Cold Caps, Las Vegas Review Journal

Cold cap can reduce hair loss in breast cancer patients By LISA FERGUSON SPECIAL TO LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL November 4, 2016 Having battled bone cancer as a child, chemotherapy treatments had robbed Cassie Stratford of her hair once before. So when the Henderson woman was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer last year at age 32, she was determined not to lose her locks again — even if that meant forgoing treatments of the potentially lifesaving therapy. “I remember being really sick and being bald … and I was like, ‘I am not doing that again, no matter what happens. I’ll do the mastectomy, but I’m not doing chemo,’” Stratford said. A graduate of UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, she reached out to a former classmate who also had battled cancer. Stratford recalled having seen photos and reading Facebook posts about the woman, who had undergone chemotherapy but retained her hair with the help of a device called a cold cap. “I just started researching everything I could about them online,” said Stratford, an attorney for Boyd Gaming Corp. Filled with a gel that is frozen up to minus 44 degrees Fahrenheit, snug-fitting cold caps are worn by some breast cancer patients immediately before, during and after chemotherapy-infusion sessions. The cold temperatures work to constrict blood vessels in skin on the scalp, thereby reducing blood flow as well as the amount of medication that is able to reach hair follicles, making hair less likely to fall out — a common side effect of the powerful cancer-fighting drugs. Stratford used cold caps following her double-mastectomy surgery this year. “There’s never a good time” to receive a cancer diagnosis,” she said, “but I felt like, ‘I’m 32. I don’t have time to put everything on hold for a year and have everyone look at me like I’m sick.’ … I wanted to decide who I wanted to tell (about her illness), and I wanted to go about my business at work normally.” Also called hypothermia caps, cold caps have been used by breast cancer patients in Europe for decades. Following clinical trials, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared one brand, the DigniCap Scalp Cooling System, for use in this country in December. Clinical trials of other cold cap devices are underway. Several companies produce and rent cold caps, the bulk of which are not yet covered by most U.S. insurance companies. Even without FDA approval, various brands have been used for years in this country by patients who obtain them online without a doctor’s prescription. Dr. Souzan El-Eid, a breast surgeon with Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, said she was “ecstatic” upon learning of the FDA approval. The clinical trials, she said, helped alleviate concerns within the medical community over whether reducing the amount of chemotherapy drugs that reached the scalp could lead to cancer metastasis to the area. “In general when you see metastasis, it’s really not in the scalp … so let the women keep their hair,” said El-Eid, who serves as Summerlin Hospital’s Breast Center director as well as president of the Clark County Medical Society. El-Eid said she advises her patients who require chemotherapy about the caps. “The first thing they ask me is, ‘Am I gonna lose my hair,’” and I’m like, ‘Yes, but it’s gonna grow back in,’” she said. However, “That period between losing (the hair) and it growing back in is devastating when they look in the mirror.” Rental costs for the caps typically range between $350 and $600 or more per month depending on the number of caps and additional supplies needed, as well as how many rounds of chemotherapy a patient is prescribed. “I would like people to feel free to do this. The issue is going to be the financial burden” it causes patients, said Dr. Mary Ann Allison, a longtime local oncologist who is at Comprehensive Cancer Centers’ southeast Henderson location. Although she’s had four patients who use caps, Allison said most have declined them, citing cost concerns. Patients also might feel burdened by having to store and prepare the caps themselves in advance of chemotherapy infusions. Because standard home freezers cannot reach temperatures required to cool the caps, dry ice, large portable coolers and other equipment also must be purchased and used to properly chill caps prior to each application. Some doctors’ offices and cancer treatment centers, including Allison’s, provide special biomedical freezers in which patients can store their caps. Comprehensive Cancer Centers’ freezer was obtained through a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization called The Rapunzel Project, which has donated the pricey appliances to 100 facilities throughout the country. “There are some doctors who believe really strongly in how important (cold caps are) to patients and would like to make sure that every patient they treat has access to them,” said Nancy Marshall, co-founder of The Rapunzel Project. Allison called the FDA clearance of the DigniCap system “probably the biggest psychological advancement” for women battling breast cancer. A woman’s hair “is such a huge part of your personality and how you want to look and how you want to be perceived.” Cold caps are worn for approximately an hour prior to each infusion session and (with the exception of the DigniCap, which uses a computer to maintain a constant temperature) must be swapped out every 20 to 40 minutes during sessions. They also are worn for two to four hours afterward. Patients typically are tasked with taking the caps on and off themselves, usually with help from a family member or friend who accompanies them to infusion appointments. In some cities, professional “cappers” can be hired to assist. “This is not something that you need medical personnel” to do, Allison said. The caps’ frigid temperatures can be difficult for patients to endure, often resulting in headaches, chills and discomfort in the neck and shoulders. Also while using the caps — and for several months following the completion of chemotherapy treatments — special care is required to maintain the hair. It must be gently washed and cannot be conditioned, colored, blown dry or styled with heated tools. Vigorous brushing and combing also must be avoided. Cold caps are not suitable for every breast cancer patient and cannot be used in conjunction with all chemotherapy regimens. “There are some chemotherapies (medications) where you just can’t save the hair,” Allison said. According to the website of the nonprofit Pennsylvania-based organization Breastcancer.org, small studies showed that cold caps were “highly effective” in 50 to 60 percent of women who used them. The makers of DigniCap as well as Penguin-brand cold caps also reported good success rates with the products on the companies’ websites. Even under ideal circumstances, however, patients probably will experience some hair loss. Tara Tilton, a patient of breast surgeon El-Eid, said she lost some hair on the sides of her head and at the base of her scalp when she used Penguin caps in 2009. “It wasn’t super-noticeable,” recalled Tilton, who lives and works in the Las Vegas Valley as a sales rep for Colgate. “The main thing was, I did have scalp hair.” She used the caps because, she said, “I didn’t want to go into these dentist offices (for work) and have people just stare at me and feel sorry for me because I had cancer.” Despite experiencing success with the caps Tilton, a 39-year-old mother of three, called the process “overwhelming,” and said she is unsure whether she’d use them again in the future, if needed. “It’s just uncomfortable, especially the first time. You’re stressed out (wondering), ‘Do we have it on right? Is it working? Is it worth it?’ It’s not pleasant,” she said. “It definitely adds some stress to an already stressful time, but for me it was the right choice,” said Stratford, who experienced minimal hair loss while using the caps. “Most people would have no idea that I finished chemo a couple of months ago.” Using cold caps helped Stratford feel in control of part of the treatment “that was going to be important and very visible,” she said. “When you lose all of your hair, you’re vulnerable … because you don’t have control over the public knowing what you’re going through.” Stratford said she wants more women to know that cold caps may be an option for them. “I would hate for someone to choose not to have chemo because they didn’t want to lose their hair and look sick and have that psychological impact,” she said. “If someone does what’s right for them because of this, then I think that’s really the huge benefit.”

