PENTATONIX

the High Roller. They take the stage — introduced by Penn Jillette and, to a lesser degree, Teller — for “Sweater Weather” and “Coldest Winter” in the duo’s titular, sparsely filled theater. They sing “Making Christmas” in the audience at “Absinthe” while a variety of acts perform behind them as part of what may be the strangest thing to ever take place inside that Spiegeltent. And, if you aren’t familiar with “Absinthe,” that’s saying something. For sheer randomness, though, it’s hard to top what happens once Hoying acquires his centurion outfit. “Scott was anxious to give his new look a test run,” Sallee narrates, “so we went to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, where we ran into Kelly Clarkson.” Who among us hasn’t? “A Not So Silent Night” may be the most commercial piece of Christmas entertainment to grace our fair city since that Fashion Show spectacle that saw Santa and a troupe of dancers boogying down to a version of “Mr. Sandman” that managed to cram in the names of most of the mall’s prominent tenants. It’s hard to knock any special that ends on such a charitable note, with Pentatonix performing and serving meals alongside Morris at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. Hard. But not impossible. For starters, Olusola’s Huxtable duds — a blue dress shirt and an unbuttoned plaid vest — are supposed to be, of all things, a pirate costume. Aargh, indeed. Penn & Teller are featured, but they don’t perform an illusion. Instead, Jillette, an unbelievably good sport, is presented as some type of sorcerer. And what sadist made Maldonado, her broken ankle encased in a massive cast, struggle to balance on one foot during the majority of the group’s performances? Would a crutch be considered too Tiny Tim? Was there no room under their tree for a chair? All that, though, just adds to the delightful awkwardness that permeates nearly every scene of “A Not So Silent Night.” And it does little to obscure the special’s message, which seems to be: Have a very Caesars Christmas, and an absolutely Caesars New Year. Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_ onthecouch on Twitter.

David Becker NBC Members of Pentatonix snap a selfie with the Backstreet Boys during “Pentatonix: A Not So Silent Night.”