Allen and Blackwell cruise home for South Point gig

By Jerry Fink

Monday, June 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.

After two years at sea, more or less, Marty Allen and Karon Kate Blackwell have docked at South Point for a two-day engagement Friday and Saturday.

For the past dozen years or so Allen and Blackwell frequently have worked aboard cruise ships. In 2007 they landed a 10-week engagement at the Gold Coast. They hoped it would turn into a longer stay and allow them to spend more time at their Vegas home.

“I love to read and practice piano, but I also love to cook and to sew and work in the yard,” Blackwell says. “It keeps me grounded. It’s important to remain realistic. Show business can get you lost if you’re not careful. I stay busy taking care of the clown. That’s a full-time job.”

Allen is an energetic 86-year-old comic who once gave door-to-door dance lessons in Los Angeles before his comedy career took off and he began opening for the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Eydie Gorme and Nat King Cole. The wire-haired comedian was part of the comedy duo of Allen & Rossi from 1954 to 1969.

For more than 20 years Allen and Blackwell have been together, professionally and domestically.

“They’re starting to compare Karon and I to Burns and Allen, only I’m Gracie,” Allen says. “Karon has become a phenomenal straight lady. I’m doing the gags and she’s hitting me back and we’re going back and forth.”

Allen enjoys cruise ships.

“The only ones I haven’t been on are the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria,” he says. “The one thing I like about doing the cruise ships is it keeps me out of touch with reality.”

Performing on cruise ships isn’t exactly rigorous. They do only one or two shows a week.

“There are different nights of entertainment,” he says. “One night might be a production show, another a juggler, another a pianist, another a concert.

“The night when the captain of the ship has a formal dinner, that’s headliner night. That’s the night they put Karon and I on.”

With so much time on their hands, Allen and Blackwell find plenty of time to read.

And to make themselves available for photo ops for the passengers.

“I’m very accessible,” Allen says. “If I had a buck for every picture I took, I wouldn’t need to work.”