Andy Walmsley’s inspired talk series ‘ENTSpeaks’ speaks for itself

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015 | 1:58 p.m.

Over the past two years, Andy Walmsley has produced five throwback shows in VegasVille.

What have we learned?

For starters, it’s far easier to enlist celebs to talk about themselves for 15 minutes than to ask them to sit for 90 minutes and weather a comedic beating.

Consequently, Walmsley, the Emmy Award-winning set designer who would love nothing more than to never design another set, has triumphed with his “ENTSpeaks” monologue series at downtown’s Inspire Theater.

He has not had nearly as much success with his “Showbiz Roast” concept, which has been staged thrice at Stratosphere Showroom but has sat latent since “Divas Las Vegas” at the Linq Hotel star Frank Marino was skewered in October.

The “Roast” has cooled not because Walmsley has been lax in summoning subjects. He has tried mightily to secure a big name to sit in his red-velvet throne and accept the good-natured barbs of fellow Las Vegas entertainers.

The problem is Walmsley has a boundless collection of willing roasters but, sadly, “Nobody wants to be the roastee,” as he says. That all might change as the idea of “Showbiz Roast” still has a thread of a pulse. If Walmsley can match his schedule with a willing subject, it’s game on.

Meantime, the “ENTSpeaks” format is far simpler to execute and after two shows at Inspire is already gaining momentum in the community.

Monday night’s show showcased a cavalcade of personalities: “Fantasy” at Luxor producer Anita Mann; Smith Center President Myron Martin; Harrah’s comedy magician headliner Mac King; “Frank: The Man, The Music” at Palazzo star Bob Anderson; “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers” at the Wynn singer Nicole Kaplan; and my colleague the Ubiquitous Robin Leach.

The night brimmed with expert yarn spinning.

Mann talked of being discovered on the set during an Elvis film, founding the “Solid Gold” dancers and all the “15s” in her life, meaning 15 years of “Fantasy,” 15 years of marriage and 15 grandchildren.

Martin noted all the “coincidences” in his life, how he happened to be judging a Miss Texas America Pageant and meeting the woman who would be his wife, Dana, a former Miss Texas who also was on that panel. Martin joked about “playing” for one year with the Texas Rangers and two with the Atlanta Braves (he was the teams’ organist).

King, whose barbed sense of humor off-stage belies his boyish stage act at Harrah’s, recounted the time he forgot to wear underwear to his show. This is important because in his show, he unzips his fly and reaches inside to produce a Fig Newton. On this night, King borrowed the briefs of his producer, Bill Voelkner, and noted that they were uncomfortably moist (seated in the VIP box upstairs, Voelkner covered his face with his hands at the retelling).

Anderson recounted a single story: The afternoon he was at the Sahara watching Nancy Sinatra rehearse her show with The Everly Brothers. The brothers got into an argument (not a rarity among those two) and skulked from the hotel. Wearing cutoffs and a long mop of curly hair, Anderson told Sinatra that he was a singer and was hired on the spot. A week later, he was on “The Merv Griffin Show.”

Kaplan produced a story that sent her husband, Graham Fenton of “Jersey Boys” at Paris Las Vegas, into a laughing spasm. The two were dating but living bi-coastally, with Fenton in New Jersey and Kaplan in L.A. She had taken a role in a Gary Coleman TV project and found him exceedingly attentive. She wound up calling Fenton from the set and saying, “Babe, Gary Coleman is hitting on me between takes.” She wound up having a single dinner with the diminutive star of “Diff’rent Strokes,” where he asked if he could rub her feet (she declined).

Leach cast out with the story of his first assignment as a teenage reporter at the Harrow Observer in England. His editor threw a dart at a map and told Leach to venture to that neighborhood and find a story. He pedaled his bike through a “Noah’s Ark” storm and knocked on the door to find, unexpectedly, a gentleman at home. Leach asked why the man was not at work. It turns out that he was at work — he was Leslie Bricusse, and he was writing a play titled, “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.”

You make your breaks in this world, right?

That can be said of Walmsley, who is equal parts focused and tireless in his efforts to grow into a bona-fide producer of Las Vegas shows. He has invested several thousand dollars in this process. The first “ENTSpeaks” set him back about $28,000. The second has exceeded $7,000. But it is money well spent, as his shows attract a high concentration of influential figures in this city.

One key supporter is Tony Hsieh, who has been in attendance at both shows, representing something of a stamp of approval from the Fremont East and Downtown Project community.

The next show is tentatively planned for May, keeping with Walmsley’s effort to stage one every three months. The audience was peppered with worthwhile subjects, many of whom have already been asked to participate and have agreed, in principal, to appearing.

In the meantime, Walmsley is meeting with industry figures who have experience in booking shows in New York. Modeled after the popular Ted Talks series, “ENTSpeaks” could conceivably become a hit anywhere.

“There are thousands and thousands of Broadway fans who would love something like this, and there is nothing like it in New York,” Walmsley says. “I think they would kill for something like this, on a bigger scale, even a 1,600-seat venue would be great for it.”

Walmsley has not charged for his “ENTSpeaks” productions, reasoning (correctly) that it would be difficult to explain to a Strip headliner who is appearing for free that there could be a profit to be made by the producer. As it is, Walmsley is his own “loss leader” in this operation. And that’s fine with him.

“My goal is to be a producer,” he says. “That is my dream. I don’t know how, but one day the work and the effort will pay off. I don’t know how, but maybe in one day, or next year, or 10 years from now, it will pay back, and it will be instrumental in me realizing that dream.”

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