Ticket prices up for shows

The average price of a show ticket went up a bit in the past year. So, depending on how optimistic or cynical you are, this means:

A. The end of the recession is in sight.

B. You're a fool to pay full price for anyone whose names aren't Donny, Marie, Barry or Celine.

Each year about this time, the deal-conscious Las Vegas Advisor crunches the numbers for every ongoing production show and resident headliner: 95 titles in all this time. The average price is a new high for 20 years of this survey: $76.46, a $2.78 increase from last year.

The increase more than erases an average $2.50 dip in ticket prices last year, notes Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis. But he says not to fault those stars you need only one name to identify.

The blame can be spread among 29 other shows that raised prices after last year's survey. Nearly all those titles are routinely discounted, either in advance through vender sites such as Goldstar.com or in the many same-day, walk-up Tix4tonight outlets. In other words, it's a game of "mark 'em up to mark 'em down."

For the bottom end of the range, Curtis used the lowest price advertised without discounts or coupons.

The top end required judgment calls. Curtis allowed a "VIP" ticket of $295.13 for Donny and Marie Osmond (about six bucks more than last time), but capped Celine Dion at $277.50, noting one deluxe option at $1,380.65 would distort the survey.

Barry Manilow claims the dubious honor of the highest average price, at $190.96, followed by the Osmonds at $171.11 and Dion's $164.65. This year's cheapest ticket is one you probably haven't heard of: afternoon comedy magician Mike Hammer at $17.45. ...

Plugged-in viewers of "Holly's World" already know Angel Porrino will soon be joining the new "Absinthe" at Caesars Palace. Porrino, who is Holly Madison's TV sidekick and vacation replacement star of "Peepshow," auditioned for the burlesque circus on the season finale of the E! reality show.

However, producer Scott Zeiger, who oversees both "Peepshow" and "Absinthe," says the new production won't be rebranded to give Porrino star billing or central focus the way "Peepshow" was for Madison. Zeiger calls her "a featured performer" who will do at least one comic burlesque number for the rest of the six-month run in the tent outside Caesars Palace.

"Absinthe" opening nighters last week witnessed something unique when the show's ringmaster called UFC fighter Frank Mir to the stage and encouraged a female audience member to grab his crotch.

It turns out that gaming regulators frown on physical contact, Zeiger says. So The Gazillionaire (Voki Kalfayan) will no longer be putting anyone up to actually touching anyone else. ...

It's more rock than the suburbs deserve when '80s pop-metal titans Motley Crue and Poison patch up old feuds to team up -- with the New York Dolls added for good measure -- for an outdoor show at Red Rock Resort on June 18.

They will play in the parking lot set-up the hotel dubs an amphitheater, with room for at least 7,500 people. For those who pay attention to the names above the title, the concert is produced by promoter Andrew Hewitt and partner Live Nation, who otherwise book The Pearl at the Palms.

Station Casinos' working with The Andrew Hewitt Company suggests the doors could be open at Red Rock for more large concert acts down the road. ...

Finally, Bobby Henline is here to show us you can find comedy in any situation. "Humor helps healing," he says.

Four years ago today, Henline's Army Humvee struck a roadside bomb in Iraq. He was the only survivor of five soldiers in the vehicle, but was burned on nearly 40 percent of his body.

Forty surgeries later, Henline marks his "live day" by performing stand-up today through Saturday at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at the Tropicana. His occupational therapist coaxed him into trying stand-up, and Garrett heard about him through friends.

"Here I thought I was going to die, and I'm onstage in Vegas telling jokes about it," Henline says. A few other club dates taught him how to convey that it's OK to laugh at routines about his ordeal.

"A lot of my stuff is about being burned and what it's like ... basically my life and making fun of it," he says, noting it's not all that different from ethnic humor or fat jokes.

"I think it's kind of an inspirational thing, and I hope people take it that way, too. Life goes on, you've got to laugh at it."

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