Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

COLUMN: Mike Weatherford

Magician Dirk Arthur moving his menagerie to Plaza

No one can predict how many paying customers will show up, but at least the backstage of the Plaza hotel will be busier than it has been in years.

Dirk Arthur has been measuring the stage and wing space of the 1971 showroom to figure out how he's going to pack in the tigers, leopards, ducks, cars and helicopters used in his "New Art of Magic" show.

Arthur last week finalized a deal to move into the downtown showroom, with a target opening day of Sept. 24.

"Everything is going to seem so big," Arthur says of the "classy, vintage showroom" with a 30 foot-wide stage. The backstage logistics will be "kind of like a huge jigsaw puzzle, but the good thing is the illusions will appear to be absolutely gigantic."

Arthur closed his show at the Silverton last month after an 11-month run. He had hoped to move straight to another venue without having to store his props, but talks with the Plaza, Lady Luck and Sahara lingered on.

The magician will partner with Scott Groseclose, the president of Family Music Centers, who has the master lease on the showroom at the Jackie Gaughan property.

Groseclose produces The Comedy Zone stand-up showcase and late-night spin-off show "Hellbent for Humor," both of which will continue after Arthur's 7 p.m. showcase. The magician also will offer a 3 p.m. matinee on Sundays.

Arthur plans to stick with a $29 base ticket price, which worked out to $34.95 with taxes at the Silverton.

Oddly enough, it was Bill Moore -- producer of "Nudes on Ice," the last high-profile success at the Plaza -- who encouraged Arthur to investigate the room.

"Nudes" cashed in on free publicity from David Letterman and the like in the late '80s. But for most of the '90s, the Plaza merely limped along with low-profile topless revues and female impersonator Kenny Kerr. The showroom closed completely for a time in early 2002, and hotel management considered turning it into a bingo hall.

Arthur is glad that didn't happen. "The people who did the architecture on the room really knew about shows," he says. He will put in new curtains and lights while striving to "keep the feel of a classic showroom." ...

If you thought new shows such as "Zumanity" nailed the lid on Las Vegas' reputation for Ed Sullivan-era entertainment, think again. Sullivan is staging a bit of a comeback in these parts.

Jerry Hoban, who was prominent as a Sullivan impersonator in the bizarre Jackrabbit Slim's themed-restaurant scene of "Pulp Fiction," has been surprising audiences as an added "opening act" for the Las Vegas Hilton's Beatles tribute, The Fab Four.

Now comes news that the Flamingo Laughlin has committed to a Sept. 8 to April 11 run of "A Really Big Shew," the Sullivan review Hoban has staged at the Hilton's smaller NightClub and other casino venues. ...

Coast Casinos is having some fun with the "Martin & Lewis" billing of their Sept. 20-21 teaming of Ricci Martin with Gary Lewis & The Playboys.

Listings for the date -- which was David Brenner's before he signed a long-term deal for the new Westin Casuarina -- read, "Martin & Lewis ... Cannot Make It But Their Sons Can.

No telling what Dean Martin would say, since he left this world in 1995. Las Vegan Jerry Lewis apparently didn't know about the billing until it was announced, but now is "on board with it," says Roy Jernigan, who books headliners for the Suncoast and The Orleans.

The novel teaming of the two acts "can become a nice little thing for them if its handled properly," Jernigan says.