Philanthropy in Las Vegas is rife with canines and semi-nudity

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | 12:32 a.m.

These events were hardly alike, sharing only the spirit of Las Vegas and, yes, Holly Madison.

Sunday afternoon it was a dog show in which a master ventriloquist helped to auction off 50 shelter pooches and raise money for a shelter that regularly takes in more homeless animals than it can handle. During the event, a plaster dog designed by Cher and Bob Mackie, which would have looked like Rin Tin Tin if it were not coated with 11,520 Swarovski crystals, was auctioned for $6,100. Viva!

Sunday night and into early Monday morning, the charity showcase had more than 100 performers from Strip production shows (most of which were adult, topless and exceedingly sultry) joining to help raise money to fight AIDS and HIV.

Dissimilar in nature, these events did show that Las Vegas can galvanize resources and volunteers in times of great need. The flair and varietal spice, that’s a bonus.

Sunday afternoon’s seventh edition of the "Best in Show" fundraising event for The Animal Foundation at Orleans Arena drew 4,000 dog lovers, 50 dogs for adoption, more than 100 volunteers and a collection of Vegas personalities. Madison helped Mirage ventriloquist/impressionist/comedian Terry Fator introduce the “special needs” group. Channel 3’s Kim Wagner, Channel 5’s John Huck, Channel 8’s Denise Valdez and Univision 15’s Luis Felipe Godinez took part in the pooch parade. Robin Leach carried the emcee duties, and if I’m not mistaken he also used the term “pooch parade.”

Fifty dogs were shown and 50 were adopted. There was a catch, though. Best in Show title winner (and eager licker of show judge and Cox Communications exec Steve Schorr’s face) Odie, a seemingly bipolar boxer, and a terrier mix named Stormy each were adopted by a brother and sister who live together. These two did NOT get along (the dogs, not the siblings). Odie was kept by the new parents and Stormy returned to Lied Animal Shelter for adoption, where at this writing she is still available for parenting.

The event was to raise money for the shelter’s spay and neuter program. Though money has not yet been tabulated, the 4,000 in attendance is as strong a showing as the event has ever experienced. The shelter takes in more animals than any in the country, 50,000 each year. Another list we top! But the turnout was encouraging.

Later Sunday, around midnight, the entertainment was of human form as “Broadway Bares,” a performers’ organization formed in New York to raise money for AIDS and HIV treatment and research, frolicked at Planet Hollywood. The resort’s CHI Showroom was about half-filled, which is pretty good for a late-night show for which there was scant advance promotion. Most performers went into a Twitter panic in the days leading up to the show, trying to build a suitable audience, and it worked.

This was the best $10 entertainment you’ll find in Las Vegas. The scene in which crossbow artist Ottavio Gesmundo (who looks a lot like DCR owner Michael Cornthwaite, by the way) of Viper Vixens fired arrows through inflated balloons covering performing partner Naomi Brenkman was worth the $10 on its own. Most of the women, and many of the gentlemen, in the audience enjoyed “Peepshow” co-star Josh Strickland’s stocking legs and high heels. Madison managed four costume changes, by my count, and the “Peepshow” cast performed its full opening and closing numbers.

A lot of highlights. Members of “Disney’s The Lion King” at Mandalay Bay, “Le Reve” at Encore and “Viva Elvis” at Aria pranced out of their usual family-friendly domain and performed exceedingly adult numbers. "The Lion King” cast wound up leaving the stage in kind of an erotic conga line. “Fantasy,” “Zumanity,” "Sin City Bad Girls” and The Ladies of Vixxen all donated their time and dance moves. The event played out like an even more adult version of Golden Rainbow’s annual “Ribbon of Life” production, which also benefits AIDS and HIV treatment, and would serve as a fitting yearly complement to that show.

“Broadway Bares” spawned “Peepshow,” actually. It was a “Peepshow”-themed event in New York, where the fundraiser is in its 20th year, that gave director Jerry Mitchell the idea for the Vegas production at Planet Hollywood. Fronting the program in Las Vegas is “Peepshow” co-choreographer Nick Kenkel, who worked with Madison to develop her “Bo Peep”-inspired role.

