Ira Glass sharing stories at The Smith Center

You might not know it to look at — or listen to — him, but Ira Glass is a very Vegas kind of guy.

And we’re not just talking about Saturday’s “Reinventing Radio: An Evening With Ira Glass” at The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall.

The presentation — part of The Smith Center’s Audi Speaker Series — spotlights the host and executive producer of NPR’s “This American Life,” alone onstage, accompanied by his iPad and a raft of audio memories.

Some of them will, most likely, involve Las Vegas — such as the time Glass visited the World Series of Poker in 2001, gathering inside knowledge from poker professionals for “This American Life.”

For those who don’t know the show, “This American Life” offers an eclectic weekly dose of mostly true stories from everyday life; it’s broadcast on more than 500 stations to an estimated 1.8 million listeners. (Plus the 850,000 or so who download the show’s weekly podcasts.)

But back to “This American Life” World Series of Poker visit.

It was “before poker took off as a national craze,” Glass says, recalling how he “chatted very charmingly” with a variety of poker pros who shared what they knew about the game that everyday players such as Glass didn’t.

That 2001 visit also featured a confession from poker champ Phil Gordon — that he once lost $5,000 betting on Rock-Paper-Scissors. (If you listen to Las Vegas’ NPR affiliate, KNPR-FM, 88.9, you’ve already heard this story during promotional announcements touting Glass’ Smith Center appearance; KNPR airs “This American Life” at 11 a.m. Saturdays.)

“The last time I was in Vegas, I gave a talk way far from the Strip, in a neighborhood where every single thing had been built in the last two years,” Glass says. “I loved it.”

Then again, there’s a lot Glass loves about Las Vegas.

Christmas in Las Vegas, for example, ranks as a favorite destination for a nice Jewish guy who doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

And visions of Las Vegas were dancing in his head last week, when Glass was rehearsing a new 90-minute show with “a completely ridiculous premise,” as the “This American Life” website described it: “radio stories ... plus dance.”

Yes, “occasionally I dance,” Glass admits in a telephone interview, speaking in that same dry, wry, start-and-stop cadence “This American Life” listeners have heard since the show went national in 1996, a year after its Chicago debut.

If the dance-plus-radio show “works out, all I have to say is: Look out, Blue Man Group, look out, Penn and Teller. ... We have our eye on Vegas,” he deadpans. (Granted, you can’t see Glass’ face during a telephone interview, but that doesn’t mean you can’t recognize a deadpan when you hear it.)

And although The Smith Center’s not exactly the Strip, at least it’s Vegas.

Glass began his live appearances for the most practical of reasons: money.

“I wish I could say there was an artistic reason,” he says. “But it’s just business.”

And that business is promoting the show.

“We’re using the technology of 1935 to get people to come and listen,” Glass says.

As a convenient side effect, Glass’ appearances are usually co-sponsored by local NPR stations — which means the stations run lots of promos to sell tickets,” he says, thereby providing “an excuse to say the name of our show a lot.”

In one sense, “Reinventing Radio” hearkens back to radio’s heyday, when studio audiences would watch live broadcasts of favorite shows. (Writer-director Woody Allen depicted just such an experience in 1987’s “Radio Days,” as young Woody accompanies his aunt to a quiz show — and thrills to her being chosen as a contestant.)

Glass cites a recent appearance on fellow NPR stalwart Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” describing it as “such an amazing experience.”

But where “A Prairie Home Companion” (which inspired a 2006 movie starring Meryl Streep) has an entire cast onstage, “Reinventing Radio” has Glass.

And, of course, his iPad, through which he conjures “quotes, music and sound from the stories” featured on “This American Life.”

Among the stories Glass expects to revisit Saturday: those focusing on Chicago’s Harper High School, where 29 current or former students have been shot in the past year (eight fatally), including 15-year-old honor student Hadiya Pendleton, who died a week after marching in the presidential inaugural parade.

On a lighter note, “audience favorites — especially really funny” stories will be featured, along with stories “we haven’t been able to air because of really obscure FCC rules,” he says.

And speaking of the FCC, another advantage of doing a live show is the fact that “I can curse,” Glass says. “Not that there’s any need to,” but it’s nice to know the option is there, he acknowledges.

Overall, his live stage shows are “more freewheeling” than the on-air programs he’s been doing for almost two decades. (Glass began his public radio career in 1978, at 19, starting as an intern and as a tape-cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer. It’s certainly more fun than “being in a soundproof room and pretending” to tell a story to an audience, he says.

Besides, appearing live Saturday night gives Glass another chance to revisit Vegas — and revel in its one-of-a-kind spirit.

“First and foremost, I just love the unembarrassed scale of ambition on display” in Las Vegas — an ambition that may have suffered, but hasn’t been snuffed out, during the ongoing economic downturn.

Las Vegas’ vitality reminds him of a quote from legendary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, who oversaw the Windy City’s reconstruction following the great fire of 1871.

“Make no little plans,” Burnham said. “They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

And “no city aspires to that the way Vegas does anymore,” Glass says.

Come Saturday, he’ll experience for himself the most recent example of Las Vegas’ “think big” attitude: The Smith Center itself.

“It’s fun being in front of an audience,” Glass says. “I just like telling a story.”

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.