Dion sings her 1,000th at Caesars before full house

Behind the power of love that is the Celine Dion experience, we offer statistical data:

One thousand shows at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, the 1,000th performed Saturday night in front of a joyous full house of 4,200.

Four million fans entertained at that same venue, over a 13-year stretch. And, the number 14. “I am the last of 14 children, and I am known as the accident,” Dion said, eliciting laughs from the audience. “My father wanted no children. Zero to 14? We can see who was wearing the pants in this family. It was not my father.”

Comfortable as always in getting personal with her audience, Dion was in elevated spirits for No. 1,000, a decided contrast to her return show in February, her first performance after the death of her husband, Rene Angelil, a month earlier. That heavy and powerful show left nearly the entire audience in tears.

But Saturday was more an ebullient celebration, as Dion joked, “One thousand shows? I don’t feel that old!”

She mentioned Angelil frequently as the man with the vision behind the Colosseum residency. During the scat section of Ella Fitzgerald’s “(If You Can’t

ANGEL SOARS

We’ve seen Criss Angel throw a charge into a charity event before. At least I have, when the Luxor headliner turned up at the St. Baldrick’s Shave-A-Thon at McMullan’s Irish Pub in March and offered $100,000 to shave my head.

Angel cut loose the purse strings once more Friday night at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, during Circus Couture’s seventh annual fundraiser, titled “Lucky,” for the Children’s Specialty Center of Nevada. Up for bid in the live auction was an art piece titled “The Family Tree,” dedicated to the late Avery Driscoll, the face of St. Baldrick’s who died at age 13 of Pilocytic Astrocytoma in June.

Seated in the audience, Angel shouted, “Onehundred thousand!” He won. Angel then took the mic and announced two additional donations of $100,000 to St. Baldrick’s in Avery’s honor, and another $100,000 directly to Circus Couture. That sum pushed the seven-year total raised by the event to more than $1 million.

THE DOUMANI FACTOR

The death of Ed Doumani on Sept. 28 at age 80 of ocular melanoma reminds of the long and considerable impact his family has had on real-estate development in Las Vegas. Along with his father, M.K., and brother, Fred, opened La Concha and El Morocco on the Strip in the early and mid-1960s. Ed was an investment partner with Steve Wynn in the hotel expansion at the Golden Nugget, and Ed and Fred also operated Tropicana in the mid-1970s.

Ed’s son Lorenzo continues the family tradition of investment on (or, very near) the Strip. He remains the owner of the property on which the Clarion Hotel Casino once stood on Convention Center Drive, just north of Wynn/ Encore and south of the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot. In February 2015, Doumani ordered up a demolition of the Clarion.

Doumani has talked of building a lavish, nongaming resort on that property, but has not ordered any construction since the implosion. He’s waiting on the proposed expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center on the old Riviera site, the development of Resorts World Las Vegas on the west side of the Strip, and also Steve Wynn’s announced plans for his Wynn Paradise Park development.

Doumani said during a phone conversation Saturday that he won’t plan on opening on that site until at least six months after Resorts World opens, and the $4 billion, 3,000-room resort won’t be finished until 2019.