There has been quite a burst of Vegas Darwinism on the Strip of late. Old shows close, new ones open and those caught in the middle try to adapt.

News of different paths for two old-school acts illustrates the lay of the jungle on the Strip and a possible course for the future.

The Scintas announced they would opt out of the Sahara on May 12 after a full year there, rather than tread water until the casino is handed off to a new owner. The announced buyer is a company headed by 31-year-old Sam Nazarian, which operates nightclubs, restaurants and boutique hotels in California. The smart money is on the new owners wanting to chase the Palms and Hard Rock Hotel crowd, which seems to appreciate a retro design aesthetic but maybe not Frank Scinta playing the spoons.

Either way the handoff will take at least a year, and Frank doesn't blame the Sahara if it opts not to spend much more on the place until then. "I think it's time," he said. "We gave it a valiant effort. The Sahara was not an easy property."

When the Scintas first came to town in May 2000, there were only two Cirque du Soleil shows instead of five. None of the "must sees" on the Strip had smashed the $100 price barrier. There was a more level playing field for the Scintas to go up against impressionists Danny Gans and Andre-Philippe Gagnon, or personality-based shows by Clint Holmes, Wayne Newton, Bill Acosta and David Cassidy.

Now, only Gans still has a year-round presence on the Strip. The big tickets are pricier, making it more likely the statistical customer who sees 1.3 shows per visit won't have the bucks for a second choice.

The Scintas will do two weeks at Harrah's in Atlantic City in May. They want to keep their families in Las Vegas, but may discover it's easier to work the booming circuit of tribal and regional casinos that are more like Vegas was in 2000.

Another Sahara performer, The Amazing Johnathan, plans to hang it up at the Sahara for health-related reasons at the end of the year. George Wallace isn't leaving the Flamingo, but he and Johnathan both plan to do "webisodes" for a new Internet TV channel, RawVegas.TV.

Wallace's manager, Christopher Pratt, says "The George Wallace Show" is "an opportunity to branch out in a way that we've never been seen before." The comedian "never really created much of an online presence. For us, a video blog is the next wave. Every 12-year-old kid has one, but George Wallace doesn't have one."

Las Vegas is "one of a handful of cities in the country that has that kind of international appeal and endless amount of content to cover," says Steve Preiss, president of Raw Vegas Productions.

If this turns out to be a new way to sell tickets to the club crowd, credit the 54-year-old Wallace for survival of the fittest.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Sundays and Thursdays. E-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjounal.com.