The Jeff Does Vegas Podcast

https://www.jeffdoesvegas.com/feed.xml

204.1K

Downloads

177

Episodes

Taking you to the World Famous Las Vegas Strip...and beyond! Featuring conversations with entertainers and experts as well as trip reports with reviews of hotels, casinos, restaurants, shows, attractions, and more!

Episodes

Monday Apr 24, 2023

My Special Guest - Mat Franco

Monday Apr 24, 2023

After becoming the first ever magician to win America's Got Talent back in 2014, Mat Franco hit the Vegas strip with his show, Magic Reinvented Nightly at The Linq where he's been performing for almost 8 years.

On my last trip to Las Vegas, I had a chance to sit down backstage with Mat for a conversation. We talked about what got him into magic & his family's support through his career, his AGT experience, the recent re-vamp of his Vegas show, and much more!

For tickets & showtimes, you can visit MatFranco.com and be sure to follow Mat on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

__________________________________________________________________________

Become a Jeff Does Vegas Insider today for only $5 USD/month & enjoy all kinds of cool perks like early access to new episodes, commercial-free versions of EVERY episode, invites to exclusive live streams & videos, insider-only virtual hangouts and even real-life in-person hangouts IN Las Vegas!

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Dec 12, 2022

2022 In Review - Entertainers & Entertainment

Monday Dec 12, 2022

As 2022 comes to an end, I've decided to take you all on a little trip back in time to re-visit some of my favorite conversations from the last 12 months of the podcast.

For the first episode of 2022 In Review, I wanted to pay tribute to the amazing entertainers who took time out of their busy lives to jump on the show for a chat.

Singers, musicians, showgirls, comedians and even an exotic dancer all made it on the podcast this year. We covered a ton of great topics and it was a blast talking to all these incredibly talented people!

If you want to check out their full episodes, here they are (in order of appearance):

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Nov 14, 2022

My Special Guest: Anne Martinez

Monday Nov 14, 2022

October 21, 1977 saw the release of what would eventually become one of the best selling albums of all time:

Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell

The idea for the album came from a musical that writer/composer Jim Steinman had conceived back in 1974. Meat Loaf & Jim spent most of 1975 re-writing & recording the album, then close to 2 years auditioning the record - and getting rejected by every single record company they presented it to.

After a concert video of the title track aired on BBC Television in the UK, the album gained A LOT of traction...and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bat Out Hell has sold 43 million copies worldwide, it's certified 14x Platinum in the US, and it's spent a record 530 weeks on the UK Album Charts.

Flash forward to the late 90's, when word of a new musical based on the album (and it's sequel, "Bat Out Of Hell II") begins to surface. The show was officially announced in 2008, workshopped in New York City in 2015, and finally hit the stage in the UK in 2017. After spending time in London's West End, Toronto, and touring around the world, it was revealed in early 2022 that the Paris Theater in the Paris Hotel & Casino would be home to a new resident production of Bat Out Hell: The Musical.

Joining me for this episode of the podcast is veteran Vegas performer, Anne Martinez, who plays the role of "Sloane" in the show.

Anne & I chatted about what initially brought her to Las Vegas a decade ago, we talked about her love for the music of Jim Steinman & Meat Loaf, and what makes Bat Out Of Hell such a special show.

For more info on Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical at the Paris Hotel & Casino, visit the show's website for showtimes/days & ticket info. For exclusive pics & videos, be sure to follow Bat Out Of Hell on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Oct 24, 2022

My Special Guest: Dennis Blair

Monday Oct 24, 2022

Picture it...it's the late 1970's. You're a singer-songwriter working the bar scene in New York City. One night, after having enough of dealing with crowds that don't pay attention to you, you decide to mess around with the lyrics of a popular song and perform that on stage...and you manage to turn that into a career spanning almost 40 years.

That's exactly what Dennis Blair did.

Dennis is a Las Vegas-based comedian & musician who, over the course of the last 4 decades, has had the opportunity to work with some of the biggest names in comedy & music. He co-wrote a feature film, he's worked on TV specials, he's appeared on The Tonight Show and he recently released a book chronicling his time on the road as an opening act.

Dennis and I chatted about what got him into comedy, the early days of working with Rodney Dangerfield & what led to their falling out, life on the road with Joan Rivers, and what it was like spending 18 years as the opening act for George Carlin.

Visit Dennis's website to find out where you can catch him performing in Vegas, pick up a copy of his book, "Touring With Legends" from your favorite online bookseller, and check out his music on Apple Music & Spotify.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Oct 10, 2022

My Special Guest: Michael Shapiro

Monday Oct 10, 2022

If you're a lover of that vintage Vegas vibe, but also a huge fan of the contemporary rock sound, you're going to LOVE my guest for this episode of the podcast

Joining me this time around is Michael Shapiro, front man for Reckless In Vegas who, after spending the last several years hustling their asses off around Las Vegas at various lounges and showrooms, recently landed their first ever residency gig at the legendary Sahara Las Vegas!

Michael & I discussed what initially got him interested in music, we talked about his early days working in cover bands & touring with other artists, he opened up about his addiction & recovery, and he shared what inspired him to create the unique sound of Reckless In Vegas.

If you want to learn more about Reckless In Vegas and get your hands on tickets to see them live at the Sahara, be sure to visit their website. You can also follow the band on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

You can also listen to Reckless In Vegas online on Apple Music & Spotify.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Aug 29, 2022

Showgirls - Fact vs. Fiction

Monday Aug 29, 2022

There are some AWESOME Vegas movies out there. Classics like "Casino", "Oceans Eleven" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". There are also some TERRIBLE Vegas movies out there...like "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone", "3000 Miles To Graceland" and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2".