The whole show came together in only a couple of weeks, Kenkel said. Some of the casts, such as “Lion King,” rehearsed in the afternoon, performed two shows, then returned for the midnight curtain at Planet Hollywood. Incredible. And afterward they were still dancing and collecting cash from the stage, hundreds of bills stuffed in lingerie worn by both sexes (congrats to Dorimar Bonilla and Tara Palsha for fleecing me of a pair of fives).

Kenkel, who probably rolls out of bed dancing, didn’t seem like he was ready for the show to cease.

“We wanted to get some of the performers out of their usual genres and allow them to showcase a side people never get to see,” he said. “It’s what we do. We love it.”

Earlier, from the stage, Kenkel asked the crowd, “Is there a bigger party going on in Las Vegas than the one right here?”

Not likely. Never let it be said that the city doesn’t have a heart, even if it is wrapped in sequins – or sporting a G-string.

Additional notes

• A corner that was once dark and flavorful serves coffee that is just that. That contention will be verified once I actually order a cup of coffee from The Beat coffee pub at Emergency Arts on Sixth and Fremont streets. But the spot operated by business lease-holders Michael and Jennifer Cornthwaite (and Michael makes his second blog appearance in this installment) is now up and running. To quote Otis Day: “Hit it!”

• Matt Goss is being featured in an upcoming profile in the London Sunday Mail. As part of the piece, he was photographed Saturday night on the Strip. In the middle of the Strip, in fact, on the corner just outside Margaritaville at the Flamingo. The crew waited for a red light and Goss hustled into the street to be shot with the Caesars Palace sign in the background. Sort of like stunt photography. Later, inhabiting the audience at the Gossy Room at Cleopatra’s Barge were Deborah Gibson and her mother, Diane. The trip to Vegas was Deborah’s mother’s day gift to Diane. The elder Gibson is also Deborah’s manager. The younger Gibson turns 40 on Aug. 31. Her Wikipedia entry lists her musical genres as dance-pop, house-pop, teen pop and freestyle, which I think is also her chosen swimming genre and I think that’s it for this note.

• Louie Prima Jr. and the Witnesses performed at Hard Rock Café on the Strip on Friday night, a vintage Vegas lounge show in a rock venue. Prima blasts the vocals and gives the trumpet a good once-over. He dances with great insistence and takes himself, vocalist Sarah Spiegel and the horn section on a careening parade through the audience. The trick is where to take this retro-lounge carnival. It should be a venue frequented for those who appreciate Prima, or his legacy. Still mulling that one over. Finding Prima Jr. a room in today’s Las Vegas is more challenging than it seems.

• Asking the tantalizing question, “Will Russell Brand and Katy Perry enlist Elvis for wedding?” is magnanimous celeb tracker Mark Gray of People.com. This is one of the conversations that rose from the “eye burn of a red carpet” Thursday at the Las Vegas premiere of “Get Him to the Greek” at Planet Hollywood. Brand is using the city as a punch line lately, and in talking of his wedding plans in Gray’s piece is pretty obviously facetious. Unless he isn’t. Brand is also playing the role of Arthur, portrayed by Dudley Moore in the original, in a remake of the film. He told David Letterman that Wednesday night, before flaying Las Vegas.

• Frank Gehry’s design for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health has inspired a line of jewelry at Tiffany & Co. Check out these jagged baubles. Tiffany’s three outposts are at Crystals in CityCenter, Bellagio and the Forum Shops at Caesars, and these pieces are available at all of them.

• It’s been, what, two days since we reported anything about Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns? Bandleader Jerry Lopez is joining “Vegas! The Show” at Saxe Theater at Miracle Mile Shops as the production’s music director.

• As the World Series of Poker nears (the annual event starts Thursday at the Rio), we note that ex-Major League pitcher and accomplished poker player Orel Hershiser was asked during a recent episode of NBC’s “Poker After Dark” who was the best poker player among big-leaguers. “Enos Cabell,” he said, bringing up the relatively obscure journeyman infielder. A reliable third baseman who hit pretty well (.277 career average), Cabell played for five teams in a 16-year career. Hershiser, who played with Cabell while both were with the Dodgers in the mid-1980s, says Cabell would pack light on road trips, but replenish his wardrobe by thumping his teammates at the table.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.