Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Bagans opens LV ‘Tiger King’ exhibit
HYPED for weeks and a tribute to an early pandemic Netflix phenomenon, the “Tiger King” exhibit at Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum is now open to the public.
Bagans says he is happy with the finished product, which went live Thursday morning.
“It’s full of bamboo, tiki waterfalls and palms.” Bagans also mentioned a “pump” of some level of notoriety from the show.
Some pieces on display were owned by the late Travis Maldonado, whose suicide — ruled accidental — was an integral turning point in the Netflix series.
Other items to be exhibited include Joe Exotic’s jeweled crown and some of his clothing; wedding effects from the three-way ceremony involving Exotic, Maldonado and John Finlay; the actual Exotic Animal Park sign; Maldonado’s glass pipe; and a section of the wall showing the bullet hole from Maldonado’s tragic death.
There are also some personal “intimate” belongings culled from Exotic and Maldonado’s relationship. Bagans obtained most of the collection this summer and is including the exhibit in his museum’s expansion.
Also, Bagans says he is expecting Travel Channel to announce its plans for a special dedicated to the “Tiger King” property. Previous reports have specified a two-hour special to air on Halloween.
In July, Bagans and his “Ghost Adventures” crew filmed for a week at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, better known as Tiger King Zoo, in Oklahoma. During that trip, they met and interviewed then-Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park owner Jeff Lowe, who has since departed for a new zoo after losing the park to nemesis Carole Baskin.
Elsewhere, Bagans has added to his John Wayne Gacy attraction. As reported by TMZ, the latest haul is a collection of Gacy’s artwork from his prison confinement, including an unsettling self-portrait of Gacy in clown makeup.
Bagans obtained the items from Gacy’s stepdaughter, Tammy Hoff, who lives in Las Vegas. The display includes letters decorated with clown stickers and the last pack of cigarettes Gacy smoked before being executed. This is where we remind, there is no smoking allowed in the Haunted Museum.
The Madison Show
Holly Madison has returned to the public eye, somewhat, after living privately for the past two years or so. She hosted her first Q&A on her new self-named YouTube channel show on Friday afternoon.
Madison answered select questions while doing her makeup. Madison talked live from her home from Los Angeles. She splits her time between L.A. and Vegas, dating the aforementioned Bagans, and has “a handful of projects” she has nearly ready to go, but not quite. She has a TV show, podcast and a couple of books on the horizon.
Something I’d not known about Madison, whom I met in 2009 when she was about to start her role in “Peepshow” at Planet Hollywood. Her favorite movie is “Casino,” which she says is “the quintessential Vegas movie.”
One fan asked what Madison’s favorite memory of the Playboy Mansion were. Good one. She’s not exactly nostalgic about her days as Hugh Hefner’s No. 1 girlfriend in “The Girl Next Door.” Madison responded, “The times when I got to hang out with the other women, and we were just carefree and not worried about, ‘Oh my God, am I going to break a rule? Am I going to get kicked out tomorrow? Is somebody going to stab me in the back?’ Because that was the anxiety that was plaguing me while I was there.”
Madison also fondly recalls the July 4 parties, as she was able to socialize on her own while Hef was off playing backgammon. Now that’s a party.
Lakeside dreams
While suing a group of brawlers caught on social media last week, Wynn Las Vegas has quietly premiered a far prettier scene. The “Lake of Dreams” multimedia show’s revamp is nearly complete, or seems to be. I checked out the show Thursday, the night hotel officials had set aside for a formal premiere of the new show before pulling those plans without explanation.
Whatever, having not seen the show in a couple of years, I can’t quite discern what is and is not new. But the scene of the giant frog singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the projected rendition of “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher are brilliant. There’s a killer Kenny Ortega- designed dance segment, too. All of it socially distant.