Ticket Web site changing hands

The site formerly known as Vegas Seat Fillers is now known as Show Tickets 4 Locals after Gerry McCambridge, who performs as “The Mentalist,” sold it to Chip Lightman, former manager of impressionist Danny Gans.

“I really liked what he’s doing, but wanted to make it more of a locals’ appreciation site,” says Lightman. The old name made it sound “like shows were in trouble,” he adds. “There’s no way we’d get the big shows with a name like that.”

Gans has agreed to help the effort by taking seats out of his personal ticket block once or twice per month. Lightman hopes other big names will follow the lead to reward locals.

(An e-mail to members announcing the pending availability of Gans tickets comes with a few ground rules. One instructs, “Please never let paying customers know that you have free tickets. Tourists will not understand.”)

The original name came from a show business practice that started with the Academy Awards; when a star left the audience to go backstage for a presentation, a well-dressed “seat filler” would take the seat so it wouldn’t be vacant in camera pans of the crowd.

McCambridge always maintained that it was none of his business to ask questions or embarrass entertainers, but merely to match producers who needed to fill seats for any reason with locals always on the search for free tickets.

But in practice, daily offers for impressionist Larry G. Jones at Fitzgeralds became more the norm than recruiting extras for television, as psychic Sylvia Browne did recently to tape a “Montel” segment at the Excalibur. Struggling shows such as “Fashionistas” could get their name in front of a big e-mail subscriber list by offering relatively few tickets, then substitute a two-for-one offer when the freebies were gone.

McCambridge said the site — similar to another enterprise called House Seats Las Vegas — was started on a whim as an entrepreneurial lesson to his son on how to launch an Internet business. As such, it was a success: “I sold it in less than six months,” he says. But taking it to the next level would be “too much like a real job.”

Lightman says about 850 paid subscribers get e-mail blasts 30 minutes before about 11,000 people who sign up for free. Banner ads and coupon offers on the site and in e-mails are expected to be the main revenue stream. ….

If they want magicians, they came to the right place. An upcoming NBC series called “Phenomenon” positions itself as an “American Idol” for illusionists and mentalists. Producers have yet to decide whether the October series will be staged in Los Angeles or Las Vegas, but auditions will be Sunday at Luxor.

“We’re looking for the wow factor,” says casting producer Alicia Good of the show with future Luxor star Criss Angel signed as a host and judge. E-mail Good for details on the open call at alitexas@mac.com. …

Though he arrived a bit late in the summer, ventriloquist Ronn Lucas has made good his jump to Luxor. Word started spreading in June that Lucas was bailing out of Steve Wyrick’s theater in the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood. He closed shop there June 30 and didn’t resurface until Aug. 12, losing a potentially lucrative July for the family-friendly matinee.

Regardless, the first Luxor week was “gangbusters,” says producer Adam Steck, who also oversees Louie Anderson and “Thunder from Down Under” next door at Excalibur. Lucas shares the Atrium Showroom with two evening shows, Carrot Top and “Fantasy.”

Steck also foretells a promising future on the Strip for psychic Sylvia Browne, currently doing a limited run at the Excalibur. As a longtime talk show guest of Montel Williams and Larry King, the spiritualist has drawn her share of publicity as well as skepticism.

Browne and singer Clint Holmes were both candidates to fill in for Anderson during a vacation. Instead of choosing between the two, casino officials decided to back Holmes’ run in the showroom and allow Steck to promote Browne’s shows in a ballroom. “It’s a completely different demographic. It’s not like we’re competing,” Steck notes.

Browne’s shows continue through Monday; Holmes goes through Aug. 31. …

Bill Fayne, Holmes’ stage sidekick and musical director, doesn’t believe in a day off. When Holmes’ limited-run acoustic show is off on Sunday, Fayne will be at the Bootlegger Bistro with “My Life in Music.”

Mike Weatherford’s entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.