Posts Tagged Entertainment, Page 18

Grab a group of your friends. Make a few bets. Find some seats. Order a few beers. Now you are set for long day of watching football and cheering at the television at the top of your lungs. Don’t worry about someone asking you to keep it down or mocking you for trying to dictate the outcome of the game. In Las Vegas watching football is allowed any way you like to do it.

Go ahead, wear your lucky socks, drink beer with only your left hand and breathe out of your nose during all punt returns. I know, they will help your team win.

It’s one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in recent times. Dallas native Terry Fator had been practicing ventriloquism since the fifth grade, and performing comedy and music his whole life, but things weren’t exactly going well, he recalls performing for just one 12-year-old at a local fair appearance, before he won an audition on America’s Got Talent. Although judges literally scoffed at the very idea of a ventriloquist from the beginning.

In a laughing mood? That’s probably because you haven’t gambled away all your money yet.

But seriously, folks: Las Vegas is a town that loves to laugh, and if you’re looking for a fun comedy show, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Some of the most famous comedians in the world make people laugh here every night, others visit regularly, a few only drop in from time to time (sometimes without advance notice). Still, every serious comic will tell you that Las Vegas audiences might be the most challenging, yet are always the most rewarding.

Sticker Shock. They call it that when costs sneak up on new car purchase, but the effect can be the same with a vacation in Las Vegas. Sometimes it can seem like every direction you turn in Vegas, it takes more money, and every simple thing is twice as much as it should be.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. With a little bit of planning and keeping eyes open, you can wrangle the deals and have a very inexpensive fun time here—even if you’re just saving more money for gambling. We won’t judge.

Here are some tips:

Hotels

They remain one of the most unpredictable successes in Las Vegas history. When the intellectual, anti-establishment magic team of Penn & Teller first performed in Las Vegas, no one was sure it would go well, least of all them. But twenty years after their first show here, the tee-totaling, atheists who debunk magic while creating it have truly found a second home in their own theatre at the Rio Hotel & Casino.

1. It’s Always Happy Hour. No matter what time of the day you can walk down to the casino and you’ll find someone who is having a drink and ready to have some fun. The best part of that is the special time at the end of the night when you know you should go to bed but you have the late night meal with one more cocktail. That is the true happy hour and those moments are endless in Las Vegas where “last call” does not exist.

I think most people are aware that Las Vegas has plenty of places to drink, yes? But those who like their spirits with a little more…uh, spirit…might not realize how many creative and award-winning drink makers (okay, okay, “Mixologists”) there are on the Strip. Put simply, this is the place to try something new, and you won’t hurt for choices. Here are just a handful of favorite drinks, and places to get them:

Let’s just say you only have one night in Las Vegas. You want to have fun but you don’t want to waste any time. You want to hit the hot spots but you do not have the luxury of hoping that a place is right for you. That is why you and I are hooking up. I know Las Vegas and you want to have fun. I drink, eat and spend far too much time talking to strangers so that you do not have to worry about a single thing when you decide to let loose for one night in Las Vegas. That night is tonight, so let's do this.

Located in Symphony Park, The Smith Center is what Las Vegas looks like as a grown up. Don’t worry, you can still act like a college student on spring break on the Las Vegas strip but when it is time to imagine yourself as a more refined you, The Smith Center is where it happens. This epicenter for the arts adjacent to Downtown Las Vegas is world class in its combination of performances by resident companies, first-run touring attractions, lectures and internationally acclaimed performers in music, theater and dance.