Alexander, Carrot Top fast friends? Miss Nevada answers to Obama

By John Katsilometes

Sat, Feb 13, 2010 (12:21 p.m.)

Notes aplenty as we enjoy a pretty mellow Valentine's Day weekend, remembering that The Beatles suggested "All You Need is Love" even as The Rutles reminded, "All You Need is Cash.""

• During my conversation last month with Jason Alexander, leading up to his portrayal of the unenlightened motivational speaker Donny Clay, I mentioned we both knew someone who performs in Las Vegas. "We have a common friend," is how I started.

"Carrot Top," I continued, pausing for suspense. "I saw you guys hung out recently at 'Peepshow.' "Alexander laughed and said, "Well, 'friend' would be a little premature. I met him that night."

"Common ... person we both know?" I asked.

"Common acquaintance," Alexander decided.

I remembered that give-and-take when Alexander debuted his show for media members and VIPs at Planet Hollywood. He opens with a string of Vegas jokes, jabbing at Siegfried & Roy, Frank Sinatra and Elvis. He says of Scott Thompson, "Carrot Top, he's starting to look a little weird, but that's OK."

After the show, at the meet-and-greet at Koi on the PH mezzanine, I asked about that line.

"Oh yeah, it's just fun," Alexander said. "It's nothing I wouldn't say to him myself." Carrot Top himself has referred to his own appearance, joking that children call him a "mean clown." He also recalls a drunken woman who once approached him and said, "You look like that guy Carrot Top — no offense!"

• A little more than a year ago I interviewed then-Miss Nevada Julianna Erdesz during the week leading up to the Miss America pageant. I asked her a pageant-type question, and she answered in the 20 or 30 seconds pageant judges prefer for such interview segments. My question was, "This week we inaugurated a new president of the United States, Barack Obama. How would you say Mr. Obama embodies the spirit of Miss America?" She did a good job of answering that question in a way pageant judges would have preferred.

On Thursday, Erdesz was at Vanity, this time wearing the sash of Miss Nevada USA, having jumped to the Donald Trump-owned pageant competition for this year's event at Planet Hollywood in May. We've turned this impromptu Q&A into a kind of tradition. Whenever she's on the scene, wearing the sash, she can expect a question.

Thursday night it was: "President Obama recently warned anyone saving money for college not to blow their cash in Las Vegas. As someone who is from Nevada and who lives in Las Vegas, was that the right message to send to people who might want to visit here?"

Her answer: "Absolutely not. I'm really sad that President Obama has brought it out for a second time. I would have thought that he would have learned the first time around. But I think it's easy for somebody to bring up Las Vegas just in the moment because of the way we're portrayed, but I think it's unfortunate he brought it up once more because people listen to our president, so even if they don't decide to come here because of what he says, what he says can hurt the image of the city. I hope he doesn't make that mistake again, but I think Vegas will survive."

It's an 8, I think. She went a little long. Otherwise it sounded fine.

Meanwhile, one Las Vegas attraction is using the Obama comments to lure visitors ...

• On Monday, Madame Tussauds at the Venetian is debuting "The Oval Office Experience," an exactly replica of the real oval office with a wax statue of President Obama positioned therein. The new piece is open to the public beginning Monday, which conveniently is Presidents Day. The attraction is included in the museum's general admission price, which is $25, $18 for those age 60 and over, students 18 and over, and all Nevada residents with the proper ID.

• Steuben Glass, which trumpets itself as the premier American glassmaker, hosts a trunk show at Bellagio on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Hand-graded designs by the late James Houston and sculptor Michele Oka Doner are to be featured, among. Others. As the release announcing the show states, the show's highlights include "Arctic Fisherman," "Arctic Mother and Child Haida Fisherman," "Running River," and "Ocean Reef Bowl." Glass art is not new to the Bellagio, which for more than a decade has displayed lavish Dale Chihuly-designed glass pieces above the registration desk. The Steuben show is set for the Bellagio Lobby Shops.

• An art piece of a different species has been taken down and bolted up elsewhere: The Disco Armadillo at Texas Station's Armadillo Lounge, later called South Padre Lounge, is now hovering from the ceiling at Santa Fe's new nightclub, Revolver. I have long been fond of this piece, which now has a name — "Disco Delilah" (somehow I thought this was a male, but no matter) — but is still the same effect from Texas Station. I remember well, or not, dancing (sort of) under the mirror-covered beast back when Loveshack rocked Armadillo Lounge. There are a total of 2,300 mirrors used in her exterior design, and that's only because 2,999 would not suffice.

A reunion is in order.

• Transmission from my loved ones in Idaho: A couple of weeks ago, during a reading session in a first-grade class at an elementary school in Boise, a teacher noticed a commotion in one of the five-student seating pods. To the delight of her fellow students, a little girl was blowing up a balloon — except this seemed not quite the shape or shade of a typical balloon. It was uncommonly long and thin, remarkably shiny and silver. The teacher halted the lesson to investigate this distraction. She quickly realized that, while this plaything was indeed inflatable, it was not a balloon. The little girl explained she found it in her mommy's bathroom, announcing, "At recess, we're making balloon animals! I have a whole roll!"

Not anymore.

The moral here is twofold: Strange events unfold, or unroll, in classrooms all over the country, not just in Clark County.

And, February is Condom Awareness Month.

So have a Happy Valentine's Day. Celebrate accordingly.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

— From LasVegasWeekly.com