I think it's fair to say that the film we're discussing in this episode falls somewhere in the middle.

Considered to be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, Showgirls (written by Joe Eszterhas, directed by Paul Veerhoven, and starring Elizabeth Berkley) has morphed into a huge cult classic.

Thanks to a steady stream of nudity & gratuitous sex, the film was given an NC-17 rating and to this day, remains the only film with that rating to have had wide release in US movie theaters. And although Showgirls wasn't based on a true story, Eszterhas and Veerhoven claimed they did "extensive interviews" with people in the Vegas entertainment community to make the portrayal of the showgirl world as accurate as possible.

So, did they get it right? We're about to find out.

My guest for this episode, making her second appearance on the podcast, is Dani Elizabeth - a legit Showgirl and former cast member of the legendary Vegas shows, "Jubilee" and "Crazy Girls".

Dani shared the story of the first time she saw Showgirls and how it almost led to a career change, we dove into the film with some character analysis & theories on why people watch the film over and over again, and we compared Dani's "showgirl life" to Nomi Malone's.

If you want to dive further into the world of Showgirls - and really, who wouldn't? - check out the documentary You Don't Nomi directed by Jeffrey McHale (available for sale & rent on your favorite streaming service).

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Aug 15, 2022

Vegas Rocks - Raiding The Rock Vault

Monday Aug 15, 2022

Imagine being able to attend a concert featuring some of the greatest rock songs in history from artists like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, the Rolling Stones, the Who, AC/DC and Van Halen.

Now, imagine those songs being played by musicians from some of the biggest bands in the world like Whitesnake, Starship, the Cult and Heart.

Stop imagining it because it's reality. It's in Las Vegas and it's called Raiding The Rock Vault.

Raiding The Rock Vault has been a part of the Vegas entertainment scene for almost a decade with past residencies at the Westgate, the Tropicana and the Hard Rock Hotel with the show recently moving off the strip to the Rio to open a brand new venue, Duomo.

Joining me for a conversation is Sir Harry Cowell, co-creator of Raiding The Rock Vault.

Sir Harry and I talked about some of the incredible artists he's worked with over his long career in the music business, the inspiration behind the creation of Raiding The Rock Vault, the challenges of opening a new venue, and much more!

For more info & to snag tickets, visit Raiding The Rock Vault online and make sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday May 30, 2022

Interview With A Dancer

Monday May 30, 2022

According to a recent report, Strip Clubs in the United States - or "Gentleman's Clubs" as they're often called - are forecasted to pull in roughly $7.4 BILLION in revenue in 2022. In Las Vegas, there are over TWENTY different clubs for visitors to patronize. And often, visiting a strip club in Las Vegas is a person's first experience with this type of establishment.

If you've never been to a strip club, chances are you've got questions...and my guest for this episode of the podcast is the perfect person to answer them.

Her name is Keila and she's currently a dancer at a Gentleman's Club in Las Vegas.

In addition to discussing proper etiquette for anyone planning on visiting a club in Vegas, Keila was kind enough to chat with me about what got her into dancing, what her daily pre-and-post work routine entails, and we busted some of the myths & misconceptions about the people who work in her industry.

If you want to learn more about Keila & see what life as a dancer is like, follow her on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday May 09, 2022

What Was & What Will Be

Monday May 09, 2022

Welcome to a fun-sized bonus episode of the podcast!

This time around, I just wanted to take a moment to drop into the feed to send out a few quick shout-out's and "thank you's" for what's been going on over the last few weeks and share some announcements about what's coming up on the show over the next little while.

There's LOTS of awesome stuff coming up in the next few weeks, so be sure to keep an ear out for that and in the meantime, be sure to check out some of the recently released episodes including:

I also want to give a special shout-out to Ron Wrobel aka "@TrekkerRon" for inviting me on his podcast, "Con Pod: A Star Trek Convention Podcast". This year, Las Vegas's annual Star Trek Convention is making the move from off-strip at the Rio to on-strip at Bally's. Ron and I talked about what it's going to be like for Trekkies attending this year's convention to be smack-dab in the middle of the action. To check out the episode, follow the show on Twitter at @TrekConPod, listen to it here or find it wherever you get your podcasts.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!

Monday Apr 11, 2022

My Special Guest: Carrot Top

Monday Apr 11, 2022

My very special guest for this episode has been in the comedy business for over three decades. He's been on stage all over the world and has been on hundreds of TV shows including Live with Regis & Kelly, Gene Simmons' Family Jewels, Scrubs, CSI and he's made over THIRTY appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Carrot Top has been headlining his own show at the Luxor in Las Vegas for the last 16 years and recently signed an extension that will keep him there through to 2025.

Carrot Top and I talked about his early days of prop comedy, how he comes up with his material, the current state of comedy, his apprehension when he first signed on at the Luxor and much more!

Carrot Top performs in the Atrium Showroom at the Luxor Las Vegas 6 nights a week. Visit the Luxor's website for tickets and showtimes. To find out if Carrot Top is touring to a city near you, visit his official website and give him a follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Does Vegas is an official Vegas.com affiliate!

Help support the podcast & get exclusive deals by booking your hotel stays, shows, attractions, tours, clubs and even complete vacation packages (including air & hotel) with our special link!