Australia Mix

By Jerry Fink

Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 8:57 a.m.

The "Aussie Angels" (that's "Ozzie" in Australia) are heating up the Las Vegas Hilton. Eight sexy dancers (some of them topless) have come up from Down Under to give American blokes a sampling of what their female counterparts are experiencing down the boulevard at the Excalibur.

The Excalibur's buff male cast of "Thunder From Down Under" has become a favorite destination on ladies' nights, routinely packing Merlin's Theatre with 400 screaming women of all ages who come to be teased and urged to shed their inhibitions.

Producer Adam Steck reasoned that what's good for the geese is good for the ganders, and so he made a trip to Australia (where all of his male dancers are from) and brought back a bevy of beauts from the the land of 'roos, barbies and the great Outback.

"Aussie Angels The Wonders From Down Under" premiered Nov. 10 at the Hilton's Shimmer Cabaret.

"I wanted to do a female version of 'Thunder' to capitalize on 'Thunder's' success," Steck said. "It's a perfect segue. Americans have such a fascination with Australians."

"Thunder" has been rumbling around Vegas for five years, with engagements at a number of venues including the Stardust and the New Frontier before finding its home at the Excalibur in 2002.

"I've wanted to bring the girls in for a couple of years," Steck said. "I pitched the idea to the Excalibur, thinking it would be a perfect fit."

But decision makers with Mandalay Bay Resort Group (owner of the Excalibur) decided the "Aussie Angels" would conflict with a successful topless show at another one of their properties "Midnight Fantasy" at the Luxor.

So Steck says he waited for the right time.

"As soon as I found out the Hilton wanted a late-night, sexy show I pitched them 'Aussies,'" he said.

The Shimmer Cabaret has only 300 seats, compared to 400 at Merlin's, but Steck is happy.

"It's a fabulous room, perfect," he said.

The show is still getting its legs.

The Aussie lassies can't be as free-wheeling and suggestive as the laddies of "Thunder."

"We're learning the boundaries," Steck said, "tweaking the show." "We're getting great responses from the audiences, and the hotel is fantastic."

The 34-year-old Steck, a native of New York, was a promoter of pop, rock and country acts before he was hired by "Thunder" creator Billy Cross to produce a tour in the U.S. for the male Australian troupe.

"When I saw the show and how great it was I thought it would be good to bring it to Vegas full-time," Steck said.

But getting started here wasn't easy.

"We struggled," Steck said. "We pitched it to every casino in town, but no one wanted to take a chance."

As a result, Steck four-walled a room at the New Frontier for more than a year until receiving a call from the Excalibur.

"It has been an overwhelming success," Steck said. "We're adding more shows, we're looking at our own slot machines, we may have an HBO special."

He's betting that "Aussie Angels" eventually will be just as successful.

"It's formatted in the same way," Steck said. "We have an opening routine and then themed routines, featuring a girl in a solo bit. Each girl has her own persona. Not all of the girls are topless, but every routine has a topless girl."

He says there is something for everybody.

"It's very contemporary, with cutting-edge music," Steck said. "It's a bit different from an old-style Vegas revue."

Steck says the target audience is the male, convention crowd at the Hilton. "We want to keep them on property instead of them having to go to a strip club somewhere," he said.

Steck said the 75-minute show includes a lot of audience interaction.

"We don't have speciality acts," he said. "We create our own comedy within the show."

The fans may be having a great time, but Angela Mogridge says the performers are enjoying themselves just as much as their audiences.

"We love performing," said Mogridge, who is the troupe's manager. "There's a different audience every night -- we're loving it."

Mogridge is a trained dancer, but she doesn't dance in the show unless one of the cast members is ill. Her role is that of an emcee.

The troupe comes from all over Australia, but mostly Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

"Most of us have been dancing since around the age of 3," Mogridge said.

She said the cast hasn't had time to get homesick.

"At the moment it hasn't sunk in," Mogridge said. "We all love being in a new place. Everyone has really been lovely to us. It's as if we stepped into a new home. We settled right in.

"We're discovering new things about Las Vegas all the time."

One of the new things they discovered was going topless. Only one cast member had performed topless before, and that was on a cruise ship. But Mogridge says it isn't a major issue.

"As long as it's done in a classy way, the girls don't have a problem with it," she said. "In Vegas, everything is sort of topless, but it's artistic and beautiful.

"When we arrived here we wanted to work out how the element would fit into our show."

Judging from audience reactions, it fits quite well. Mogridge says fans love the show. She says American men are rowdier than Australian men at shows of this nature.

"In general, American men are much more confident than the Aussie blokes," Mogridge said. "They are much more willing to approach you, while the Aussies tend to sit back and be intimidated."

If she thinks American men are rowdy, she should attend a performance of "Thunder From Down Under," where female fans are so loud earplugs are available upon request.

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