Columnist John Katsilometes: Rio fans the Gans situation

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 9:41 a.m.

They came from as far away as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Detroit and New York last week to see the mega-mimic with the high-dollar ticket, Danny Gans.

The bulk of the audience on this night, save for a fledgling local columnist, was made up of middle-aged tourists with a few bucks to burn. Most had planned for months for a trip to Las Vegas and had heard plenty of laudatory reviews about the city's "Entertainer of the Year" and omnipresent marquee figure at McCarran International Airport.

By 6:30 p.m., an hour before showtime and when the doors usually open to the 700-seat Copacabana Showroom used for Gans' consistently sold-out performances, the line had swelled to about 200 fans, all growing a bit antsy.

But the doors didn't budge.

As would become the modus operandi of Rio personnel over the next two hours, word slowly trickled down to the crowd that the show would be postponed for at least a half hour and the doors would open at 7:30 for an 8 p.m. show.

The problem, as it was clumsily described that night, was a faulty hydraulic elevator lift used to boost chairs and tables up to the showroom floor. The crisis, we were assured, would be quickly remedied.

At around 7:45, the doors still hadn't opened. Cocktail waitresses moved cautiously through the murmuring hotel guests offering complimentary drinks. A person wearing a Rio badge said the show would be postponed once more and wouldn't start until 9 p.m.; another said it would be canceled altogether.

Just after 9 p.m., it was official: For the first time in Gans' two-year run at the Rio, a show was canceled because of technical problems. This, only a week after the hotel again ignored Gans' wishes and pumped his ticket prices from $83 per show to $99, just a dollar less than the highest-priced ticket for the extravagant "O" (which ranges from $90-$100) and the highest average ticket price for any Las Vegas production.

(Maybe the Rio should title the Gans show, "O -- We Must Be Kidding.")

The inflated ticket price was derided by more than a few customers who were herded like sheep into interminably long lines to receive their $99 refunds. They were given a choice of either catching a Gans show during the week (a comical gesture to visitors scheduled to leave town in the morning and had scheduled the show that particular night) or receiving a full refund.

It took some customers more than three hours to receive their refunds. And the fallout in the following days further underscored the strained relationship between the talented, public-conscious Gans and the megaresort that (until his contract runs out in January) pulls his strings.

Simply put, anyone who believes that Gans -- who performed for just $29.50 per ticket when he opened at the Stratosphere in 1996 and $39.95 when he started at the Rio in 1997 -- will renew his contract with the Rio probably believes the fruit on Rio Rita's head is real.

Days later, Gans' frustration over the canceled show was still palpable.

"I was ready, willing and able to do the show when they had a problem with the elevator," he said. "I was dressed in my stage clothes, as was the band. I was willing to do the show without those tables in place and suggested we offer the people with those seats a refund or tickets to another show.

"I don't want to trash the hotel, but I want the public to know I'm

embarrassed and saddened by what happened."

Late last week, Gans' representatives were informed via fax that the Rio -- which contends the show was canceled because of safety concerns -- expects Gans to make up the show on either a dark night or at the conclusion of his contract in mid-January.

In other words, Gans wanted to perform but couldn't because the hotel's own machinery crapped out. But the Rio expects him to perform an additional show so they can further squeeze cash out of him before he flees to a major Strip resort when his contract expires.

This marks the second time Rio officials (who refuse to comment on performers' contracts for legal reasons) have put the screws to Gans for a preempted performance. They cast him aside on New Year's Eve so Whitney Houston could entertain at a VIP show (as a snide joke, Gans should incorporate a tribute to Whitney into his act). Then they told Gans he would be expected to perform an extra show to make up the one he was forced to cancel.

Meantime, Gans performed on New Year's Eve at the Fremont Street Experience (so, unfortunately, did Bachman Turner Overweight) as a gesture to local fans who have been priced out of his shows at the Rio.

Other complaints, seemingly picky but nonetheless telling, have been recounted by people close to the performance, such as Gans "begging" for bottled water and even mopping his own backstage floor. Rio spokeswoman Tyri Squyres said no member of hotel management has been informed of either problem, and that Gans receives all the water he wants and housekeeping attends to all of his custodial needs.

Either way, it's clear the Rio is being beaten up -- deservedly so -- in this public relations bout. Along with the free show at Fremont, Gans has been signing, at no cost, photos of himself for any fan making such a request and has autographed more than 1,000 pictures.

Fans of Gans will also be glad to know he's scheduled to shoot a pilot for a Las Vegas-based sitcom produced by Aaron Spelling by the end of the year, and it seems clear that when he realizes his dream of headlining a major Strip resort, he'll fight for a more reasonable ticket price.

As for the Rio, the place continues to trumpet itself as a bastion of fun, which it can be -- unless you happen to be a star entertainer or shut-out fan suckered into a $99 ticket.