Snow in Las Vegas -by Marc Savard

Snow has flown in the air on few occasions but from what I can see in the newspapers, it seems that snow to stick on the ground in Las Vegas is VERY rare. Yesterday on December 15, 2008, it snowed in Las Vegas and stuck on the ground for the entire day. It snowed enough in my neighborhood that my daughters 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 were able to make a 4 foot snowman. He had a small hockey stick as one arm, a pirate sword as the other. Oreo cookie eyes, licorice mouth, and a carrot nose. He was wearing a scarf and a of course a wool hat too. Sharp looking fellow actually. :-)

The last snowfall to stick on the ground was December 30, 2003. Prior to that it seems to be January 1979. The National Weather Service seems to say that statistically, Las Vegas gets snow that sticks on the ground approximately every 20 years. What a treat for my daughters, and it was kinda nice to see the snow again. I was born and raised in Canada, so snow is something I had grown accustomed to. I don't really miss it, but I have to admit, when the snow was coming down, and my kids were SO excited, it did put a smile on my face.

Marc

Pig Infestation in Arizona -by Marc Savard

I performed at Planet Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas on Thursday night. Friday morning, Ty and I loaded up the truck with audio and lighting gear and headed to Tucson, AZ for a corporate show. Friday nights are my "dark" night in Las Vegas. For the non-Vegas savvy people, "dark" night is what is called your regular night of the week that you do not perform. For example:

Marc Savard's MESMERIZED performs nightly at 10pm, Dark on Fridays.

This is common practice that all shows use in their entertainment listings. So, off we go to Arizona. Now to reference back to my title of this blog. I know this is politically incorrect, but I have quite a few friends that are police officers, and of course I say it tongue in cheek. Some are city cops, some are state troopers, and some are even Canadian Mounties. One of my friend's precincts just received their first helicopter, so now I refer to them "Pigs in Space" from the Classic Muppets TV show. :-) They LOVE that. Haha.

Anyways, in my travels on the road, there are times when we see a lot of police officers, but this particular trip to Arizona was crazy! Ty and I feel that we have very accurately guessed that in an 16 hour round trip from Las Vegas to Arizona and back we had encountered between 70-80 police cars, and speed traps. It was so many that we started counting to be sure. We might be off by 4-5 cops. I have never seen so many. Maybe the economy is bad for the state of Arizona, so they are trying some unique fndraising tactics, I dont know. For the record, we did not speed, nor get stopped.

So the corporate show was a huge success. Approximately 300 people i the audience and I had 9 people hypnotized in the show. Funny moments in the show as unusual, and all those in attendance enjoyed the performance very much.

Saturday morning came around and we hit the road to return to Vegas. On the way back, I began to develop flu like symtoms and went in to perform my show last night. We had a great turnout (a few tickets away from a sellout) and despite feeling under the weather, the performance was a lot of fun. As my sickness moved through its stages, I found that my ears began building up pressure. I walked out on stage last night and could not hear myself through the stage monitors. I could not hear the music, and the audience seemed very quiet. It was like I had lost 70% of my hearing. Ugh. I must have really taken for granted how much I listen and need to hear myself in a stage show. Wow. I felt like it was affecting my pacing, my joke timing, and my normal banter and patter.

I modified the show slightly by adding a few more routines than normal, and less "Marc" time, meaning less time telling jokes to the audience and filling in with my witty comebacks. Okay, at least I think they are witty. So, it was nice to lean on the volunteers a bit more than normal and the result was fantastic.

I have since worsened in my condition, and am enjoying some hot green tea with honey as I type this. We have cancelled the show for tonight, and I expect to be back performing tomorrow evening. It is VERY rare for me to cancel shows, but since this "flu" is in my ears and it made performing very difficult for me, I decided it was best to just rest and sleep this one off.

Marc

Birthday Party of Female Impersonator Frank Marino -by Marc Savard

I have been meaning to write this blog for quite sometime now and am just now finally getting time to do so. A few weeks ago, I attended a celebrity filled extravaganza. I attend Las Vegas Headliner Frank Marino's birthday party. Frank is the star of La Cage. La Cage has been in Las Vegas for 23 years and Frank has been the star of it since opening day. When I opened my own show in Las Vegas in February of 2007, Frank attended the grand opening of MESMERIZED and we have been great friends ever since.

So, back to the party... It was hosted in the Penthouse Suite at Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Wow. What a great suite and an incredible view of the strip. The party had amazing food, decorations, a shirtless body builder bartender haha, and of course there were quite a few Vegas headliners there to wish Frank happy birthday. Mary Wilson from the "Supremes" was there as well. What a kind and wonderful woman.

Frank has always been an over-the-top diva, and this night was no exception. The cake was a made into a replica of a Louis Vuitton handbag. Are you kidding me? Haha. It was pretty amazing actually. Unfortunately I could not stick around to have a piece of it as I had to head to Planet Hollywood Hotel to do my show that night.

The party continued on to Piranha. Piranha is a gay bar, and being a straight man married for 10+ years, this was not a place I frequent, nor had ever been before. So, after my show was over, I ventured over to area known to the locals and gay community as the "Fruit Loop" Wow. Interesting. Umm? Where to start? Haha. Believe it or not, I actually had such a fun time. The party atmosphere was actually more enjoyable than regular nightclubs. I had a great time. It was a little unusual for me, but once you got ever the fact that there were no women in there, (maybe 1 or 2) it could be fun for anyone to attend. For the record, I was only hit on by one guy. I politely declined the dance request.

Only in Vegas. :-)

Marc


Marc Savard and La Cage's Frank Marino



Frank Marino's Louis Vuitton Birthday Cake