Brian Dreger read this post here and then wrote to ask…
I very much enjoyed your recent article about seeing Don Rickles. I laughed so much. I could almost imagine sitting at the table with you guys experiencing that and processing it all as it was going down!
But it reminds me of something I've always wondered about Vegas shows: who chooses the opening act? Is it the casino/hotel or is it the headliner? Did Don Rickles really pick that less-than-stellar singer? If so, does he have to pay her out of his profits? How does that work? It would seem to me that some headliners would not want someone too spectacular because they might overshadow them. But if they pick someone who is kind of a dog, then their entire show suffers — so does the Casino/Hotel arrange that and therefore the headliner can wash his and/or her hands of whole opening act if it is a disaster?
The answer is that it works all different ways. Sometimes, the headliner picks his or her opening act. Sometimes, the hotel does. Sometimes, a headliner has a long-term relationship with an opening act and when the hotel books the headliner, it's understood the opening act comes along with them. Sometimes, the headliner might be touring with an opening act. I don't know if he still does but Johnny Mathis toured for years with the very fine comedian Gary Muledeer.
The hotel might sign an opening act to play X number of weeks a year and then try to pair them up with a headliner. Sometimes, an agent or manager will put together a package of opening act and headliner, then sell it/them to the hotel as a duo. After The Golddiggers became part of Dean Martin's TV show and Dean played the MGM Grand or Bally's (same hotel with a name change), some version of the Golddiggers troupe opened for Dean.
But most of this is past-tense because headliners rarely have opening acts these days…or if they do, it's often that the headliner is booked and the headliner chooses (or even pays directly) the opening act. And sometimes, it isn't the hotel in any of the above arrangements; it's some company that is "four-walling" the showroom, which means that they make a deal with the hotel to program the showroom. Two or three times — none of which reached fruition — I was asked to write a show for Vegas. I was not asked by someone who worked for the hotel. I was asked by someone who was putting together a package to try and sell to a hotel.
Elsewhere on this site (here) I linked to a video of comedian Pat Cooper who used to go on talk shows and complain about not being hired or treated well as an opening act. I don't think his rants made a lot of sense. No matter what he said he was bitching about, what he was really bitching about was that a lot of hotels in Vegas didn't want to hire Pat Cooper or a lot of stars didn't want him opening for them.
But the short answer to your question is that it works (or works) all different ways.
