele will no longer be involved on a creative level or with day-to-day management of the revue.

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.