Today's Video Link

Speaking of shows being closed in Las Vegas: One of my favorite live shows there, which I've seen a couple times, is/was Absinthe, which presumably will come back soon when more of Vegas does. I once described it here like this…

Imagine a Cirque du Soleil show but take away about 80% of the budget, all the weird costumes and sets and bizarre music. Keep the part where human beings go out and do physical feats — aerial stunts, balancing, juggling, lifting, etc. — that seem physically impossible. Then add in the rudest, nastiest host ever in show business history — a man who makes Mr. Rickles look like Mr. Rogers — and his assistant, who has the mouth of a sailor and the I.Q. of a potato chip. Mix well and pour. That's Absinthe.

The company that produces it also had two other shows in town — one called Opium and another called The Atomic Saloon Show, neither of which I've seen. All three closed, as did almost all other live shows in town, when The Pandemic hit. They briefly reopened Absinthe at the end of October under rules that limited seating to 150 people in a theater (a tent, actually) that usually holds 660.

That only lasted until the allowable seating was reduced to 50, at which point it closed again and I believe it is still closed. This, of course, creates great financial problems for the producers and a lot of personal problems (including but not limited to the financial kind) for the folks who appear in the show. The Spiegelworld people have been especially vocal in protesting some of the governor's rules, particularly those which allow nightclubs to be a lot more crowded than theaters or tents.

I don't know enough about Nevada rules to have an opinion on any of that. I am however intrigued by a series of rather elaborate videos that Spiegelworld (or someone in its midst) has been making about the shutdown, told from the POV of the producers and performers. Some of it is funny, most of it is sad or frustrating…and I'll warn you that some of it is rather adult in content, though not so much in the first installment which I'm embedding here…

That's Episode #1. As I write this, they're up to Episode #18 so if you want to catch up on them all, it'll take you some time. The whole series is best watched on this page.