Clint Holmes taps into fans’ song faves; Mike Tyson ‘slips’ but isn’t KO’d

By John Katsilometes

Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013 | 2 a.m.

At this writing, The Kats Report Bureau is Fuel Cafe Express at Hard Rock Hotel in advance of the 27th Annual AFAN Black & White Party, held this year at the Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel.

One bittersweet memory of the event: It was at the Black & White Party in 2010 I heard that the Liberace Museum would announce its closing. A month later, it did. Three years later, the museum is setting up for a comeback, at Neonopolis, and the Black & White Party is stronger than ever. We’re expecting about 3,000 revelers tonight in a real-life manifestation of the old Mad magazine Spy vs. Spy cartoon.

If you get that reference, you grew up reading some seriously inspired satire.

Let’s do some raking:

• Clint Holmes opened up his setlist to the public this month while prepping for his September shows at Cabaret Jazz at Smith Center. He’s asked interested parties in contributing to this interesting party to send him suggestions on Facebook and his Twitter page — @ClintHolmesLV by Saturday. Holmes has been stopped at Whole Foods, even, and has taken 150 to 200 suggestions, including mine: “Sex Farm” by Spinal Tap. That’s a long shot.

But more likely in the dozen or so new selections is “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. The most unusual request (discounting the deep cut from Spinal Tap) is the theme from “I Love Lucy.” The Smith Center’s 46,000-member e-mail blast goes out Monday, so Holmes and music director Jeff Neiman will have a lot of raking to perform for these shows. These performance are set for Sept. 6-8, and it’ll be great fun to see how the Holmes-Neiman combo charts songs that are, for them, new.

• In an interview at his Las Vegas home in February 2012, Mike Tyson said, ““People will not be my friends any more if I have a drink. When I have a drink, or use drugs, I am an animal. I don’t deserve anything delightful or good under those circumstances … All these guys dying from ODs, they didn’t do more than me. Very few people have a personality like me. I’m so primitive.”

This week, he came clean about his recovery, telling reporters at a news conference at Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York on Friday (where he promoted his first fight card) that he had been sober for “six days” and had been presenting himself as clean even when he was not. The recovery community in Las Vegas is well familiar with Tyson’s story, and, collectively, the response something along the lines of, “We’re saving a seat for you.”

• Today at 4 p.m., the great juggler Nino Frediani (a Strip performer for more than 30 years) is performing in “Unstoppable” at Onyx Theater in Commercial Center on East Sahara Avenue. Frediani is 73 years old and is legally blind. I caught his act at Murray Sawchuck’s Beggin’ for Magic fundraiser at Laugh Factory a couple of weeks ago, and he is a gem. A born and veteran showman. Tickets are $20; click the Onyx website for info.

• Zowie Bowie began the first of his, or their, Saturday night performances at Heraea at the Palms this weekend. The band is set up behind the bar and kicks it up beginning at 10 p.m. each Saturday. These performances are expected to be a swingin’ time, in more ways than one …

• The Las Vegas memorial service for late burlesque legend Dixie Evans is set for 3 p.m. next Sunday at Palm Mortuary, 1325 North Main St. Rightfully, this is expected to be a celebration of Evans’ life. She died in Las Vegas on Aug. 3 at age 86. The co-founder of the Burlesque Museum and Hall of Fame, Evans had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in January.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.