VegasChatter

Performance Art / Magicians / Jeff McBride / Wonderground / Rick Lax / Industry Nights / Nightclubs / → All Tags

Walking Through a Different Sort of Vegas Wonderland

The amazing Suzanne Lugano.

It's the final installment from our very special guest blogger, Rick Lax, who has been dishing some helpful hints of how to avoid some of the more popular scams in Vegas. Want to read more of Rick's stuff? You're in luck! His book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is now on sale.

Las Vegas is filled with attractions that I can’t describe without sounding like I’m tripping. The lip-syncing giant frog at Wynn’s Lake of Dreams, the Circus Circus Carousel Bar, Mystere, Ka, O—the list’s a long one.

And it just got longer, thanks to magician Jeff McBride’s Wonderground.

Wonderground is monthly gathering of performance artists, including balloon sculptors, puppeteers, body painters, contortionists, belly dancers, go-go dancers, and of course, magicians. They’ve got names like Bizzaro the Optical Illusionist, Areeya the psychedelic artist, and Pink Bambu the Leopard Lady.

Throw some hookahs and cocktails into the mix, and you’ll swear you’ve been transported into time traveling fantasy novel.

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Survival Strategies / Rick Lax / Industry Nights / Nightclubs / → All Tags

What 'Industry Night' Really Means in Vegas

"Back by popular demand." Sure....

This week, we've got a very special guest series from Rick Lax who will be dropping off some helpful hints of how to avoid some of the more popular scams in Vegas. Want to read more of Rick's stuff? You're in luck! His book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is now on sale.

Unlike most cities, Las Vegas didn’t set up “Industry Night” for the benefit of those working in the bar and club industry. Industry Night is just another tourist trap.

Let me explain…

Vegas tourists want to hit up popular, busy clubs. But during the week, there aren’t enough tourists to pack every venue. So, over the years, the major clubs formed a tacit agreement whereby they consolidate their extra bodies (club workers who’ve got the night off) in particular venues on particular nights. So no matter the night, tourists always have at least one pre-packed venue to patronize.

That’s the real reason clubs give free admittance and drinks to workers from other clubs. Not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because the only way to draw midweek tourists is to already have some bodies inside. That's Vegas, always churning out the tricks.

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Survival Strategies / Rick Lax / Vegas Lies / → All Tags

The Greatest Trick Vegas Ever Pulled

This week, we've got a very special guest series from Rick Lax who will be dropping off some helpful hints of how to avoid some of the more popular scams in Vegas. Want to read more of Rick's stuff? You're in luck! His book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is now on sale.

Vegas is full of deception. Our casinos are filled with seemingly winnable games that you can’t really win, and our clubs are packed with seemingly available women that you can’t actually sleep with.

But the biggest lie we ever got away with is this: Vegas is a wild and crazy city.

As if! We’re more tightly controlled than the Pentagon. Don’t believe me? Try sneaking a flask into a nightclub, try disrobing on the dance floor, try sitting where you shouldn’t sit or standing where you shouldn’t stand.

See how long it takes before a security guard comes over and asks you to fall in line. Continue to misbehave, and see how long it takes before that security guard is joined by three others wearing the same colored jacket.

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Survival Strategies / Rick Lax / Tips / Awards / Onda / The Mirage / → All Tags

This Post Has Been Voted Best Blog Entry in Vegas

This week, we've got a very special guest series from Rick Lax who will be dropping off some helpful hints of how to avoid some of the more popular scams in Vegas. Want to read more of Rick's stuff? You're in luck! His book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is now on sale.

The last time my parents visited Las Vegas they took me to Onda Ristorante at Mirage. Easily one of the worst meals I’ve had in Vegas. (Factoring in the price, it was the #1 worst meal I’ve ever had in Vegas.)

My mother defended her restaurant choice by saying, “I read that it had been voted ‘Best in Vegas.’”

Oh, that might be true, but it’s also meaningless. Every club, restaurant, and show on the strip has been voted ‘Best in Vegas’ at one point or another.

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Survival Strategies / Rick Lax / Tips / Cab Drivers / Cabs / Taxis / → All Tags

Faster, Longer, More Expensive: Beware The Cab Ride from The Airport

This week, we've got a very special guest series from Rick Lax who will be dropping off some helpful hints of how to avoid some of the more popular scams in Vegas. Want to read more of Rick's stuff? You're in luck! His book, Fool Me Once: Hustlers, Hookers, Headliners and How Not to Get Screwed in Vegas is now on sale.

Your flight lands. You pick up your bags. Your cab driver throws ‘em into his trunk. And then he says this to you: “You want me to take the freeway? It’s faster.”

He’s lying; it’s not.

Vegas taxi drivers get paid (and tipped) by the mile, so it shouldn’t surprise you that they push for the long route. Most the time, the freeway is only “faster” in terms of miles per hour. The freeway will take you longer and cost you more.

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Death Ray / Vdara / Rick Lax / LV Weekly / News / CityCenter / → All Tags

There Is No Death Ray, According To Vdara Staff

We’ve been wondering for the past couple of weeks when the Vdara pool was going to fill up with meeja types trying to catch the Death Ray, and now the first one has come out – Rick Lax from the LV Weekly tried it out for us all last week.

Here’s what he had to report:

On Saturday, I drove to CityCenter, adopted a European accent and greeted Vdara pool security with a casual pleasantry (in place of a room key). It worked. When a cocktail waitress came by, I asked her about the Death Ray. She admitted that the pool deck got hot in “certain locations,” then corrected herself: “Actually, we’re supposed to say ‘warm,’ not ‘hot.’”

A lifeguard went one better, telling me flatly, “There is no such thing as the Death Ray,” before admitting to moving a large group of lounge chairs away from the South Deck.

Finally, I asked the security guard point blank: “Where’s the Death Ray?” “We haven’t seen it,” he replied. “You mean today? Because it’s cloudy?” “No, I mean ever.” And that’s when I got kicked out. Which is one way to avoid the Death Ray.

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