Oral Deaf Education program, Preston Hollow People

Williams Elementary School Sounds Better by Lisa Ferguson · April 23, 2017 The halls at Sudie L. Williams Elementary School echo with the familiar sounds of teachers explaining lessons and students answering queries. However, it is only because of the school’s unique Oral Deaf Education program that dozens of students on campus are able to hear those questions at all. Williams has long served students with auditory impairments in kindergarten through fifth grade. It is the only school in Dallas ISD that utilizes additional teachers and special technology to improve students’ access to grade-specific curriculum and instruction. Students with a range of issues, including physical deformities that affect their ability to hear, travel to Williams daily from throughout the district and as far away as Farmers Branch and Carrolton to attend the school. “We service a special population, because we have the special tools to do so, but all kids are special,” said Principal Michael Jackson. Beginning last year, a greater emphasis has been placed on including auditory-impaired students in more general education programs at the school, rather than routinely pulling them from classes to receive specialized instruction in reading, he said. Each classroom at Williams is helmed by a pair of teachers — a general education and a special education instructor — who teach in tandem. They also don personal frequency modulation systems that use radio waves to deliver speech signals to students who wear hearing aids and cochlear implants. The technology, which syncs with the students’ hearing devices, provides students better access to sound and allows them to use their listening and speaking skills rather than sign language when interacting with each other and their teachers. As a result, most of the school’s 40 auditory-impaired students are able to participate in a typical classroom setting alongside their 200-plus hearing classmates. “We really do try to urge an inclusive environment, so the kids are getting on-grade-level instruction just like their peers are,” Jackson said. It can be difficult for some students who experienced a delay in being identified as having auditory issues early in their lives or academic careers to adjust. “They have had to make it the best way that they could with the tools that they had, so they read lips, and they’ll come up with ways to make it,” he explained. Now, he said, it’s up to the teachers at Williams to use “diverse instructional strategies in order to bring those kids into the fold of understanding.” The Oral Deaf Education program is “driven by teachers who are super passionate” about giving the students “not only access to instructional material, but also to self-advocacy,” Jackson said. For example, students are responsible for keeping track of and maintaining their own hearing devices. “You have to make sure that you wear it every day, check your batteries and all that,” explained fifth-grader Aaron Caracheo, who transferred to Williams last year from another school. Jackson said all of the students on campus take the Oral Deaf Education program seriously. “If a child loses a hearing aid, everybody is scrambling to find it,” he explained. “Think about the level of consciousness the students have to have. They’re not just thinking about themselves. They know that a student won’t have as much access to [instruction] because they don’t have a hearing aid.” With the help of technology, 10-year-old Carecheo said he can better hear the teacher than at his previous school, where “it was tricky. … I had to ask the teacher again and again if she could repeat” information. Special education teacher Molly Browning said Williams’ auditory-impaired students “are being pushed more. We are not pulling them out [of class]. We’re not saying, `You can’t do this.’ We’re saying, `You can do this, we’re gonna help.’ ” Jackson agrees. “We push these kids as hard as we push everybody else. There’s no differentiation in terms of what the expectations are. And they rise up to the challenge. It’s pretty awesome.”

Sun Lite 12/23/03, Las Vegas Sun

0 Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for Dec. 22, 2003 Lisa Ferguson Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 8:24 a.m. On the prowl Here's one to ponder: If a Christmas tree falls in the living room, do pets hear it? More than likely, they're to blame for such yuletide disasters. But you can't really fault the little critters. Similar to some humans who can't resist the temptation of a pre-holiday riffling through the loot under the tannenbaum, pooches and pussycats just want what's theirs - and, from the looks of the pet-friendly gifts on the market, this year's haul could be good. Pet Supplies "Plus" the nation's third-largest pet-product retailer (with stores on the East Coast and in the Midwest - none in Nevada), conducted an online survey of nearly 1,300 people and found that 36 percent of pet owners are guilt ridden if they fail to purchase not just a holiday gift, but "enough gifts for Fido and Fluffy. Wait, it gets weirder: Some 12 percent of those polled admitted to having returned gifts to stores after a four-legged friend turned up his or her wet, little nose at them. Is it any wonder why the old standbys of a rubber ball or catnip-stuffed mouse quit making the grade, when such toys as the Crazy Dog Catch-A-Bubble are available. As the name suggests, this bone-shaped bottle of bubble liquid allows pet owners to blow peanut butter-scented soap bubbles that actually harden in the air, thus allowing dogs more time to chase them. It costs $4.99 and is available at www.crazydog.com. Home sweet home? The people at PETCO (which does have stores in Las Vegas), on the other hand, are keeping folks' finned friends in mind, hawking products promoting the hippest sea dweller since Charlie the Tuna. The SpongeBob SquarePants Bikini Bottom Aquarium Aqua Kit ($29.99) is round rather than rectangular in shape, so your fish will know "you care when they're ringing in the new year - get it, ring? Hamsters are also on the brain this holiday season at PETCO. Take the furry little guys (and gals) where no hamsters have gone before. The Habitrail Space Station ($21.99) isn't a typical hamster cage: It features docking ports to which passageways and other sci-fi accessories can be added. High-priced holiday Banking on the fact that some people treat their pets to only the best, several high-end retailers are offering items sure to please the most well-heeled mutts - provided owners are willing to unleash their pocketbooks. From Taubman Centers Inc., which owns and/or manages 31 malls around the country, though none in Las Vegas, comes a sampling of snooty gifts being peddled by tenants in its shopping centers (though some of the retailers also have stores in Las Vegas):

