Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘Talent’ Pool
‘AGT’ has been a boon to Las Vegas, but it’s a two-way street
The 12-year-old with the ukulele had a dream. The guy in the dragon suit had a goal. The difference may explain the true relationship between “America’s Got Talent” and Las Vegas. Grace VanderWaal so captured America’s heart she not only won the NBC talent show but generated enough interest to add a fourth show to three promised as part of her prize package, Thursday through Oct. 30 at Planet Hollywood. And then on Monday? VanderWaal moves on to a recording contract and whatever her future holds. But Piff the Magic Dragon will go to work at the Flamingo, as he does three nights a week, which was the express goal of auditioning for “Talent” in the first place. “That was the reason, to get out there to see if America loved the act enough to come out and pay for a ticket,” says the British magician known offstage as John Van der Put. By the time he auditioned, “I’d gone through three or four failed attempts to get the solo show off the ground (on the Strip). So I was like, ‘Let’s do “America’s Got Talent” and see what happens.’ ” The talent show brought variety acts back to primetime TV in a way not seen since the Ed Sullivan era. “You just can’t beat being in 10 or 12 million
people’s living rooms every week for three months,” Piff says.
The show’s continued success over 11 years created a two-way street to Las Vegas. Two winners, ventriloquist Terry Fator and magician Mat Franco, have shows on the Strip. But so do six previous contestants.
In turn, seasoned variety performers have become less worried about “Talent” making them look “Gong Show” foolish, which could jeopardize their work on the cruise-ship and casino circuit.
A RIPPLE EFFECT
“Vegas would be different if the show didn’t air,” says comedy magician Nathan Burton, who competed on the show’s very first season. “I told Simon (Cowell, the executive producer and current judge) that myself: ‘You’ve had a huge impact on Vegas and what shows are here.’ ”
“Why would I want (to self-finance) a show in Vegas if no one knows about me? If you don’t know who I am, you’re not going to want to see me,” says Murray, another comedy magician who parlayed his distinctive shock-top hair and glasses into guest spots on “Pawn Stars” and ongoing work on the Strip.
The “Talent” effect ripples well beyond the current slate. Alumni range from Las Vegas magician Kevin James, who eventually hit big with the touring show “The Illusionists,” to the acrobatic Sandau Trio, working unbilled in “Vegas! The Show.” Even the dance crew Jabbawockeez can count early “AGT” exposure as a step in building their profile.
“It’s quite a healthy list of people, isn’t it?” says Sam Donnelly, the talent show’s executive producer. “I think it helps us a lot, especially now. When people see the success of people like Mat Franco, that’s great for us. It encourages people to come and audition for the show.”
Ever since the second season, the phrase “Las Vegas headliner” has been dangled alongside a milliondollar payout for the winner. But the promise has been paid off in different ways, from one-nighters in arenas to an open-ended ensemble of Season 4 winners in 2009.
Just as there is no guarantee for an “AGT” winner — remember Kevin Skinner, the singing “chicken catcher”? — there is no assurance of a Las Vegas future.
Last year’s winner, ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, closed a big-budget show at Planet Hollywood, while Xavier Mortimer, quickly eliminated in the same season, found modest success in a comedy club at Planet Hollywood.
Two things seem to help: being ready, and not being a singer.
“You’ve definitely got to seize the opportunity,” Burton says. “When you get that once in a lifetime opportunity you’ve got to take advantage of it, rather than waiting for someone else to do it for you.”
Franco’s “Magic Reinvented Nightly” at The Linq has survived at least a dozen show closings since he opened in August 2015, a downturn so dismal it has generated real anxiety. But ironically, he and Fator were both seasoned pros who didn’t really need to work on the Strip. Fator was established on the state fair and corporate circuit, and Franco on college campuses.
“I didn’t have a specific goal of opening a show in Vegas,” Franco says. “To me, that was so far out there, so not even on my radar. … I always imagined I would stay under the radar, performing my little underground circuit in the colleges until I became too old and it became really creepy.”
The talent show seems less rewarding to singers in general, and even less kind to them on the Strip. Las Vegas blues-rocker Michael Grimm — whose Season 5 win was eclipsed by child singer Jackie Evancho — could not sustain the momentum of either a major-label album or a limited run at the Flamingo.
“It’s slightly different for singers, I think,” Donnelly says. “There are lots of places for singers to perform.” And one of them is The Mirage, where this year’s crooner Sal Valentinetti will open for Jay Leno on Nov. 19.
TRUSTING THE PROS
“Talent” is the show with no limits on who can audition. But one subtle shift over the years has been an openness about the use of seasoned variety performers.
The backstories that humanize each contestant don’t try as hard to downplay a working pro.“It’s not about pretending something’s one thing and it’s not,” Donnelly says. “I think it’s just about finding great acts.”
In return, variety acts share their good experiences. Piff says Franco reassured him, while he in turn encouraged this year’s mime Tape Face (who shares the live package show with VanderWaal and mentalists The Clairvoyants).
“I think a lot of professional entertainers were saying no to them for a long time,” says Ryan Stock, the “Comedy Daredevil” of the just-wrapped season. “And now they’re getting a better reputation by allowing people to say, ‘This is my full-time job. I am a performer.’ ”
“I thought I would be signing my life away by doing the show,” Piff says. He was worried that if he did win, “They were going to own me for the rest of my life.”
“But it turned out all that was garbage. They were lovely. They couldn’t be nicer to me. And really very generous actually,” he says of “AGT” not forcing him to break character or be filmed without his dragon costume.
And even if America doesn’t see it on TV, Stock says the producers are happy to have the pros around. “You don’t need to be following the producer around asking when things are going to happen, or what time the lunch break is. You just sit down and relax.” Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.