Vegas off-Strip fortress The Space set for post-pandemic

On the wall of Mark Shunock’s office at The Space is a schedule of events and performances covering the balance of 2021. Behind him is a torn-open plastic packet of Ice Breakers mints.

This means Shunock is ready to talk about that upcoming schedule.

The guy we met as Lonny some nine years ago at “Rock of Ages” at The Venetian has become a leading voice in Vegas, through the Mondays Dark charity shows and the growing popularity of The Space in our community. An unplanned development is Shunock’s role as in-arena and field announcer for the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, the Las Vegas Raiders, and for Top Rank Boxing (including this weekend’s fight card launching the refreshed Theater at Virgin Hotels).

The tireless Shunock is also building an idea for a late-night, old-Vegas hang that feels like the quintessential cool hang.

But for today, Shunock is chatting it up at a rapid clip about the new lineup of activity at The Space, which he opened in January 2017. The venue at 3460 Cavaretta Court is returning to at least partial-capacity audiences for its events, 170 in a 300-seat venue.

“We have been able to keep it going here, to remain a cool, funky venue where we can bring in people who have played on the Strip or anywhere around town,” Shunock says. “There is a hunger and need for us to get back onstage. It’s time. We’re all giving 110 percent to get the high end of talent that lives here back onstage.”

The just-announced shows include a June 19 national PBS special from Pavlo, the superlative guitarist from Greece, with “America’s Got Talent” finalist and Vegas fave Daniel Emmet as guest-star, on June 19.

Shunock talks of his venue’s inclusive outreach strategy, reinforced by a series of Pride Month events from June 1-6. Those opportunities include “Get Centered,” a panel of Las Vegas Pride-centric officials; “The Stage is Yours,” an open mic/spoken word performance; the “Life Is Just Drag” live-performance show; and the”Behind the Bar With Norma” online talk/comedy show with special guest Jai Rodriguez (from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and also as the opening co-star of “Sex Tips” at Paris Las Vegas).

On June 5, The Space is hosting “First Time in Forever,” featuring Broadway stars Taylor Frey (“How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”), Kyle Dean (“Next to Normal”) and Jessica Vosk (“Wicked”). Also in the mix is headlining stand-up comic John Caparulo on June 8. Caparulo was among the entertainers released from Caesars Entertainment last week in the company’s shutdown of several venues.

A Philippine Independence Day festival takes hold June 9-12, headed up by Shunock’s wife, Cheryl Daro, who is of Filipino heritage. On June 16 it’s a show with palpable intrigue, “Sex, Drums & Rock N Roll,” starring Mike “Beans” Benigno, drummer of “MJ Live” and also the Mondays Dark band. The show pays homage to such drumming legends as John Bonham, Dave Grohl and Tommy Lee. Original Chaos, the rock-cover band headed up by Dai Richards of Tenors of Rock, performs “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath on June 22.

Though it seems The Space is a new Las Vegas phenomenon, the venue is now comparatively mature among the several similarly focused destinations that have opened just before or during COVID. Shunock has kept his venue in play with several live-streaming events, especially the crisp online performances by the Righteous Brothers and David Perrico’s Pop Strings.

And Mondays Dark has not missed a performance, rolling every other week online (and more recently with limited audiences), delivering $10,000 for each event to grateful Vegas charities. This week it was Unshakeable, a Las Vegas nonprofit that serves women in recovery from homelessness, domestic violence, substance addiction and human trafficking.

Shunock, Daro and The Space charity coordinator Aimee Wade delivered the familiar, oversized $10,000 check to Unshakeable Executive Director Karin Kolstad to close the show.

“Being able to give $10,000 to these charities, even through the pandemic, is what we’re most proud of,” Shunock says. He still herds the charities, and still builds that schedule on the wall. At least 50 percent of the dates are filled by his own personal tenacity, his own texts and e-mail messages.

You can’t help but marvel at the man who moved to Vegas to portray Lonny, who also built an impressive Rolodex while toiling at the Bourbon Room. Those contacts, a tireless work ethic and a vision for Las Vegas is all Mark Shunock needs. Oh, and a limitless supply of those magic mints.

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.