Mayor Oscar Goodman cradles a martini at the 2004 opening of a restaurant in downtown Las Vegas. The Bombay Sapphire pitchman has agreed to teach a course at the Community College of Southern Nevada on how to make martinis. Review-Journal file photo

Now, it's professor Oscar Goodman.

Las Vegas' gin-swilling mayor will join the Community College of Southern Nevada staff in February to teach a class on how to make martinis.

Goodman was offered an adjunct professor position to teach the one-time, two-hour class, during which he will demonstrate how to mix martinis and then have a question-and-answer session with students.

Sorry, basket-weaving majors, there will be no credit awarded for successfully completing the class and any accompanying beverages.

"I'll do anything to further the educational opportunities in the valley," Goodman said.

The mayor will be compensated for teaching the martini class, but the amount will depend on enrollment. It's $15 to sign up and another $5 for class "materials," said CCSN spokeswoman Helen Clougherty.

The class can accommodate up to 40 people, and registration starts this morning at 8 a.m.

A CCSN program coordinator suggested in September that Goodman teach the class, Martinis With the Mayor, and offered him the title of adjunct professor.

Gin has been one of the pillars of Goodman's administration since he took office in 1999, with his self-described "degenerate" sports gambling and colorful past as a friend to and lawyer for reputed mob associates.

In 2002, Goodman received a $100,000 contract to endorse Bombay Sapphire. He donated the fee to a crisis intervention center and the private Meadows School.

He stirred controversy last year when he told a class of fourth-graders that he would take a bottle of gin with him to a desert island. He went on to list drinking as one of his hobbies.

In a letter asking Goodman to teach the class, Candia Ferrandiz, a program coordinator for CCSN, wrote: "I have been to several luncheons where you were the keynote speaker, and let's face it; I'm a huge fan (along with many others)."

Several years ago, Ferrandiz had contacted Goodman's office about the mayor teaching a continuing education class.

"I am making another attempt to see if you would like to add the title of Adjunct Professor to your impressive resume," she wrote.

The class "was just for fun," Clougherty said. "The personal enrichment and community programs teach a wide variety of classes."

Goodman's class is part of the college's inaugural Local Celebrity Forum, Clougherty said.

The mayor will teach one class. The other class will be taught by Denny Miller, known for playing Gorton's fisherman in television ads and for roles as Tarzan and on the Western "Wagon Train."

Miller's class will be called Didn't You Used to Be What's His Name? and is based on Miller's book of the same title.

Registration for the two classes is separate.

Asked about how he felt sharing billing with the face of fish sticks, Goodman said, "Maybe if I drink enough, I can play Tarzan too."