Tammy Pescatelli, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Pescatelli keeping it real on ‘Last Comic Standing’ Lisa Ferguson Friday, July 2, 2004 | 8:52 a.m. Tammy Pescatelli is no Tony Soprano -- not by a long shot. But as of late, it has been a bit easier to draw some loose comparisons between the comely Sicilian comedian and television's favorite mob boss. Shared heritage aside, both have families that are quite literally in their respective businesses. As opposed to the criminally inclined Soprano clan, Pescatelli has built a solid stand-up act -- which she performs Tuesday through July 10 at Palace Station's Laugh Trax -- based on the antics of her outlandish extended brood. She's also learning firsthand what it is to be a television character, so to speak, as one of the 10 funny people featured in this season's installment of the NBC reality series "Last Comic Standing" (airing at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Channel 3). Following a series of nationwide auditions -- and a controversy-laden finals competition taped this winter at Paris Las Vegas -- the comics were selected to live together for several weeks earlier this year in a Hollywood mansion (a funky castle, as it so happens), and engage in battles of quips in an effort to earn said title. The winner will be determined during a live broadcast from Las Vegas later this summer. "In the house, it was every emotion really that you could possibly have as human beings," Pescatelli explained of her time there during a recent call from Beverly Hills, Calif. "It was a lot of fun; it was a lot of withdrawal. There was no TV, no telephone, no e-mail, no outside influences at all." That was a cakewalk compared to dueling with the other comedians, she says. Each week on the show, each comic selects a fellow contestant whom he/she is confident they can successfully out-joke. The hitch: The person with the most votes must choose another to square off against in a stand-up showdown to determine which comic gets booted from the abode. This week's episode saw Pescatelli go head-to-head against comic Todd Glass, whom she edged courtesy of a studio-audience vote. Speaking before the episode aired, Pescatelli explained, "You had 10 comics who ... were all friends, but then were constantly smacked in the face with the reality that we have to push one out at one point, and then that person gets the opportunity to come back and choose you to go up against. I didn't know a lot of them, so I battled my own fight within it because I had to try to prove not just to the outside world, but I had to prove to these other comics that, 'Hey, I can do this.' " The Cleveland native is hardly a comedy rookie, having gotten her professional start nine years ago in the Midwest. After performing at a comedy club's open-mike night, Pescatelli was hired as that club's house emcee. Despite a complete lack of experience, she was tapped by radio station KPXR 98.9-FM -- heard in the "Quad Cities" of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill. -- to co-host its morning show, which she did from 1992 through '94. On the air, she interviewed comics who performed at the club where she worked, then "picked their brains" after the show to learn the inner workings of the business. "I consider that like my comedy college," says Pescatelli, who actually holds a degree in fashion design. Interestingly, one of those comics was Kathleen Madigan, who is also on "Last Comic Standing" this summer. "There was nobody in the world I admired more than her," Pescatelli says, "and I just kind of patterned myself after her. She was my Michael Jordan." Before long, Pescatelli was being invited by some of the comics she'd met -- including George Lopez, John Pinette and D.L. Hughley -- to join them on the road for performances. "There was nobody helping me other than comics," she insists. "I didn't have some inroad to this. I walked up onstage one day and just started digging." It was six years into her professional career, however, before she began using her kinfolk as fodder. When her newlywed brother and his wife divorced, "I was sick about it," she says. Three months later, she was onstage riffing about the split, as well as her family's candid nature: "If you're an idiot, we call you an idiot. If you're a scumbag, we call you a scumbag. If you're a whore, we call you my brother's wife." "It was so cathartic," she says. "I'm sorry for my brother, but it was the best thing that's ever happened to me." No one in the Pescatelli family is safe: Not even her (wink, wink) retired-mobster grandfather, or her twin uncles who resemble "little Joe Pescis." She has, however, been criticized by some who complain her act is " 'stereotypical Italian,' and I wanna go, 'Do you understand that that's my family? There's no stereotype. I wish that it was ... These are all true stories.' " In 2002 Pescatelli appeared at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal; and last year guested on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Later this month, she'll be featured on "The World Stands Up," an international-flavored special on Comedy Central. "I don't necessarily want to be famous," she insists, though that isn't helping her adjust to the instant-celebrity status that befalls most reality-TV stars. Already she claims to have encountered autograph hounds and gawkers. "Being the true Italian that I am, when people look at me I'm going, 'What are you lookin' at? Do you know me?' " And Pescatelli (who declines to reveal her age) insists what you see is usually what you get. "I was real at all times" on "Last Comic Standing," she says, "and sometimes people expect something different from you." Forget the adage that any publicity is good publicity: "I don't know if that necessarily is true with comics, because you're supposed to be funny." Her hot-headed Italian temper got the best of her, she concedes, evidenced on the June 22 episode in which she feuded with comic Bonnie McFarlane (who, coincidentally, the studio audience sent packing that week). Nevertheless, Pescatelli isn't fretting over the impression she's making on viewers. "Tony Soprano cuts people's heads off and they still love him," she reminds. "Now, am I gonna be blessed enough to have that kind of grace with the American public? I don't know." Out for laughs Another NBC programming note: Catch Ted Alexandro's appearance tonight on NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" at 2:05 a.m. Alexandro, a former New York City grade-school teacher-turned-comic, has previously played Riviera Comedy Club. Wait, there's more: Kevin Downey Jr. -- who gushed in this space on May 14 about his makeover late last year courtesy of the fashionistas on Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" -- sent an e-mail informing us that the episode of the hit show featuring his transformation will air at 8 p.m. Wednesday on NBC. Avi Liberman (profiled here last October, and who plays The Improv at Harrah's Tuesday through July 11) returned to Israel last month to perform five shows for audiences in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It was similar to a couple of tours he'd previously made of venues in the strife-ridden nation. Sharing the bill with Liberman during the recent visit were comedians Max Alexander, Randy Kagan and Steve White.

Carole Montgomery, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: ‘Confessions’ turns Montgomery’s ‘Fantasy’ into reality Lisa Ferguson Friday, March 4, 2005 | 8:51 a.m. As the comic star of the topless "Midnight Fantasy" show at Luxor, Carole Montgomery is accustomed to working around women who bare themselves in public. Now it's her turn. A fully clothed Montgomery will expose her life's "journey," spent juggling a successful stand-up comedy career with marriage and motherhood, when her one-woman show, "Confessions of a PT & A Mom," debuts tonight through Sunday at Seat, a theater inside the Arts Factory, at 103 E. Charleston Blvd. What a trip it's been, says the New York native who started in stand-up in 1981, sharing Big Apple-club stages with such up-and-comers as Andrew Dice Clay and Richard Jeni. "It was a really interesting time," Montgomery recalled recently from her Spring Valley home. "I had tunnel vision when I was first starting out." Comedy was "all I wanted to do." But that changed 13 years ago when Montgomery and her musician-husband, Todd, welcomed son Layne into the world. "That threw a wrench in the whole (expletive deleted) plan," the bawdy comedian jokes. "Then all of a sudden, I wanted to be a mommy and stay home with my baby." For a time, the family lived in Los Angeles while Mom regularly took to the road to perform shows, including at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal; and made the rounds on television (VH1's "Stand-up Spotlight"; ABC's "Politically Incorrect"; and Comedy Central's "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" among them). Nine years ago Montgomery, who had tired of leaving her little one behind at home, received a job offer she couldn't refuse: hosting the "Crazy Girls" production show at the Riviera. The Montgomerys relocated to Las Vegas in the mid-'90s. A "very feminist" Montgomery went to work performing her trademark profanity-punctuated, sexually suggestive humor for showgoers who pay not to watch a comedian, rather a stable of topless dancers onstage -- a fact not lost on the funny lady. "I immediately disarm the audience," she says of her nightly routine, explaining how she jokes about the waning perkiness of her own fortysomething-year-old breasts, followed by quips about bedroom antics and such. "I love doing it, but it's not an easy gig," she says of fronting topless production shows, "because (audiences) don't want to see a comic; they don't want to see the singer; they don't want to see the tap dancer in the show. They want to see the naked girls." After five years with "Crazy Girls," however, "I missed doing stand-up." So Montgomery quit the show and returned to road gigs. "I took a year off ... and was having a ball," she says. Ironically enough, on the one-year anniversary of her departure from "Crazy Girls," she received a call offering her a starring role in "Midnight Fantasy," in which she's performed for three years. The decision to accept the job was a no-brainer: "Even though my son was older at the point -- I adore my kid; I sound like one of those syrupy moms -- but I just wanted to stay home with him." That she does: Though Montgomery escapes into "Fantasy's" world six nights a week, "If you saw me in the daytime, you wouldn't recognize me because I'm a typical mom," she insists. "I've got my hair up in a scrunchy; I've got my sweatpants on; I've got my snacks." She has served as vice president of the PTA at her son's school; and has long been "very involved" with Layne's Little League baseball endeavors (he plays pitcher and covers first base). "Vegas is a duality," she says. "You've got the casinos and the gambling and the drinking and the sex, and then you go off (The Strip) just a mile and you've got suburbs and Little League." That is, in part, the inspiration behind "Confessions of a PT & A Mom," which Montgomery co-penned with her husband. In reflecting on her untraditional work situation, "I thought, 'Wow, how unusual is that, that I can pull that off and that my son turned out to be a very well-behaved, polite young man.' " "Most people," she says, "assume, 'Well, she's in a sex show; they must do drugs all the time,' and all the stuff that's associated with Sin City. And here I am bringing up a kid." Not just any kid -- Layne is also an aspiring thespian who has enjoyed roles in a few local stage productions. "So he's directing me" during rehearsals of "Confessions," Montgomery says. "It's very hard to listen to someone whose butt you used to wipe, but he really does have a great eye." Beyond motherhood, Montgomery also tackles tales from her childhood; her adventures in dating and marriage; and her rise through comedy's ranks in the one-woman show, which she calls "a work in progress" despite having previously staged a couple of scenes at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, and the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica, Calif. "There will actually be some dramatic moments," she assures of the content, which makes the comedian all the more nervous: "It's not the same thing as doing stand-up. There's a certain rhythm you get with stand-up, where you're setting up the joke and the punch line. Here ... timing and delivery aren't really gonna matter. It's a huge change." Still, a microphone stand will be onstage, "so when I feel like there's a part that's kind of stand-upish, I'll go over and do stand-up." Following its initial run this weekend, Montgomery plans to continue staging "Confessions" at Seat intermittently throughout the year, possibly on Monday evenings ("Midnight Fantasy's" dark night), and/or scheduling weekend matinee performances. Her long-term goal is to see the show produced in New York, where she's already working with a theater director. "She said, 'You know, you should bring this to New York,' and I went, 'OK, but I'm not gonna bring it to New York without trying it out first,' " Montgomery recalls. "I'd rather be able to work out the kinks out of town, and then bring it to New York." As a comic, she explains, "Whenever I try (new material) out, most of the time I have to say it once onstage with a crowd so I can get the beats in my head going." With the one-woman show, "I have no idea how the wording is gonna work until I have people in the crowd and I can hear the sounds: Is there a poignant moment here? Is there a funny moment here? Should I stop here?" Though it may be awhile before her show finds a home on (or off) Broadway, Montgomery is content to wait. "Because it's such a personal story, it's not like I'm gonna run out of material." Consider, after all, the endless fodder that will accompany Layne's foray onto the dating scene: "OK," she says, unnerved by the prospect, "I'm gonna slit my wrists." Out for laughs Congratulations to "Kathleen Dunbar's Divas of Comedy" at Sahara, which celebrates its first anniversary with a performance at 9 p.m. Monday. Admission to the show -- which stars Dunbar and Carla Rea, whom have both previously graced this space -- is, as always, free. "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno returns to the Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre for a pair of performances at 9 p.m. tonight and 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $85. A couple of programming notes: Check out comedian Mark Cohen, who starred as the Joey Bishop character in "The Rat Pack is Back" during its run at Sahara, when he guests tonight on "Last Call with Carson Daly" (1:35 a.m., Channel 3). Also tonight Greg Giraldo, who has played The Improv at Harrah's, is set to appear tonight on "The Late Show with David Letterman" (11:35 p.m., Channel 8).

