Entertainer mesmerizes Christmas light fans

On a recent weeknight outside the Las Vegas home of Strip entertainer Marc Savard, Idina Menzel’s voice could be heard imploring visitors to “let it go” while strings of holiday lights blinked in syncopated rhythm. A dozen visitors lined the sidewalk to stare at Savard’s much-acclaimed annual lights extravaganza.

Despite the responsibilities of being a husband, the father of four young daughters, and putting on his “Comedy Hypnosis” show six nights a week, for the past seven years Savard has produced the mesmerizing display. For some in the community, it has become a beloved tradition and has even earned its own Facebook page with a YouTube video shot from the sky: www.facebook.com/houseonrobindale.

Savard began bewitching locals in an effort to get into the holiday spirit “by putting it directly in our front yard,” he said. He and his wife, Joanna, from Canada and their family were all far away.

Savard’s comedy-hypnosis show will celebrate its 10th year in the V Theater in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood this February, but in the early years he took it on the road. The many hours spent setting up the traveling show was good training for his home project, he said. “I used to design all the lighting for my touring production. Had I known I was honing my skills for a Christmas light display …”

In past years some of his now-departed staff members pitched in to string the lights, but this year he enlisted help from members of the UNLV branch of the Lambda-Chi fraternity.

Setting up the display involves a 65-foot boom lift and took two days and about 160 hours, Savard said, “but that’s not really where all the work is. The work is in the programming. The programming is absolutely ridiculous. We add more pieces in every year, but the truth is, it takes so long to program a song that it hurts my feelings to throw something away,” which is why the production has grown to more than 90 minutes of programmed music. “It’s so labor-intensive, it’s difficult to just turn my back on it,” he said.

Chateau Savard is a 3,600-square-foot, five-bedroom house on almost an acre in the southeast side of town for which the couple paid $435,000 in 2009, a drop of $40,000 from the 2003 sale price of $475,000 according to county records.

The single-story house features a split-floor plan with the master bedroom and nursery on one side, and the other bedrooms, a playroom and laundry on the other. In the center is a large family room and kitchen, visible directly through the custom bar the Savards installed just off the front door. It is faced with a custom vinyl wall wrap featuring black and white photos of virtually every entertainer to ever play Las Vegas. It was probably a living room once, and now serves as their game room.

They updated the house by removing some railings, closed off a room or two, refaced the fireplaces, and added 5-inch crown molding and baseboard.

The décor was “very Tommy Bahama, with the big fans with leaves on, green carpet and peach walls,” Joanna Savard said. They have put their own stamp on it, and it’s very theatrical. Several doors are painted black and silver, like a magician’s stage prop. “We like bold,” they both said.

Every bedroom has its own special décor and theme. The master bedroom is painted crimson and gray. The family room is navy against a black-and-silver glass tiled fireplace. A traditional chandelier hangs over a conversation area, while a modern Sputnik fixture hangs in the games room. No two ceiling lights are the same, yet they blend together to cast a vibrant, crisp glow against the dark hardwood floors.

The finishes the couple used are all highly detailed, with glistening glass tiles everywhere. In the master bath they installed an oversized shower with eight heads, and gold light fixtures that look like diamond earring studs. The kitchen has clean, white cabinets with black granite tops.

The house boasts a backyard families dream of. It had all desert landscape, then they put in artificial grass, removed a freestanding hot tub, and added a playground, sandbox and trampoline. The pool is behind a gate.

“We love playing with the kids in the backyard,” Joanna Savard said, adding that this summer they hosted 250 people for her husband’s 40th birthday, with plenty of room for tables and a white baby grand piano.

In order to better manage their time, the family decided to move to Henderson recently, where the girls’ activities are centered. By the end of the year, the family will have moved into their new home in Anthem Country Club, a five-bedroom house they bought for $1,323,000 in October.

It is inside a 32-home, gated compound, and Marc Savard is debating whether or not to move the light show there. He’s not sure it would have as much impact since fewer people could see it.

“It’s hardly worth the effort to put up that kind of display if nobody can enjoy it,” he said.

The family is keeping the Robindale house and converting it into a rental.

With the move, he was contemplating abandoning the project this year, but “my kids were very upset about that. It makes them feel really good at school, a really fun thing for them.”

In early December, the family hosted a party for the girls’ classmates and their families. More than 200 came for Santa’s workshop in the garage, hot chocolate, gift bags and Santa’s arrival. When 12-year old Isabel Savard extended the invitation to attend the annual Christmas lights party, some of her classmates were surprised to learn she lived in the “famous” house. “Some of them didn’t know it was my house. It’s such a small world,” she said.

Last year a man approached Marc Savard at the fence as he chatted with visitors. “I said, have you come here before? And he was teary eyed. He answered, ‘yes, we’d always come here every year. It was my wife’s favorite thing to do and she passed away this past summer.’” He’d been there three nights. “When you hear stories like that … I don’t want to break the tradition, so we will try to continue to do that,” he said.

The lights are on nightly from 6 to 10 p.m. until Dec. 31 at 1420 E. Robindale Road. Just don’t stare too long or you might become hypnotized!