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MGM Resorts campaign a reminder that Las Vegas has superstars

Updated July 2, 2020 - 5:03 pm

If nothing else, we see are reminded that Shin Lim has effectively maintained his bed-head hairstyle in the COVID-19 reopening.

Lim is among the entertainers on social media welcoming visitors back to Las Vegas. While star performers remain sidelined in the launch of Las Vegas hotel-casinos, MGM Resorts International has summoned the Big Guns in an online promotional campaign. The company’s compilation clip debuted on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

The message starts with, “We can’t wait to welcome you back,” and is relayed by resident headliners, star athletes and culinary figures. In order, the cast is Brad Garrett, David Copperfield, comic Jim Jeffries, Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men, Lady Gaga’s band leader Brian Newman, magician Lim, a member of Jabbawockeez, Deryk Engelland of the Vegas Golden Knights, A’Ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, chef Michael Mina, comic actor Tim Allen, the cast of “Thunder From Down Under,” comic actor Ray Romano, “Fantasy” at Luxor vocalist Lorena Peril, comic and “Real Time” host Bill Maher.

Lim, the two-time “America’s Got Talent” champ and resident headliner at Mirage Theater, says he’s been in lockdown for five months. He and his wife, Casey Thomas, moved into his new house in Las Vegas in March, just before the state-ordered shutdown. The magician hadn’t left his house until attending a planning meeting at The Mirage this week.

“I’m fine. I’m an introvert, anyway,” says Lim, who plans to return his full show with co-star Colin Cloud when the time comes. “Every day is kind of like this for me, except of course right now I’m not performing.”

Lim has reviewed safety protocols in the venue and envisions how his act will play in a limited-capacity theater.

“I am going to be very cautious, and I’ve been telling my entire team that safety is literally all I care about,” Lim says. “If I have to go with 20, 30 percent, I don’t care. I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want anyone else to get sick. Until this is behind us, that how it’s going to be.”

Notoriety’s tenor

The Tenors of Rock, commonly headliners at Planet Hollywood’s Sin City Theater, are performing at Notoriety at Neonopolis at 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Club proprietor Ken Henderson is staging entertainment under Phase Two bar protocols, with all the familiar distancing directives and a 50 percent capacity (or less, in this case). Henderson has also dropped its hard-ticket format for live entertainment.

Instead, customers are charged a drink package for all shows, combining a cover charge with a two-drink minimum. This is how bars handle admission for entertainment, if memory serves.

Moving forward, the Notoriety lineup Friday is “Hilarious 7” at 7 p.m. and “Late Night Magic” at 9 p.m. The comedy show is $15 with a free drink; “Late Night Magic,” with its lineup of magic and specialty act performers John Shaw, AnnaRose, Rocco, Luna Shimada and host Anne Martinez, is $20, also with a drink; Tenors is $25 with a drink (if you use the TENORSROCK promo code). Pay at the door, or hit the ticketkite.com site, and remember that Notoriety is on the top floor of Neonopolis, formerly home to Galaxy Neonopolis 11 Movie Theater (for I think two nights) and Krave Nightclub.

Mayfair soars

Give credit to Mayfair Supper Club for figuring out how to work through COVID-19 in stylish safety. Singers Lisa Marie Smith and Jassen Allen co-starred in Wednesday night’s dinner performance, masked when seated onstage and not singing. The four-person dance team worked with blinged masks, too.

The whole night of entertainment, replete with the Bellagio fountains in the background, is surreal. But the club has adjusted, and in the venue for the first time was a very interested Rose. Rabbit. Lie. singer Skye Dee Miles (I know because I was sitting next to her).

This led to the interesting between-set conversation: “So, who does your masks?” Face covers are at once a safety measure and signature costume piece.

Gratuity to you-ity

Randomly, on consecutive nights this week, two veteran Las Vegas hospitality execs told me that Dana White is the best tipper in Las Vegas. Just offered up that information, without provocation. So I paid both $5,000 for the information. I kid of course.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.

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