Steve White, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: White sees green in real estate, radio careers Lisa Ferguson Friday, July 30, 2004 | 8:48 a.m. The Las Vegas real estate market is red hot -- a fact not lost on Steve White. So the longtime stand-up comic devised a plan: For one year, he would put the brakes on his comedy and acting careers so he and his wife could relocate from Los Angeles to Southern Nevada, which they did last fall. White wanted to focus entirely on becoming a sort of real estate mogul, buying up properties here and selling them in a hurry to reap some hefty profits. But even the best-laid plans are easily thwarted: Show business refused to let White be. In December he performed at the corporate Christmas party for Clear Channel Radio and was quickly offered a job hosting the morning show on local hip-hop/R&B station KWID 101.9-FM. He's helmed "The Steve White Show" since February. Stand-up comedy also proved relentless: White headlines Tuesday through Aug. 7 at Palace Station's Laugh Trax. The radio gig was not previously on his career to-do list. "After I got out here, after my intention was set, the universe said, 'Well, how about a little creative outlet?' So it sort of fell out of the sky," he says. "It's not like I wanted to be a jock, and if I am gonna be a jock, I've gotta be ... free in doing it," he explains of his determination to keep the morning show's material "as edgy as possible." Just as White took to the airwaves, however, the Federal Communications Commission began its crackdown on indecency in the wake of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during this year's Super Bowl halftime show. Clear Channel, in particular, had been at the center of the storm, having pulled Howard Stern's radio show from stations in several cities before the company ended its relationship with the shock jock. White says the controversy forced him to get creative by using less-offensive words in place of obscenities, among other tactics. "It's having common sense, but not scaling it back so much that it becomes milquetoast," he contends. "A lot of jocks are doing that throughout the country, and there's so much you can do without being indecent." A recent topic tackled on White's show dealt with having impure thoughts about co-workers: "That's a topic another jock might not do, but hey ... it's theater of the mind, that's what radio is -- paint the pictures and whether it's based in reality or not, bring the audience along for this ride." One thing that won't be sidetracked by the morning-show gig, 38-year-old White assures, are his real estate interests. "If the radio job stopped me from doing real estate, I'd quit tomorrow -- that's how hot the market is in Vegas." Following his 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on-air shift, he says, "I can go look at deals, buildings and try to buy a piece of real estate and sell it to Shaquille O'Neal for $1 million in three years." Though he won't reveal the number of properties he's purchased, the comedian says, "If I own 'em, I don't own 'em long." Hosting the radio show has, however, curbed comedy performances for the New York native, who got his start in the business two decades ago after realizing he wasn't cut out to put to use the accounting degree he'd earned in college. These days White, the father of 8-month-old fraternal twins, is forced to stick close to Las Vegas, where he takes the stage a couple of times a year. He performs occasional shows in California and recently returned from a short tour (along with local comedy-club frequenter Avi Liberman) of venues in strife-ridden Israel. White juggles his stand-up act -- which includes material about "honesty, relationships, race issues, government conspiracies, religion, hypocrisy" -- with his other duties because, "Comedy is mine. I can fall on my face and totally fail and the artist likes that; it's intriguing." If the radio show were to tank, he explains, the blame could fall on low ratings or the loss of an advertising sponsor. "In stand-up, if you don't get the laughs, guess who's failing? I really enjoy that challenge. It's intimidating and exciting at the same time." It's also similar to his acting career, which White -- who appeared in the flicks "Coming to America," "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X" and "Clockers" among others -- calls "the scariest thing in the whole world, and I love it." He claims to be modeling his career after those of fellow comedians-turned-actors Robin Williams and Jim Carrey: "I want to do stand-up at the Met and kill that and crush, yet I want to have my 'Fisher Kings' and 'Dead Poets Societies.' " In fact, it was Eddie Murphy who gave White his big-screen start. In desperate need of a Screen Actors Guild card, White attended a party at Murphy's home. "He said, 'All you have to do is be in one of my movies to get a SAG card.' I said, 'Yeah, exactly,' so he put me in 'Coming to America.' " White went on to study at New York University's film school (in a program that filmmaker Spike Lee helped get him into) and work behind the scenes directing, producing and starring in his own short films. He served as associate producer on the 2003 short "Skin Deep," which recently made its DVD debut; and is writing a screenplay about which he's mum on details. He will say, however, that he's uncertain how long he'll call Las Vegas home. He is contracted with KWID for only one year, but claims the show's ratings have skyrocketed since his arrival. "It's kind of a three-way dogfight with the three rhythmic station in Vegas, so it's an interesting market." And then there is that pesky plan to consider, which White reminds "was to flip houses and do real estate out here, and take that money and buy the house that I really want" in Southern California's pricey Pacific Palisades area or New York's ritzy upper westside of Manhattan. "It's always good to have a plan, so you can change it," he says. Out for laughs A couple of programming notes: Catch Greg Giraldo -- who formerly played The Improv at Harrah's and is a frequent guest on Comedy Central's "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" -- when he is scheduled at 11:35 p.m. tonight to take the guest's chair on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman," and again at 1:30 a.m. on NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" (Channel 3). Also tonight, at 11:35 p.m., frequent Vegas headliner Dennis Miller is slated to guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (Channel 3). Fresh off the plane from last week's Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, funny man Adam Ferrara wraps a weeklong gig on Sunday at The Improv. One of his bits -- about a guy who would rather not have followed Moses across the desert for 40 years -- was featured on an episode of Comedy Central's animated series "Shorties Watchin' Shorties." There will be no shortage of big comedy names performing throughout town in the coming months. Among them: Rich Little at Suncoast (Aug. 13 through Aug. 15); Brett Butler at Riviera (Aug. 20 and 21); Vicki Lawrence and Mama at Suncoast (Aug. 20 through Aug. 22); Sinbad at Las Vegas Hilton (Aug. 20 and 21); and Joe Piscopo at Orleans (Sept. 30 through Oct. 3). archive

