It's not just because he's "The Mentalist" that Gerry McCambridge can predict whether he will have a full house at his shows.

The mind reader, one of two shows unofficially set to replace Earl Turner at Palace Station on Feb. 5, has developed a Web site that serves as a conduit between the public and producers who want to paper their audience with free tickets.

The Vegas Seat Fillers site (www.vegasseatfillers. com) gives shows an outlet to advertise via e-mails offering free tickets. For instance, a producer might decide to give away 10 or 12 tickets in exchange for an e-mail going out to thousands of people.

"It was a labor of love at first," says McCambridge. "I could not believe how it has taken off with no publicity whatsoever."

Exposure helps answer one of the obvious questions: Why would shows want to give away tickets? And if they do, isn't that a kind of tainted advertising, a distress signal that a show isn't selling well?

McCambridge cites special occasions such as TV tapings or, ahem, nights when a reviewer might be in the audience. And, he notes, audience-participation acts such as hypnotists need a decent crowd from which to pull volunteers.

"Nobody really knows the truth but the producer or the publicist," he says.

"The Mentalist" might be using the site himself after Turner closes a 10-month run in the cabaret-sized Sound Trax venue on Jan. 28.

The energetic singer gave it his best shot in the locals-oriented casino after Hurricane Katrina closed his showroom at Harrah's New Orleans and forced him to move his family back to Las Vegas, where he had a strong following as a lounge act in the 1990s.

"This is a tough market now, man," Turner says.

Two of the challenges Turner found it hard to surmount: transporting pedestrians across Interstate 15 from the Strip, and Station Casinos not cross-marketing much of its entertainment among properties.

Stations also is geared to one-night concerts for locals, while an ongoing show markets itself through a different realm of the entertainment industry: commissioned brokers, time-share properties and same-day, half-price ticket outlets.

None of that seems too daunting for Paris Las Vegas hypnotist Anthony Cools, who is producing both "The Mentalist" at 9 p.m. and "Enchanted," a 7 p.m. show featuring female magicians. ...

It's full circle, sort of, for another entertainer cut from the old-school cloth, Stephen Sorrentino. The entertainer will be the first host for the long-running "Legends in Concert" tribute show, requiring a slight revamping of its format.

Sorrentino says his stint from Feb. 12 through May 29 -- which could be extended if it works out for both sides -- begins 10 years from the week that he first came to Las Vegas to do an Elton John segment as a "Legends" impersonator.

Since then, he has been trying to build up his own name as a singer and comic impressionist. A self-financed 2002 show at the Riviera, "Voices in My Head," didn't last, but did help him get corporate work and headliner engagements in Atlantic City.

Sorrentino sensed "Legends" management was receptive to new ideas. The show has faded into the background amid speculation about the future of the Imperial Palace. The producers kept asking him to return as Elton John, he says, but "it took eight years to get rid of that" and build up his own name.

Encouraged by Riviera marketing executive Jackie Brett, Sorrentino proposed the host idea. Replacing the recorded transitions with a human element offers "a whole new feel for the show" before he suits up as Elton.

(The only complication: The new format puts him in the weird spot of introducing himself. A video montage will give him about 90 seconds to change into his Elton get-up.) ...

"Saturday Night Live" veteran Joe Piscopo has been knocking at Las Vegas' door for years, and will give it another shot at the Las Vegas Hilton starting Feb. 18.

"Joe Piscopo Live" will take over the Shimmer Cabaret slot that will be vacated by the Motown tribute "Hitzville" on Feb. 12. But Piscopo will perform three nights per week, Sundays through Tuesdays, instead of two.

Veteran Las Vegas musical director Vince Falcone will helm a sextet to back Piscopo in a nightclub act that's sure to reprise his memorable Frank Sinatra imitation. ...

The Amazing Johnathan recently announced a year's extension at the Sahara. Though it's possible his recent Comedy Central special, "Wrong on Every Level," might have awakened interest from other properties, a huge banner on the south side of the Sahara suggests the casino may better appreciate its resident wild man now. ...

Finally, Rita Rudner and Clint Holmes have a show business connection that goes beyond her following him at Harrah's Las Vegas. Holmes is developing a West End or Broadway project with veteran director and acting coach Larry Moss. A workshop may be staged at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in May.

Rudner says she and Moss were both in the cast of the 1976 Broadway musical, "So Long, 174th Street."

"That was a great show for me because I lived on 64th and Broadway and the (Harkness) theater was on 66th and Broadway," Rudner recalled recently. I said, 'I hope this is a long run because I just have to walk across the street.' But it wasn't. It lasted for three weeks."

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