‘Talent’ still has stories to tell

Attention "America's Got Talent": Entertainers are real people, too.

I joked a while back about the way Antonio Restivo and his fire illusions are being introduced to millions of viewers on "America's Got Talent."

The show has been a big boost for Las Vegas performers, even as it ignores the concept of a working entertainer: the employed but not famous folks who perform up and down the Strip. Instead, it's as if Restivo just whipped up all those cool fire gadgets in his garage just for Sharon, Piers and Howie.

"The idea of a regular person being on the show is a greater success story for America," Restivo explains of "Talent's" focusing on his eight pre-Vegas years of selling books and jewelry from his van, which often doubled as his apartment.

While that was all true, a planned three-day stop turned into five years of solid work on the Strip. People kept telling the scary-looking guy he would be perfect for the campy vampire-themed "Bite": "If you were in it, it would be a good show."

He inquired, and the producer agreed. Within a year, he was the "Tournament of Kings" bad guy as well.

Then came the six-month attempt to launch his own show, "Ignite," in the depths of the recession. "It cost me everything I had," Restivo says.

"I didn't pay my mortgage for six months. Every penny I made went into that show. I really was chasing a dream," he says. "But if you don't try, you never know. I would rather do it and fail with it than not try at all."

From 9 a.m. to 3:30 each day, he would hang out at ticket booths to promote the show, before a quick nap and two shows. On his best day, he sold 105 tickets, and "Every one of those people I met that morning and convinced them."

Restivo offered open-door access to witness his show business dreams and struggles. Before it opened, he let me come watch fire inspectors sign off his pyrotechnics. The inspectors were surprised to see me there.

When the show closed in October, I hung around to talk to the newly unemployed cast. It wasn't the publicity one seeks, but a real moment, lighter on tears than one might expect.

I should have brought a camera crew. The short life of "Ignite" was a reality TV-worthy struggle. Would "America's Got Talent" concur? As Restivo advances from taped preliminaries to live competition in Los Angeles, maybe we will hear more. There is hope.

Perhaps it was in the interest of brevity, but Las Vegas-based Murray (Sawchuck) was able to tell the judges plain and simple, "I make a living as an entertainer. I'm a magician."

You can bet he has a story, too. I know part of it includes the old Frontier hotel.

Let's hope he gets the chance to tell it.

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