Sun Lite 10/11/04, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for October 11, 2004 Lisa Ferguson Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 8:23 a.m. Supportive styles For a few moments, forget about the pointy witch hats, plastic-pumpkin buckets and the expensive latex masks that have filled store shelves this month, and instead focus on another popular October adornment: the pink-ribbon symbol of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With more than 200,000 U.S. women diagnosed with the disease each year, it's no wonder the ribbons can be found in myriad forms these days from traditional lapel pins to key chains and on clothing. Several of such items are being offered by online retailer www.FlipFlopStyle.com. Show your support and courageous fashion sense by slipping on the company's blue chambray shirt. Being marketed to breast cancer survivors, the top features a three-quarter-length sleeve; its front is dotted with embroidered pink ribbons, with a lone ribbon on the upper-left back shoulder ($69.95). Also available on the site is Susan's Hope, Faith, Love Pink Ribbon Stretch Bracelet ($7.95), composed of silver- and pink-crystal beads; and charms in the shapes of hearts, stars and the ribbon, engraved with the aforementioned inspirational words. Other cute items include pendants shaped like actual flip-flop-style sandals ($15.95); the "Susan the Pink Ribbon" Charm Chick, a set of three silver-plated charms that connect to form a "chick," which can be worn on separately sold necklaces and bracelets ($35.95); and pink-ribbon dangle earrings ($6.95). FlipFlipStyle.com will donate a portion of the sales of its pink-ribbon wear to various breast cancer charities. A touch of glass The Web site www.breastcancer.org, an online resource for information about the disease, is the charity of choice for china maker Lenox, to which the company will hand over 10 percent of the proceeds from the sales of its "Gifts of Knowledge" pink-ribbon products. Lenox's heart-shaped, ivory-hued pin/pendant combo boasts a "tea rose" pattern, a tiny pink pearl and hand-painted pink ribbon detail ($12.95). Its 8-inch, ivory-china bud vase also with a flower motif has a pink satin ribbon woven through its neck, and is accented with 24-karat gold ($29.95). Both are available at www.lenox.com, where some facts about breast cancer, courtesy of www.breastcancer.org, also are posted: Spinning a yarn So, you want to wear something to show your support for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the traditional pins seem passe. Lion Brand Yarn Co. can help so long as you have some free time and nimble fingers. The company, headquartered in New York, N.Y., this month is marketing its Crochet for a Cause Kit ($9), which comes with all of the tools required to create a scarf, including a pink crochet hook; one skein of pink yarn; an illustrated pattern for the scarf; and, to help keep crocheters healthy, a laminated breast self-exam guide. Proceeds from the sale of the kits available by calling (800) 258-YARN, or visiting www.LionBrand.com will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Sun Lite 8/7/00, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Trends, August 7, 2000 Lisa Ferguson Monday, Aug. 7, 2000 | 8:43 a.m. And the winner is ... It's time for another round of contests. See if you qualify to enter any of the following: Do you have a job? Well then, you'd better get to work -- entering, by Aug. 14, the American Worker of the Year Award, sponsored by "workwear" maker Dickies. The company is looking for American workers who "represent the idea of an honest day's work." Entrants -- who can be the worker, their spouse, child, co-worker or friend -- should write 75 words or less about why this person should have the honor bestowed upon them. The national winner, to be announced on Labor Day, Sept. 4, will drive home a Chevrolet pick-up truck or Blazer, while state winners will be awarded $500 in cash and prizes. To enter, send essays -- and information including the nominee's profession, age, name, address and daytime phone number, as well as the entrant's name and phone number -- to Dickies American Worker of the Year, P.O. Box 670589, Dallas, TX 75367-0589, or visit www.dickies.com. Heroic efforts On a more heroic note, the folks at Coping magazine, for cancer survivors and others who have encountered the disease, are looking for nominees for its Hero Awards of the Year. Categories are cancer survivors (anyone living with a history of cancer including long-term survivors and recently diagnosed patients); professional (someone who works within the cancer community); and volunteer (anyone who lends their time to help to the cancer community). "Heros" can be nominated by sending a 1,200-word essay by Oct. 1 to Coping Hero, P.O. Box 682268, Franklin, TN 37068-2268. Be sure to include a black-and white or color photo or 35mm slide of the nominee, their name, address and phone and fax numbers, as well as your own. Winners will appear in the magazine's January /February 2001 issue, along with the nomination letter. The "Cancer Survivor of the Year" earns a spot on the magazine's cover. All wrapped up Are you the one who always gets stuck wrapping all of your family's gifts at the holidays and for other occasions? Do said kin rave, "You're just so good at it."? All of that folding and bow making is about to come in handy. The 3M company, makers of Scotch tape, is searching for America's Most Gifted Wrapper. The contest will be held Nov. 17 at New York's Penn Station, where eight wrappers -- four amateurs and four professionals (who have worked as wrappers at stores) -- will compete for the $10,000 grand prize. (The person who nominated the winner will receive $1,000.) To enter, write an essay of 100 words or less explaining why you or someone you know is a gifted gift wrapper. Send it, as well as your name, address, phone and fax number and e-mail address, and the same information for the nominee (and whether they're an amateur or a pro) by Sept. 15 to The Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest, c/o Hunter & Associates, Inc., 41 Madison Ave., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10010, or e-mail giftedwrapper@hunterpr.com.

Sun Lite 3/8/04, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for March 8, 2004 Lisa Ferguson Monday, March 8, 2004 | 8:14 a.m. No bones about it Lllllet's get ready to bicker! It's an old-fashioned battle of the sexes this week, as a national-chain restaurant and a drug manufacturer pit men against women in efforts to promote their respective products. If you figured Mel Gibson was the only one serving up a super-sized slab of biblical history to the masses these days, guess again: Tony Roma's recently released the results of a nationwide survey it conducted last month (of more than 9,500 members of its customer Loyalty Club) to gauge Americans' understanding of human anatomy, pegged to the story of Adam and Eve, and conclude whether people actually believe men have one less rib than women. A valid question, certainly. But we must point out that it was posed by a joint famous for its barbecued-rib entrees. Comes across as a wee bit creepy, don't you think? Bad taste aside, the findings suggest a good many people likely flunked high school health class, seeing as how it's a fact that the average man and woman both have 12 pairs of ribs. While 53 percent of those polled (both male and female) supplied the correct "No" answer, a whopping 47 percent responded that men's rib racks are one short. It's even less reassuring to learn some of these same folks have no idea what they're eating. When asked, "What meat is typically used to make BBQ Baby Back Ribs?" 12 percent of men and 16 percent of women figured it was beef. Pork was the correct answer given by 88 percent of guys versus 84 percent of gals. As long as it's oozing in special sauce, apparently it's all good. Bye-bye love We had hoped the highly publicized meltdown of Barbie and Ken would prove to be an amicable split once they divided up all those hot-pink, battery-operated assets and paid their high-priced Malibu lawyers, of course. It hasn't even been a month since toy-maker Mattel announced the longtime love interests were no more, but already fingers are pointing in attempts to determine who is at fault for the relationship's demise. Over at QualiLife Pharmaceuticals, in Charleston, S.C., they're betting 43-year-old Barbie is to blame. The company, which makes the "female arousal fluid" Zestra for Women, quotes Martin Crosby, a sexual medicine researcher and pharmaceutical scientist, as saying, "After so many years, some relationships can become a bit dry and often the fireworks are gone." Meanwhile, the QualiLife experts report it's not uncommon for women around Barbie's age to "experience a loss of sexual pleasure and satisfaction," and add that surprise! a dose of its product may have helped reignite some romantic sparks between Barbie and Ken. So, once again, we're supposed to believe it's the aging woman's fault. Gee, it couldn't possibly have had anything to do with the fact that Barbie is exhausted after four decades spent nurturing a multitude of careers to keep that Corvette in the driveway of that fancy Dream House, could it? Heck, in '97 alone she was both a dentist and a paleontologist! Ex-cuuuse her for not dropping everything when Ken made booty calls. Forget about finding a new man, Barbie: Skip the love potion and spend what little energy you have left enjoying some much-deserved time to yourself.

