Ticket deals reel in locals

Here's a devil's bargain.

Picture Ray Walston, showing up lookin' all fine in his "Damn Yankees" Mr. Applegate suit and saying to a show producer, "In one hour, you could sell thousands of tickets."

He would be talking about Groupon, that coupon-per-day Internet phenomenon, which a few Las Vegas entertainment providers have tested.

But remember Applegate is the devil, so the results can be like those Groupon stories you may have heard about small hair salons, suddenly deluged with more business than they can accommodate.

Here, it's just one part of the bigger question: Just how low can a show ticket go?

Are we to the point where shows will let people in free, in the hope of selling them a T-shirt or DVD afterward?

That seems to be much of the point behind ShowTickets4Locals.com and Houseseats.com, two services that prop up lower-end shows by padding the house with locals.

"The people who aren't being creative and aren't being aggressive are just getting their butt kicked right now," says comedy magician Nathan Burton.

Burton was inspired by his vintage Flamingo Las Vegas showroom. There are 600 seats on the floor, so a 160-seat balcony sat unused. At least until he started giving away balcony seats (through tightly controlled means, such as coupons distributed on the Strip).

"Everyone told me, 'You're stupid to do it.' Now it has taken off," he says. Some people buy merchandise. Others decide to pay an upgrade to sit on the main floor. More still say they will talk up the show to friends.

Sin City Comedy Club proprietor John Padon says his Groupon offer of $15 a ticket drew a phenomenal response: More than 3,800 seats sold. "I can see how the restaurants got overwhelmed," Padon says of his getting 114 Groupon people on a Friday night for a room that holds 200.

At roughly $5 profit per head, there's a risk of crowding out better-paying customers. But since most Grouponers were locals, he hopes to teach them $15 is the year-round price for locals: "By the way, you can come back any time you want for this price."

Groupon deals are apparently hard to strike with the Strip's big operators, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. That could lessen concerns of the Strip's being flooded with tickets so cheap they suddenly make the half-price outlets seem like an extravagance.

"Because the people bought the tickets a month ago, suddenly Tix4tonight will have a real slow weekend and won't even know why," one producer envisions.

Some who begrudge the half-pricers would find that oddly amusing. You can almost hear Mr. Applegate laughing.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.