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Why Yes, I am a Vegas Act.
You know those books where big stars tell show business stories about all the other big stars and life at the top? Well this isn't one of them. I was never a big star.
Let's start with Las Vegas.
I was young, I'd done opening acts in Reno and Lake Tahoe at Harrah's casinos which were truly first class with ideal show rooms, but I'd never played Las Vegas. Reno and Tahoe felt good to me because Reno was kind of a cowboy town and Tahoe was a ski resort. I was at home in both situations because of my Ketchum-Sun Valley days. Cowboys and skiers. My people.
Las Vegas? No way. I made fun of Las Vegas shows. The feathers, the smoke, the glitter, the big spenders, Wayne Newton--I was the opposite of all that.
One day my manager called and said, "Great news! You're going to open for Ann Margret at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas!"
I said what any folksinger/comedian would say. "No chance in hell! I'm not going."
I went on to explain I was not a Las Vegas act, I didn't belong, I would bomb, and I didn't want to do it. A month later I was on a plane to Las Vegas to open for Ann Margret.
We need some background here.
About a year earlier, I'd bombed on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Oh sure, Brian was there too but it was me who forgot the words to a song that I had written. Let me repeat that. I forgot the words to a song I HAD WRITTEN. In front of millions! It was the worst night of my life, if you discount a couple of divorces, so I wasn't full of confidence. I just wanted to do my shows in comfortable surroundings, make money, have a good time, and become better at comedy.
Nope, wasn't going to happen. I was on a plane to Las Vegas, to the biggest casino at that time, Caesar's Palace, to open for the most Las Vegas show ever produced. Huge dance numbers, big stage effects, wild costumes and Ann Margret, a super star. And before all that, I was going to walk out alone on that