Wendy Kamenoff, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Kamenoff coaches performers to get the words out Lisa Ferguson Friday, July 29, 2005 | 8:14 a.m. Everyone has a story to tell, and Wendy Kamenoff has made it her business to help them extract every last detail. The actress/comedian, who performs through Sunday at Riviera Comedy Club, is also a teacher. She leads several classes for writers and performers in the Los Angeles area. One of them, called Tasty Words, is a "spoken-word salon" that marries live music and storytelling to stand-up comedy. Another workshop, titled Solo Writing from the Soul, is described by Kamenoff as "an intensive, sort of soup-to-nuts" program designed to provide the necessary tools to those interested in penning their own one-person stage shows. It's a subject the single mother of a preteen son knows something about: The Cherry Hill, N.J., native performed during college at New York University, where her 1982 senior thesis was an autobiographical, one-woman show called "Sweatpants." "It never occurred to me that you could just get up and tell your stories and people would laugh and there was something to that," Kamenoff recalled of discovering her comedy prowess during a recent call from her Santa Monica, Calif., home. Soon after, she began working the Big Apple comedy scene and eventually took to the road for gigs at clubs and college campuses. "That's what I love about stand-up: It is interaction with the audience," she says. The process is similar to acting in a play when "you're giving and taking with that other performer." "In stand-up in a comedy club, the other performer in a scene is the audience ... Their line in the script is to laugh -- they just may not know it. But if they miss their cue and they're not laughing, then you've gotta send something else out, you've gotta change your next line." For a time Kamenoff -- who has appeared on television's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Bernie Mac Show" and "All My Children," among other shows -- played the road with her former husband, comedian Steve Mittleman, performing a comedy show titled "Breakfast with The Mittlemans" at venues throughout the country. In 1986 Kamenoff moved to Southern California and found work warming up studio audiences during tapings of sitcoms including "The Tracey Ullman Show," "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Mad About You," a gig that she says challenges one's multitasking abilities. Besides keeping show-goers laughing between takes, she explains, "You're telling them what's gonna happen in the next scene ... and, 'The exits are over there, and the bathrooms are over there, and everybody turn off your pagers and cell phones.' That's the job." In the early '90s Kamenoff penned and staged another one-woman show, "Undressing New Jersey and Other States of Mind." In it, she portrayed a dozen characters from her past, nabbing a Dramalogue Award for her efforts. "That was kind of a coming-of-age story about (how) there is life beyond the mall," which touched on many of her personal milestones: "First cigarette, first kiss, leaving home for the first time, going to the big city of New York -- kind of looking at things in my life." Kamenoff is working on what she calls the "second half" of "Undressing": another one-woman show titled "Call Me Every Five Minutes," a portion of which she's scheduled to stage in L.A. in late August. The story was inspired by the 2002 death of her close friend, comedian-writer Judy Toll, who worked behind the scenes on "Sex and The City" and the 1988 flick "Casual Sex." Its premise "is all about how sometimes it takes death to wake us up to our own lives," Kamenoff explains. She intends to also turn the piece into a book and a feature film. Meanwhile, the 44-year-old comedian is gearing up for the January publication of "You've Got Meal" (Champion Press), a tome about the trials and tribulations of dieting, which she co-authored with longtime friend Elisa Trolin Owen. Kamenoff anticipates scheduling a handful of stand-up dates early next year to coincide with a tour promoting the book. She performs her comedy act in storyteller fashion. "There's more of a roller-coaster (feel) to it, so it's like life," she explains, describing her material as "what a real woman in her 40s deals with: being single, raising a child, juggling a career, and also dating and love and all that stuff." Also on Kamenoff's schedule (the bulk of which is posted on www.wendykamenoff.com) is developing "The Hungry and Horny Show," slated to be staged in L.A. in September. The theme of the show, which will star an all-female-comics cast, is "all the hungers -- sexual, spiritual, literal. It's basically funny monologues about food and sex ... People are hungry for this stuff." They also hunger, she insists, to share their personal tales. "Basically, people have stories, and if they don't tell them to other people, they get lost." That doesn't mean, however, that all stories make for good solo-show material. "You need to have gone through something and survived it and come out the other end and be able to talk about it," she says. "If people come to me and say, 'I had a really normal life and everybody loves me and not much happened,' I'm like, 'That's nice, good for you. I don't know if we have a show there.' Usually some kind of trial has to occur, people have to go through some sort of fire and come out of it." Kamenoff points to an expression utilized in 12-step recovery programs: " 'We're as sick as our secrets.' As soon as you get people to open up about their inside stuff, you realize that we're not as different as we think we are." Out of laughs In keeping with the theme of exposing personal sagas, I'll share a bit of mine in this final installment of Laugh Lines, which also serves to close the book on my 14-year career with the Las Vegas Sun. The decision to relinquish one of my babies (this column) in order to spend more time with another (a toddler at home) and tend to some private matters was a bittersweet one, seeing as how I've spent my entire adult life up to this point working for the Sun -- first as a reporter, then as assistant features editor and, finally, a columnist. In nearly a decade and a half, I've interviewed more celebrities -- actual and quasi, at various stages of stardom -- than I could ever hope to recall. My eyes have ached from proofreading dozens of pages in a single day. Of course, they also witnessed the passionate, promising works of a good many up-and-coming artists. I've chatted it up with pop-culture icons at some of the city's hippest hangouts. Then again, I've sat around the kitchen tables of average folks, absorbing their tales of tragedy and triumph. It's all I ever wanted to do -- and then some. A few thank-yous before I go: To former Accent editor Phil Hagen, who took a chance by hiring a ridiculously green, 18-year-old UNLV freshman onto his staff and teaching her how to be a reporter, turning her childhood dream into a reality. Same goes for former editor Steve Bornfeld who, in the late '90s, made me second in command of the section; and current Accent editor John Katsilometes, who's been a terrific boss and an even better friend. Finally, thanks to Managing Editor Michael Kelley, who supported my career as it progressed and ultimately changed direction in step with my personal life; and to Sun staffers, past and present, who most days felt more like family to me than my own brood. It's doubtful my story is the stuff of which stage shows are made. Still, I'm honored to have been able to share it -- and countless others -- with you.

