Visiting Las Vegas I went to shows, attended the Video Software Dealers Association convention and got a lot of writing done on my laptop which, being almost a year old, is hopelessly obsolete. The V.S.D.A. con was a sparsely-attended bore.
Almost as few people were in the audience when I saw my pal Pete Barbutti, who is fronting a strip revue at the Plaza downtown, but that was far from a bore. Pete — who logged an amazing 65 appearances on Mr. Carson's Tonight Show — is one of the great storytellers and stand-ups, and a master at working a dead house, which is the norm for the shabby Plaza showroom. No one else could have gotten that much laughter out of so few people, and a lot of it came from me. (And, yes, Pete has a website. The link is right here.)
Also caught Legends of Comedy, an impersonator show at the New Frontier which features fine carbons of Jay Leno, Roseanne, George Burns, Rodney Dangerfield, etc. This is a nice, little show which could be a killer if located in a hotel that (a) wasn't a dump and (b) would make room to advertise it on the big sign outside. Its producer is another pal o' mine and I told him he should try to hire the publicist who's promoting the $3.99 Prime Rib Dinner in the coffee shop.
Funniest thing I saw in Vegas besides Pete Barbutti: Outside the Paris hotel right on The Strip, there's a 15-foot illuminated sign that flashes messages about eateries and shows. The graphics come from a computer and Tuesday, when I walked past, there was a huge Windows error message up there — "System Resources Are Low." It looked like the screen of a cheap home P.C. blown up to billboard size — and the window that contained that message was partially-overlapping one that was running Dr. Watson, a primitive Windows diagnostic program. Computer buffs were standing around on Las Vegas Boulevard (the C.E.S. is in town) and laughing, "They can't even afford the Norton Utilities!"