Columnist Kate Maddox: Changes at C2K are not OK

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001 | 9:06 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 259-2309 or kmaddox@lasvegassun.com.

The forecast has changed dramatically for C2K, the nightclub at the Venetian, since this time last year. The once-popular hot spot appears to have fallen on seriously hard times.

In November, following two months of forced closure, C2K reopened with a new look and new management. The idea was to lure a more "mature" and "upscale" clientele, since the club's prior troubles were linked to a youthful, drug-fueled, party-friendly customer base. But the revamp hasn't been what the nightclub expected, and numbers are staggeringly low.

On Friday afternoon most of the current C2K management was reportedly let go. And those who weren't fired are concerned about their financial futures. One employee says his once-comfortable club salary had decreased about $60,000 over the past year -- now he's looking for a new job.

To give you an idea of how drastically things have changed for C2K, the Saturday night before the Super Bowl last year brought in more than 3,000 customers. This year approximately 700 people showed up. Average weekly attendance has gone from 14,000 or so to just around 3,500. Guess that oxygen bar and cigar lounge aren't working out so well.

Look for C2K, which is open Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to switch to a Friday and Saturday only policy in the next couple of weeks.

I wasn't dumb enough to think that I could actually go into an on-air press conference with shock-jock Howard Stern and come out unscathed. And that's a good thing, because even though I've conveniently managed to mentally erase most of the conversation (especially such words as "bang," "hot," "baby," and the like), it was still messy.

But the point is, my so-called banter (which, in my head, was mainly "Run for the hills! Run!") got me into Stern's private VIP area. Being that I was press (gossip, no less) I spent most of my time just trying to act casually and blend in with the Stern crowd. I turned to the fella on my left, sighed and attempted polite party conversation. And, since that was kinda how my night was going, of course that guy happened to be John Wayne Bobbitt.

"Well, I'm starting over again with my movie career," he said. "The stand-up comedy thing was really hard. Much harder than acting."

And the brief foray into porno films? "Well, my mom didn't really like all that stuff. So I stopped after two movies."

Right. Um-hmm, I see, well, how are things going with the ladies? "I was pretty out of control for a while. I had to stop dating those kinds of girls," he said, motioning to the 15 or so strippers wandering the VIP area. "They just got me into too much trouble." (For the record, he's dating a paralegal named Dottie who lives in California.) A quick push to plug his website, which I won't since it's a little more than a shade past appropriate, and he was gone.

I also talked to Dennis DeGori, general manager of Club Paradise, the popular strip joint across from the Hard Rock. DeGori complained about a recent report that had Stern and his cronies partying at the Crazy Horse Too.

"That didn't happen." DeGori said. "I paid good money to have Howard come to Paradise." In an effort to chip in on costs to bring Stern to town, DeGori forked over $50,000 to KXTE 107.5-FM. That kind of dough was enough to get the entire Stern crew (minus a sleepy Stern) to the club on Saturday night, and host a special party for the gang on Sunday following the radio show (no word whether Stern showed for that one).