Earl of Wisdom

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 5:08 a.m.

Popular lounge entertainer Earl Turner, who has been knocking out Las Vegas audiences for almost 12 years with his powerful performances, stepped into a new arena Friday -- the world of pay-for-view.

In September 1999 Turner entered into a two-year contract with the Rio to play in the RioBamba Cabaret. At the time of the agreement, there was no cover charge to watch Turner perform three shows a night.

But on Friday fans began paying $21.95 and Turner started performing two shows a night. By Las Vegas standards the price of admission is not high, but it is a price nonetheless.

The versatile entertainer's dynamic act cuts across most musical genres, among them rock, doo-wop, country and jazz.

Recently Turner discussed the decision to begin charging for his shows:

Las Vegas Sun: Are people going to pay for something they have been seeing for free for so long?

Earl Turner: That seems to be the general question. I don't know that it should cause a problem. I'm not sure how it's going to affect everything. I think what I do is worth the ticket price.

Sun: Any second thoughts about the decision?

ET: I'm very optimistic about it. I'm excited. It's something I have to do. I read a quote once that said, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail?" That made me realize I have to take chances. Sometimes I have to risk everything to accomplish something. The biggest thing is fear. It renders us incapable of doing anything. I'm willing to take the risk.

Sun: Whose decision was it to charge admission?

ET: It was kind of a mutual decision. Obviously I couldn't do it without the support of the hotel.

Sun: Is it a good career move?

ET: All entertainers get into the business hoping to be able to move up the ladder. In Las Vegas there seems to be this conception -- that I don't necessarily subscribe to -- that once a lounge performer, always a lounge performer. I don't buy into that. I've never bought into any of the whole lounge-entity thing from the time that I hit Las Vegas, and that's one of the reasons I've done things that other lounge performers have not been able to do -- I've played the showrooms as an opening act, I've done the production shows. What is the definition of a lounge performer? I never heard of it before I got to Las Vegas.

I consider myself a performer who happens to work in lounges, and I want to change that. I want to change that to where people pay to come and see what I do because I think the show's worth it. I look at what they sell in Las Vegas on the whole. There's some great shows, but there are also many different types of shows ... and people buy tickets to these various shows knowing full well what they are getting. I think to myself, "Why wouldn't Las Vegas be able to sell a performer who is, in essence, himself; one that works hard and tries to give the people a night of entertainment they will enjoy and come back to see again and again?"

It would be different if we didn't have turn-away crowds. I would look at it entirely different. But at this point in my career I have to do something to change. I have to do something to step to that next level. It puts us on the level with other paid shows. It puts us in the ticket-buying category that I really want to be in.

Sun: Your friend, Clint Holmes, said he had to make the decision 20 years ago whether to stay in lounges or shoot for the showrooms. Is that where you are?

ET: Absolutely. As far as working in the lounges, there's really nothing else for me to accomplish. I had gotten to the point where everywhere I worked was standing-room only. The only thing left to do was to start charging some type of cover charge.

Sun: What will you do differently now that you charge admission?

ET: The first thing we are doing is we are enclosing the room. There are a lot of things that you really can't do (in an open room). When you're working in an open venue, you're playing not only to the people that are in that room but you're also playing to the casino.

Within that there are a lot of drawbacks. You don't have a captive audience. You're competing against the noise and outside occurrences. There is no real crowd control. People are constantly coming in and out, for whatever reason. So many things work adversely to what a performer does, so it is very difficult to establish an intimacy that you have in an enclosed room. For me, there is a lot of material I wouldn't do in (an open room) because you have to work hard to grab people's attention and then keep it. In an enclosed environment, you have them there. They are a captive audience, and therefore you can express things differently. It enhances the experience. For me as an artist, it's going to give me an opportunity to continue to grow.

Sun: What kind of show can we expect?

ET: I want to do the type of show that people come in and they genuinely have a good time. They leave there and they feel better about life, they feel better about themselves. Perhaps they've recaptured some moments and gained some new moments and smile, and that makes them feel good about life in general. Nowadays we don't have very many performers that do that. They get onstage, they do their job, they sing their songs and go home. That's not the type of entertainment that I grew up on. They're not the type of performers I grew up watching. I want somebody to come out there and light a fire.

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