Pam Matteson, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: It’s ladies night when Matteson takes the stage Lisa Ferguson Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 8:34 a.m. Pam Matteson works regularly with some of the greatest female entertainers of all time -- Meryl Streep, Stevie Nicks, Dolly Parton and Liza Minnelli among them. OK, so if you want to get technical about it, none of these legendary ladies has actually ever appeared alongside Matteson. Rather, the longtime stand-up comic performs her versions of their voices via the original song parodies that comprise her act. Just don't call Matteson -- who tonight and Saturday headlines Golden Nugget's "Funnybone Comedy Showcase" -- an impressionist. "I'm a comic-parody person," she explained recently from her Henderson home, where she and her husband relocated this summer from Los Angeles. While she works to perfect the songs and jokes in her act, when it comes to the voices, "I just fake it," she insists. Successfully, it seems, seeing as how she pulled the wool over the eyes of master impressionist Rich Little and landed a co-starring spot in his 1992 production show, "Copycats," at Sahara. Brooklyn born-and bred Matteson's acting background must help her pull off the ruse: A former theater actress, she hit the road in the early '80s with the first national touring company to perform the musical "Annie." Bored with being a thespian, she began visiting comedy clubs in the cities where the "Annie" tour stopped, and first grabbed the mike in Philadelphia. "I was so happy doing my material, stuff that I wrote ... that was such a high for me," she recalls. When the tour pulled into Los Angeles, Matteson disembarked to devote herself full time to stand-up comedy. During this time, she claims to have dated a then-struggling comic named Jim Carrey. "He was doing an act like mine -- all singing impressions -- and it was so adorable. He was really young," she recalls. "We went to Disneyland and we goofed around. We had fun." Matteson's comedy career grew legs when she appeared twice on "The Tonight Show"; landed on a short-lived, music-video-spoof series called "FTV"; and took to the road once again, this time to play clubs and open for other entertainers. She also appeared in the 1988 flick "Punchline." One of Matteson's first song spoofs mocked screen legend Bette Davis. "It was really dirty," she says of the tune. Since then she's penned a plethora of parodies including a ditty called "Old Broads Just Wanna Whine," a take on Cyndi Lauper's mega-hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun": "I've got cramps, my back's so stiff, I look in the mirror, I need a facelift." Las Vegas' new leading lady, songstress Celine Dion, also gets the Matteson once-over. In the act, "I talk about how skinny she is," and to the tune of "My Heart Will Go On" sings, "Throw me a meal, I look like Ally McBeal ..." Others goofed on include Judy Garland and Goldie Hawn (who are paired in an unlikely duet), Whitney Houston, Billie Holiday and Britney Spears. In her signature bit, Matteson has queen diva Cher pump iron with -- of all things -- her tongue. It's probably just as well that Matteson -- who states her age as "between 45 and 50" -- has never come face-to-face with any of the women she's parodied. "A lot of people say to me, 'You're funny, but sometimes your riffs get a bit mean.' I thought, 'You know, you can't do a parody and not be edgy, because then it wouldn't be funny.' " Nevertheless Matteson remains cautious about crossing the line with certain characters. She recently dropped from her act a bit that poked fun at Jennifer Lopez's ample derriere, fearing similarly endowed women might take offense. "People get so sensitive with comedy," she says, differentiating her act from that of another singing-impressionist, Danny Gans. "He's so clean ... I don't have that chromosome; I'm a little bit darker." Case in point: her bit about a female Afghani comedian, which Matteson performs wearing a traditional burka veil. "I thought, 'That's gonna be iffy,' but it killed," she says. "I just say ... 'Could you imagine living in Afghanistan and trying to do comedy?' ... When I put the burka on and I start doing it, (audiences) start laughing because it's really funny." There's nothing funny to Matteson when it comes to discussing her "spiritual side," which she discovered following her sister's 1992 death from a rare lung disease called lymphangioleimyomatosis. "We were so close," she says, "I almost couldn't go on." She temporarily abandoned stand-up comedy to study writing and pen the one-woman show "In Search of Dawn," which she performed in Los Angeles. It is based on Matteson's attempts to reconnect with her sister in the afterlife, which she claims actually happened. "I had a full-blown visit," Matteson insists. "I even have proof -- I brought it onstage, the sign she gave me." "I didn't even believe in that stuff" before experiencing it, she says. "I was having these unbelievable out-of-body experiences -- I thought I had a brain tumor." Turns out she was merely "astro-traveling," and has decided to write a novel detailing her, um, journeys. "It's just another side of my life." Out for laughs The late, great Ernie Kovacs will be inducted into the National Comedy Hall of Fame on Saturday night at Stardust, capping off the Las Vegas Comedy Festival. Kovacs' widow, actress Edie Adams, will accept the award. Former "Saturday Night Live!" scribe Kevin Brennan headlines The Comedy Stop at the Trop Nov. 10 through Nov. 16. Also on the bill: local comic Kathleen Dunbar, who formerly headlined "Divas of Comedy" at Greek Isles hotel-casino. Can't get enough of Jimmie Walker? Good thing the "Good Times" star has a pair of local stand-up performances planned: Nov. 24 through Nov. 30 at Riviera Comedy Club, and Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 in the Nugget's "Funnybone Comedy Showcase."

Sun Lite 4/14/03, las Vegas Sun

0 Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for April 14, 2003 Lisa Ferguson Monday, April 14, 2003 | 8:47 a.m. Flower powers It's a couple of weeks into April. Still, we're willing to bet we're the first to wish you Happy National Garden Month. Here's the back story on this homage to the pride and joy of the green-thumbed among us: In 1986 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation in honor of National Garden Week. Last year, however, the designation was extended to include the entire month of April, thanks to the National Gardening Association, an organization in Burlington, Vt., founded in 1972 to "help gardeners and to help people through gardening." So, with this being the first full-fledged celebration and all, the National Garden Month website (nationalgardenmonth.org) is shoveling a bit of trivia about the therapeutic benefits of gardening, courtesy of the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association: It seems that the simple act of looking at trees, flowers and other foliage can reduce stress and muscle tension and lower blood pressure. Guess there actually is something to that whole "stop and smell the roses" bit. Keep a plant in your cubicle? It shows: Working stiffs who toil behind computers in offices where plants are present are 12 percent more productive and experience less stress than those in a plant-less workplace. Need another reason to skip the gym? Here's one: Women age 50 and older who tend to a garden at least once per week boast higher bone density than their peers who jog, walk, swim or do aerobic exercises. Meanwhile the association claims the endorphin highs produced by gardening are similar to those experienced while jogging and cycling. (Gee, could inhaling all of those plant-care chemical fumes have anything to do with that loopy feeling?) Gardening also does a psyche good. Turns out ancient Egyptian doctors prescribed walks through gardens to help mentally disturbed patients. Flash forward a few thousand years and into space, where working gardens and nature scenes helped keep morale on an even keel aboard the Mir space station. Weed 'em out Of course, nothing makes a gardener fly off the (rake) handle like the sight of encroaching weeds. But just how much do we actually know about this pesky plant strangler? Probably not as much as the makers of Preen 'n Green weed prevention/fertilizer products would prefer. Luckily for the gardening-challenged, the company has compiled a little weed IQ test:

