Jaymes Vaughan takes a turn for the dramatic; Lacey Schwimmer reunites with ‘DWTS’

By John Katsilometes

Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 | 7:15 p.m.

The Kats Report Bureau is MGM Grand Garden Arena and the iHeartRadio Music Festival press room alongside the person who is the very talk of the daytime-drama subculture. He is Jaymes Vaughan, famous as a member of the Chippendales male revue at the Rio, spokesman for many charity events, and the guy who will always catch the eye of your date.

I mean, always.

Vaughan also is working with OK! TV as the syndicated celebrity show’s Las Vegas correspondent as Mayleen Ramey has moved back to Los Angeles. But what is especially groovy about Vaughan at the moment is he is to be featured on the CBS soap “The Young and the Restless” on Sept. 30. The show airs weekdays at 1 p.m., and full episodes can be viewed at any time on the CBS TV website.

Vaughan’s one-off role on “Y&R” is as a bouncer named Steve who turns into a male dancer during the bachelorette party of the engaged character Sharon. Who saw this coming!? Vaughan also has a speaking role and is considered a “principal player,” and as he says, “That ‘P.P.’ on the contract means more money!”

The hope here is that Vaughan returns to the show for a long enough tenure to turn diabolical, become an archenemy of somebody and, maybe, play his own evil twin.

Until then, he’s part of the media circus at iHeart.

There is news happening outside this building, too. Let’s rake it up:

• Lacey Schwimmer (aka “Schwimski”) has returned to “Dancing With the Stars,” but she won’t be performing the foxtrot or the odd bossa nova as one of the pro dancers. Rather, it's an exercise in punditry as Schwimmer joins New Zealand TV personality Dominic Bowden on the online complementary show “Dancing With the Stars: All Access” on ABC.com.

Schwimmer and Bowden are set up in the ballroom as four cameras provide live, behind-the-scenes views of the performances and production. The two also critique the dances and interview the participants, and online visitors can select any one of the four vantage points to watch during the telecast of the network show on ABC. The digital show premiered with the TV show on Monday night.

As “DWTS” Executive Producer Rob Wade told USA Today: “You'll see a lot of the stuff that happens backstage during the show and during the commercial breaks. Really what you see on the show is only half the story, so we felt like it was something that really gave you all-access to our cast.” Since leaving “DWTS” in 2010, Schwimmer has been busy teaching young dancers and choreographing Frankie Moreno’s show at the Stratosphere. On occasion, she burns it up (it being “the stage”) during the song “Diva.” Other times, she just wears the flashy footwear.

• Tiesto was poolside Wednesday night at a pretty large pool, the Fountains of Bellagio, for the unveiling of the medley of his latest release, “A Town Called Paradise.” After the thunderous, yet melodic and ultimately uplifting showcase, he said, “I felt goose bumps. I got very emotional. I brought my mother here many months ago, and this is a big moment for my family and for electronic music.”

The day after the premiere of the first electronic artist to be featured at the famous aquatic attraction, I found a video clip of Jim Morrison from 1969. He talks of the “indigenous” music of America being rhythm and blues and a version of folk, or country, and the “blending of those two forms of music” to create rock ’n’ roll. In the future, he says in 1969, the new generation’s music will have a synthesis of those elements, and “a third thing, that might rely heavily on electronics (and) tapes. I can kind of envision one person with a lot of machine and electronics, singing and speaking and using machines.”

Hmmm.

And anyone who believes the concept of manipulating recorded sounds outside their original context to create new music should listen to The Beatles’ “Revolver” album. On that record, on the song “I'm Only Sleeping,” there is the use of a guitar solo played in reverse. John Lennon’s idea, that. It’s known as backward masking, and he manipulated music — his own and others’ — quite a bit through the late 1960s, especially in his work with Yoko Ono. Such investigation and imagination helped lead to the sort of electronic dance music being played in clubs today. That’s just an opinion, but this concept of audio twisting and recycling is not entirely new.

• The new trumpet player stepping in for the departing David Perrico in “Pin Up” at the Stratosphere is in place. He is Eric Sande, late of the touring production of “Kinky Boots” at the Smith Center and a musician in “Jersey Boys,” the Cheap Trick Sgt. Pepper show at Paris Las Vegas, and with Donny & Marie. Sande also has subbed in Perrico’s Pop Evolution show band and has backed Bernadette Peters and — a personal favorite — The O’Jays.

Brother, if you have performed with The O’Jays, you’re in. Sande’s first night with the production was Thursday. No one has yet been named the production’s music director, but the live band remains in place, a decision to applaud.

As he has left the show, Perrico has picked up another gig, as a musician and writer for upstart singer Tommy Ward. Perrico said that Ward contacted him this month to bolster his (Ward’s) live act and write some charts. Perrico also remains the MD for the “Alice in Wonderland,” steampunk-inspired production of BBR, and there is some movement afoot with that act coming soon, for a gig at a prominent Las Vegas venue in October.

• In the days after the announcement of Jeff Leibow leaving “Jersey Boys” in November as his contract expires, leaving him open to take a role with the NF Network, comes word that another prominent cast member is departing that show next month. Be on your toes for that news, too.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.