McMahon of the hour

Friday, April 4, 2003 | 5:25 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: April 6, 2003

While Ed McMahon was being born March 3, 1923, in Detroit, he was probably busy trying to sell his obstetrician malpractice insurance.

The 80-year-old former Johnny Carson sidekick is a natural salesman, relentless in his focus on moving whatever product he is pitching at the moment, whether it be Alpo Dog Food, American Family Insurance or the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.

His latest commercial endeavor is with BestBet Media Group, a division of Entertainment Marketing Technology Worldwide of Las Vegas, and Multimedia Games Inc. (MGAM)

BestBet and MGAM are launching an Ed McMahon's Players Club (similar to the club for gamblers promoted by the late Telly Savalas in the '80s), BestBet magazine, an interactive website and a proposed television game show that would give away $1 million to the winner of a bingo game.

At 2 p.m. April 16 McMahon will host the $1 Million MegaBingo Championship at The Orleans' Showroom. There will be 72 bingo players in the game. Each of the contestants won MegaBingo Bonus Rounds at participating tribal casinos and bingo halls nationwide. MegaBingo was created by MGAM in 1989.

BestBet and MGAM hope to sell the MegaBingo game to television.

McMahon also will host the first Miss BestBet beauty pageant at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. April 16 at The Orleans. The winner of the pageant will be a "spokesmodel" for the organization.

McMahon recently spoke to the Sun by telephone from his office in Los Angeles about BestBet projects -- and little else.

Las Vegas Sun: The Sun interviewed you and Doc Severinsen almost two years ago when you both were performing at The Orleans. Have you worked together since then?

Ed McMahon: We (BestBet Media Group) are going to bring back the Player's Club, the old Telly Savalas thing, only this one will have an association with Master Card, so it will have a lot more value -- you'll get better perks at hotels and airlines and car rentals and restaurants and so forth. We're using the phrase VIP -- "You're a very important player," playing up the idea of Player's Club.

Sun: Yes, but ...

EM: Then, with the Indian casinos, we are going to have the Million Dollar MegaBingo at The Orleans hotel. Several people are going to be invited to come to Vegas for a long weekend, and while they're there they will play bingo, and the winner gets a million dollars.

Sun: What ...

EM: Then we're going to have the Ed McMahon slot machines, which will be interactive slot machines where I'll talk to the players. As they continue working on the slot machines, I will be encouraging them along, urging them to pick the right star.

Sun: That's the first I've heard about an Ed McMahon slot machine. When will they hit the casinos?

EM: The machines will be coming out in September.

Sun: Tell us about "MegaBingo," the proposed TV series.

EM: We're working on it right now. A lot of shows in this reality TV craze we are going through promise a million, but they don't deliver. We deliver. It's going to be very exciting. We will do it live.

Sun: How will the program work?

EM: It will be a half-hour program with 70 contestants playing bingo. There will be celebrities there to help us out. It will take about 15 minutes to play the game.

Sun: How do you fill the rest of the time?

EM: We will do profiles on the people, find out where they're from, what school they went do, about the early days of their life and how they got to this moment in time. Then we'll flesh it out with more information. There'll be a lot of rooting.

If the show sells, the program will be seasonal -- four, eight or 12 times a year.

Sun: When will BestBet magazine be available?

EM: It will be coming out in the spring. Dick Clark's on cover No. 1. It's me on number 2. We're looking for pretty young girls to be our model. The winner (of the BestBet pageant) will be on one of the covers.

Sun: What's the magazine about?

EM: The magazine will have to do with fashion, and it will broaden to any activity -- it ties into gaming, fun in Vegas. It will all be centered around best bets -- the best restaurants, the best wine, best cigar, luxury hotel, vacation, destination spot. It will be a high-gloss magazine, like In Style, with really high-quality paper.

Sun: Sounds like BestBet has a lot going on.

EM: Yes. And we will do BestBet radio. The radio, the million-dollar game, the player's club -- it all ties together.

Sun: Didn't you use to perform in Vegas?

EM: I had a nightclub act there for five years. I love Vegas. I've always enjoyed my time there.

Sun: What's it going to feel like calling bingo numbers for a living?

EM: It's great for me 'cause I'm right back doing what I started out doing in this business. To be on the microphone, I took a job as a bingo announcer when I was 16, and here I am once again calling bingo numbers. So it's going to be great.