Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

DJ Chumlee set for Palms spinfest; Elvis’ ceiling target practice at Hilton remembered

Austin

Denise Truscello/WireImage/DeniseTruscello.net

Austin “Chumlee” Russell arrives at the 2013 Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013.

Chumlee's 30th Birthday at LAX

Austin Launch slideshow »

The Kats Report Bureau is Starbucks on West Sahara and Decatur, across the street (roughly) from where Tower Books & Records was once located at the Wow! retail center. The business closed in 2006 as the chain filed for bankruptcy.

I recall the last CD I ever purchased at Tower: The Beatles’ “Let it Be … Naked.” The person in front of me in line was buying that same CD, and I recognized him as Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority President Rossi Ralenkotter. True story. He’s a huge Beatles fan, saw the band perform at the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1964, and has plans to see Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band at the Pearl on March 15.

As Ringo would say, speaking of the LVCVA’s purchase and implosion of the Riviera, “You know, it don’t come easy.”

With that reach, let’s hit the skins elsewhere:

• Fulfilling a lifelong dream, or at least a decade-long dream, Austin “Chumlee” Russell of “Pawn Stars” is showing off his DJ skills (or, skillz, if you will) at Ghostbar Dayclub at 1 p.m. Saturday. Chumlee is closing GBDC's season and hoping to vault into a second career as a regular headlining DJ in VegasVille.

That concept led to this exchange with the Chumster during a recent phone conversation:

I like this idea of you as a celebrity DJ. I can see your face on MGM Grand right up there with David Copperfield.

“My face is on the MGM Grand?”

No! I mean, I envision that someday.

“I was gonna say — I would have heard something about this.”

Instead, it all starts at the Palms as Chumlee sets up to chase his passion ignited by such star DJs as Tiesto, Calvin Harris, Erick Morillo, Diplo, DJ Marco and Skrillex, among others. He will use pieces that are “industry standard” in his set and has been working out his act in his own home. This is the first of what he hopes will be an extended partnership with the Palms.

“Right now, I just want to get one under my belt, but hopefully me and the Palms will have a relationship down the line and I can do some more stuff there,” Chumlee said. “I plan on traveling around to the smaller cities, where I’ve appeared before. It’ll give me a chance to see all these people in another format.”

The response from Chumlee’s cast mates on “Pawn Stars” has been varied.

“Ricks loves it. Corey’s like, ‘Whatever.’ He’s more interested in his motorcycles than anything, but I think that he thinks it’s a great idea,” Chumlee said. “Old Man, he just wants to know if he gets half of my DJ money.”

New Elvis Exhibit at Westgate

Plans for an Elvis attraction are revealed Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, at Westgate Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

• During Thursday’s event announcing the opening of “Graceland Presents Elvis: The Exhibition, The Show, The Experience” at Westgate, hotel officials took Elvis’ girlfriend in the early 1970s, Linda Thompson, and her brother Sam (a member of Presley’s security team in those days) on a tour of the villa that served as Elvis’ home during his time in Las Vegas. The suite is famous for all of Elvis’ gunplay in the latter years of his life. Sonny West, a longtime member of the “Memphis Mafia” and also one of Elvis’ bodyguards, recalled in a story I wrote a few years back about The King on his 75th birthday:

“He shot chandeliers at the ceiling of the suite at the Hilton, made holes in it. Nobody even knew those holes would go all the way to the sky until we got the first rain and it leaked into the living room. We had about six buckets in there to catch the rain dripping through the ceiling.”

Guns were prevalent for everyone in Elvis’ entourage. As Sam Thompson said, “Elvis was armed every time I was with him. He had two .45s on him, at all times, and I saw him pull them out, yes. You bet your life I was armed, too.”

• Dr. Keith Boman is being honored, in a wholly deserving fashion, on Tuesday night at the 12th Annual Nevada Entertainer & Artist Hall of Fame awards presentation at UNLV’s Student Union Ballroom. Boman, a leading arts advocate in Las Vegas and for whom Boman Pavilion at the Smith Center is named, is joined by director Gary Nelson and architect Paul Steelman as the new members of the Hall of Fame.

Boman, a Las Vegas cardiologist, is a major benefactor of the Smith Center and is still on the center’s Board of Directors. He also is an avid and active supporter of community arts events across the valley, serving on the boards of Nevada Ballet Theater, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Super Summer Theater and Las Vegas Music Festival.

Last November, Boman brought the production “The Last Five Years” to UNLV’s Judy Bayley Theater. The show marked the first promotional partnership between the UNLV Performing Arts Center and the Smith Center, which could not accommodate a show that required a venue of about 500 seats. “We are now using this opportunity to build a bridge between the Smith Center and UNLV. This is really the first major move to do that,” Boman said during rehearsals of “The Last Five Years.”

Through his own dogged determination and footwork, Boman promoted this show and the results were astonishing: “The Last Five Years,” an almost totally foreign title for Las Vegas audiences, sold 1,700 tickets over four shows, a wildly successful run at Judy Bayley. If not for the Good Doctor, that show never would have been possible.

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

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