Twilight Zone

Friday night we went O'sheas to see Dirty Mind. It's a new show, it bills itself as a "very adult variety show". How can that be bad? We had free tickets why not check it out?

We had time to kill beforehand, so we went to the back bar. We couldn't get served, we waited 10 min and gave up. There were 4 bartenders. It was busy, but service was also crummy.

Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo...

We went up to the show. That's when the weirdness began. I must have missed the words of caution: “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

First, they give you little cards that ask personal/sexual questions. You jot your response down, it also asks for you name and DOB. We're told to fold it in fourths so the number on the card is showing outward. We must remember our number. They're all collected and we assume they'll be part of the show. They stressed how important audience participation was... we all get seated, about 15 of us. Yes, 15. Officially the smallest show ever. That's laughable enough.

The first guy is a mind reader, Luke Jermay. Except he wasn't able to read the minds of the first two girls he questioned. It was a riot. More so the audience hecklers than anything. The next few acts were mildly entertaining. They were nervous and many mistakes were made. After 3, we wondered when the "dirty mind" aspect would begin. It never happened. The show ended on a weak note. None of us thought it was over. We all sat there when the lights came on, the bouncer guy had to come and tell us show is over. Unreal. When we asked the girl about our cards, she played dumb... what cards?

Apparently the joke was on us. I bet the crew has a great time reading those cards. My card asked about 3 celebritys - spelled just like that by the way, if I had a dollar for every spelling mistake I found, I'd be a rich woman - I found sexually attractive. My picks were Josh Duhamel, Carmen Electra, and Julian McMahon.

After the show we hit the strip. We walked from O'sheas to Treasure Island. Saw a lot of seedy shit. Hookers are norm, but there was no discretion 11:30 on Friday night. We also saw a number of shady characters making deals, selling drugs and god knows what else. We went to Mirage to check out BB Kings new joint. There was $5 cover, we reluctantly paid it. Got seated and were brought menus. Beers are served in a souvenir glass, but there is no mention of price. I can only imagine how much they must be. We never ordered. We sat for ten minutes menus down without service. There was live music. Not jazzy, old pop music from early 90's or so. There is no reason to pay $10 for live music, overpay for beers and tolerate shitty service. We left. Frank asked the cashier at the door for our cover back. She was a bit snotty when saying, "we're you seated where there are servers?" "Uh, yeah, the hostess sat us and gave us food and drink menus". Silverware was on the tables. I doubt it was serve yourself. She got her manager. He apologized offered to buy us drinks and invited us to stay. No thanks.

We got our money back and walked over to Treasure Island. I hadn't been over there since Phil Ruffin took it over. I knew Gilley's opened so we thought we might stop in and have a look. Gilley's is fairly large with outdoor strip-side dining. The bar was packed with cowboys. There was a line to get in, we'll pass. When we first entered TI I noticed the strong air freshner. It stunk. Worse than Venetian's. I hoped it'd ease up once I made it past the entrance, but it never happened. Instead, I started gasping for air. I couldn't breath. We dashed to the nearest exit. Entered the crowds waiting for the Siren Show. We stopped before wrestling through the crowds to catch my breath, Treasure Island nearly killed me.

We crossed over to Venetian, didn't stop in there. Any more fragrance I just might be done for... we went into Casino Royale. We hadn't been in there since last summer. They've moved the food court and spruced it up a bit. I like the changes. It felt roomier. We grabbed a seat at the bar, and got service. Imagine that. The bartender also told us about the $1 Michelob, two please. Ahhh! We were parched, they hit the spot. We enjoyed our beer and good tunes that played. Then, headed back to O'sheas, walking past IP's Rockhouse was tough. The crowd was packed tight on the sidewalk, dancing and singing to Lady Gaga and Ke$ha. Apparently, it's Las Vegas' cheapest club. Who knew?

I'm Vegas' biggest fan, but I didn't not like what I saw Friday night. Shady characters and shitty service. I certainly hope this is not the new norm and it was just bad whacky, Twilight Zone-kinda night.

Despite it all we still left laughing. Frank and I come across places that are odd we call those experiences la-la-landish. While pulling the t-tops off the TA I told Frank I felt like we went to the otherside of the tracks in la-la-land. Gotta give major props to Casino Royale, shockingly they were the diamond in the rough on Friday night.