The notes: A return to performance for the ages at Flamingo, and Louie Anderson turns 57 — and cuts the profanity

By John Katsilometes

Thursday, March 25, 2010 | 2:51 p.m.

The week! She has gotten away from me. You?

Notes on the fly:

Return of "D&M"

I'm running this thought around in my head that the return of Marie Osmond to the stage at Flamingo Las Vegas might be one of the most courageous returns to the stage ever in the city.

"Donny & Marie" returned with a smokin' performance Tuesday after Marie took a week off to be with family and further gain her footing after the suicide of her son, Michael Bryan, Feb. 26 in Los Angeles. If anyone out there who has been following entertainment for, oh, decades, can point to any comparable display of professional and personal fortitude, let me know. I'd love to hear it.

The Osmonds are said to be closer than ever, galvanizing in support of the lone sister in the famed family act. As Donny Osmond says, "When Osmonds hurt, we love to sing."

Show me ... birthday cake!

Excalibur headliner Louie Anderson turned 57 on Wednesday and was presented with a giant white birthday cake by the producer of his show, Adam Steck, and Excalibur and Luxor President Felix Rappaport.

Anderson gave up smoking four years ago and seems to be tabling another habit, swearing, at least during his stage performance. "I didn't cuss once tonight," he said after Wednesday's show, then added, "Well, I might have let one s*** get through, but otherwise it was clean."

Squelching the profanity would be a good move. Anderson's brand of storytelling needs cussing only when he's quoting his military-veteran father. Anderson also is saying he wants to finally get into good physical condition and, "Get rid of this seventh-grade fat," that he's been carrying around most of his life. He's got sciatic-nerve problems and is limited onstage, so any effort to lighten the load would help his show, not to mention the quality of his life.

One of the best moments of his show actually is in the introductory video montage. The final clip shown is of Johnny Carson introducing Anderson for Anderson's first network TV appearance. Anderson ambles to his spot and says, "I can't stay long. I'm between meals."

As Carson noted, Anderson was appearing at the Dunes hotel in Las Vegas at the time of that appearance.

"It was Nov. 20, 1984," Anderson said. "I'll never forget it."

Miller in a Checkmate

Last year, during performance by the Steve Miller Band at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, I could not help but take note of Miller's chief backup vocalists. It drove me bats until the guy sang harmony on "Jet Airliner" and I shouted, "Sonny! Sonny Charles!" And it was!

You remember Charles if you remember the Checkmates, the great, long-running lounge band that dated to the mid-1960s in Las Vegas and played such Vegas haunts as Casbah Lounge at Sahara and Naughty Ladies Saloon at Arizona Charlie's. The R&B tag-team of Charles and "Sweet Louie" Marvin Smith fell silent after Smith's death in December 2007 at age 68.

The Checkmates were working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean at the time, and "Sweet Louie" will always be recalled as one of the truly magnanimous performers in Vegas entertainment history. The dark glasses he wore onstage were rimmed with "Sweet Louie," lest we forget his handle.

In the aftermath of "Sweet Louie's" death, the ever-dancing Charles continues to perform. Miller reportedly sought Charles' slick moves and velvet voice for years, and Charles finally joined the Steve Miller Band as a full-fledged member two years ago. They will be back in town May 21 for a show at M Resort's outdoor venue, Villaggio del Sole. Tickets go on sale at noon Friday. Prices are set at $53.50, $74.50 and $85, all-inclusive. Call (800) 745-3000 or hit the Ticketmaster Web site. Charles adds a lot of old-Vegas groove to Miller's stage show, and Miller clearly enjoys having him onstage. He'll often ask, "You know what I'm talking about, Sonny?" And Sonny always knows what he's talkin' about.

Las Vegas Weekly

Caught heading toward George Wallace's show Tuesday night, in which he invited Chris Tucker to make a return appearance on the Flamingo Showroom stage, was Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly. It took a moment to place the face, but it was him, cutting across the casino floor.

Wallace brought Tucker onstage about four years ago, too. Because he four-walls the showroom for his popular 10 p.m. show, Wallace has long summoned his entertainer friends to share the time slot. The best of these was the April 1, 2007 show, when Sly and the Family Stone — with Sly Stone — performed after Wallace's set. I'll never forget the look of concern, morphing to pure glee, on Wallace's face when the legendarily mercurial Stone actually shuffled onstage. Terrific show, and, sad to say, probably one of a kind.

More from the Goss station

I have a cousin named Nick who lives in Seattle. Great guy, has that unmistakable Greek smirk that runs in the family. Nick was in town over the weekend, with a buddy or three, and the crew was celebrating the bachelor party of a friend whose name was Mike. Still is, probably.

We had no firm plans to meet, as this was one of those trips where the guys did a lot of hanging out and imbibing at the Flamingo pool while I was doing a lot of punching of my keyboard. We were going to attempt to collide at some point, and Sunday breakfast turned out to be the thread of a plan.

Friday night I got a call from Nick, who said he was on the corner of Trop and the Strip, on the wrong end of some sort of sex-for-cash exchange. I think he was kidding, but I did hear sounds of shouting and vehicular traffic in the background. That night I hit the Frankie Moreno Band gig at Rush Lounge at Golden Nugget. Saturday we talked, and Nick was (as Louie Anderson would say) between hangovers. Sunday remained our plan. Saturday night, I took in the Matt Goss show at the Gossy Room at Caesars Palace's Cleopatra's Barge, swaying to the stylings of the Gossinator and enjoying all those bustier-clad Dirty Virgins.

Afterward, as I talked to Goss near the back of the lounge, a guy reached out to shake my hand.

Nick!

Randomly, and remarkably, my cousin ventured to Cleopatra's Barge and entered the lounge just as Goss finished. He had no idea I was there; I had no idea he would be there. Yet, here we were. Stunned, I introduced him to Goss — and Nick had no idea who Matt Goss was — and also to Channel 8 morning news anchor Dayna Roselli, who attended the show with the ever-rocking Dave McCann. Nick and I tried to tell Roselli, who it turns out is aggressively skeptical of just about everything, how extremely random this meeting was. Nick finally offered to produce his Washington driver's license, which Roselli scanned under the light of her iPhone, and she still didn't believe our version of what just happened.

I almost didn't, either. We all had a great laugh about it Sunday during breakfast at the Peppermill, where Mike made one of the funniest hangover comments I've ever heard: "I got motion sickness this morning while brushing my teeth."

Who says Las Vegas isn't the stuff of magic?

Health care?

A somewhat stale headline, yet still funny and relevant enough to re-post here. I first caught this on a Facebook post from a person I'll only identify as the city's foremost bassist/tuba-ist/art photographer/jazz expert/radio personality and redhead. Here's where it first appeared on a widespread online publication, Huffington Post. It's from a March 9 story that appeared in the Eastern Echo newspaper in Ypsilanti, Mich. This is an independent newspaper serving Eastern Michigan University and the greater Ypsilanti region. Check it the classic headline here.

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