Andy Kindler, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Kindler short on kindness for TV industry Lisa Ferguson Friday, Oct. 17, 2003 | 9:02 a.m. Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at lmsferguson@yahoo.com. Contrary to popular belief, sunny Southern California does experience the change of seasons. In fact, comic Andy Kindler anxiously awaits the metamorphosis each year -- particularly as it plays out in Hollywood: "I ask people onstage, 'Which is your favorite season: development season or fall? I love development season, because I love when you can smell the rejection in the air.' " That was a little television-industry insider humor, for those of you whose heads it whisked over like a crisp autumn breeze. Such zingers mark Kindler's stand-up act, which he'll perform Monday through Oct. 26 at Riviera Comedy Club. Kindler, who has been a comic since the mid-'80s, knows of which he mocks: Since 1992 he has written for, created, produced, hosted, starred in, guest-starred in and otherwise had a hand in a slew of television programs, among them "The Daily Show," "Ellen," "Martin," "The Larry Sanders Show," "Politically Incorrect" and "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist." He has also had a recurring role on the CBS mega-hit "Everybody Loves Raymond," appearing each season since the series' 1996 beginnings. Good news is, you needn't be a television bigwig to appreciate Kindler's quips. "A lot of the stuff I talk about in my act, I think there's a universal feel to it," he said recently from his Los Angeles home. "I think people in all jobs face the idea, in any company or corporate environment, 'Can I do what I believe in? Can I say what I really think is true, and will it get me in trouble?' " Kindler has tested the theory -- and received acclaim -- via his cynical attack on television's offerings in his annual "State of the Industry" address, which he's delivered for the past six years to the masses (comics and TV execs alike) attending the prestigious "Just for Laughs Festival" in Montreal. During this year's event, held in July, he let loose on the current crop of sitcoms clogging prime time, targeting those in which unlikely characters cohabitate, such as CBS' "Two and a Half Men"; ABC's "Hope & Faith"; and WB's "Like Family." "In real life," Kindler says, "nobody is moving in for comedic effect." "Then there are shows like 'Whoopi,' " Kindler continues. "I just literally can't believe that 'Whoopi,' for example, is on the air. It looks like bad vaudeville." Another of his peeves is the industry's never-ending quest to "find the next guy" on whom to base a sitcom. "I do a joke in my act about how, when the war first started, we briefly knocked out Iraqi TV -- and, of course, I pray for that ... during 'The George Lopez Show.' Now, there's another guy who I ... didn't think his stand-up act was particularly strong, but now there's a show around him." Not surprisingly, you won't catch Kindler knocking "Everybody Loves Raymond." "That's a show based on someone who I really think was a great stand-up," he contends, much like the self-titled TV successes of comics Roseanne and Jerry Seinfeld. "When they base shows around someone who has a very rich act, I think you have a good chance. "It seems like so many of the shows on CBS have copied 'Raymond,' " he says. "They're all these blue-collar guys -- kind of like 'The King of Queens.' He's kind of a schleppy guy, and he's got a hot wife. Only on TV would that happen." Before you ask, Kindler -- who turned 47 on Thursday -- knows what you're wondering: "Where's your show, Andy?" he says, explaining how he's constantly pitching ideas for new shows to TV execs. "I think it's one of those businesses where if you're not persistent, you may as well hang it up." It's certainly not for lack of trying. Kindler was a regular on 2001's short-lived WB series "Raising Dad"; hosted and produced the interview show "The Pet Shop with Andy Kindler" on Animal Planet; and created a pilot, "Andytown, USA," for Comedy Central. "My next goal is, I would love to host a talk show where I criticize show business," he says. Following a monologue lambasting the media, he and his guests would "have real discussions and try to stand up for what you believe in, in a business where that's hard to do." In the meantime, Kindler says, "I'm very proud of where my career is. On the other hand, I want more." But has his critical tongue obliterated his chances of ever landing a series of his own? Probably not. "I don't have problems having meetings with networks. I think that sometimes they do have a good sense of humor about it," Kindler says. "Was I wrong when I made fun of 'Emeril'? I wasn't wrong about it. They have to admit I had a good point." Out for laughs John Padon is keeping busy. The Las Vegas comic, who has starred in several area production shows, is scheduled to play The Comedy Stop at the Tropicana from Monday through Oct. 26, and Golden Nugget's "Funnybone Comedy Showcase" Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. Also on the latter bill: former KXPT 97.1-FM personality Carla Rea. The legendary Smothers Brothers are set to host a "variety showcase" as part of the Las Vegas Comedy Festival lineup of events, at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 at the Las Vegas Hilton. Admission is included for registered attendees of the festival; otherwise, tickets can be purchased by calling the Hilton box office at 732-5755. Comedian and Vegas frequenter Bobby Collin is also scheduled to host a showcase during the festival, which runs Oct. 29 through Nov. 1 at Stardust. For ticket info and other details, visit www.lasvegascomedyfestival.com.

Sun Lite 5/19/03, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for May 19, 2003 Lisa Ferguson Monday, May 19, 2003 | 8:46 a.m. Seeing stripes Have any plans for the Memorial Day holiday? Maybe you'll spend the first unofficial weekend of summer taking in a baseball game at one of the nation's premier stadiums. Ever wondered between bites from a hot dog, gulps of beer and calls of "Over here!" to the peanut vendor just how ballpark groundskeepers mow those cool patterns onto the outfield? Now that's skill. Actually, it's an optical illusion called "lawn striping," and as long as they have the right equipment, even average homeowners can boast such big-league results in their own yards. The stripes as well as checkerboards, bull's-eyes and waves, among a multitude of other patterns are achieved not with lawn-mower blades, but with rollers that bend the grass: Angle it away from you and the grass appears lighter; bend it toward you and it seems darker. That not-so-scientific explanation comes courtesy of Simplicity Manufacturing Inc., a Port Washington, Wis., company that makes surprise! mowers and tractors featuring lawn-striping rollers. The company has teamed with Dave Mellor, director of grounds at Boston's Fenway Park and author of "Picture Perfect: Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes and Sports" (Wiley, 2002, $34.95), to help promote lawn striping. Itching to sculpt your own field of dreams? Directions for striping checkerboard, diamond and plaid patterns can be found at simplicitymfg.com. Exploratory states Long weekends always equate to long lines at the country's airports and big-time bottlenecks on the nation's highways. Don't be surprised this weekend, however, to see more guys than gals hopping from state to state. The publishers of Fodor's travel guides recently released the results of a survey that asked upwards of 2,100 people how many of the United States they had visited. Turns out 26 percent of men polled had walked on the soil of between 41 and 50 states, compared to 14 percent of women. Most of the ladies (29 percent to be exact) had seen only between 11 and 20 states. When it comes to both sexes, 41 percent of those polled reported having been to less than 20 states; 22 percent have set foot in 21 to 30 states; and 36 percent of people have traveled to more than 31 states. Honoring heroes No matter what your plans are for the holiday weekend, the patriotic Americans who run the website usmemorialday.org hope people also remember the real purpose of Memorial Day: to honor those who gave their lives in battle. The website was created in 1994 as a class project at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Its purpose: to lead the charge to shift focus back to the holiday's original intent, as well as provide information and offer a place to pay homage to the 1.8 million servicemen and women who have given the "ultimate sacrifice" since 1775. Assuming you can pry yourself away Monday from the burgers and potato salad of backyard barbecues, the website offers some activities to help "put the memorial back in Memorial Day."

Jeff Capri, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Comedy is a family affair for Capri Lisa Ferguson Friday, Dec. 26, 2003 | 8:44 a.m. Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at lmsferguson@yahoo.com. For Jeff Capri it was never a question of if, but when he would join the family business. So, at the tender age of 6, he rolled up his pint-sized shirt sleeves and went to work alongside his father, legendary Catskills impressionist/comedian Dick Capri. "I was excited," the younger Capri recalls of the first time father and son took the stage together three decades ago. "I remember rehearsing with my dad in the car. We just did silly little jokes together: 'Did you take a bath today?,' and I would say, 'Why, is one missing?' It's cute when a 6-year-old does it; now when we do it, it's pretty pathetic." Actually, the two don't work together these days. "The closest we ever got, we worked Vegas at the same time at different hotels," says Jeff Capri, who flies solo during his performances through Sunday at The Improv at Harrah's. The 36-year-old Capri says he somehow "always knew" he'd end up in comedy. He began his career in earnest as a teen, performing during open-mike nights at clubs in his native Southern California. He had experience on his side in more ways than one. "My first time onstage alone, I was using 90 percent of my dad's material, which was odd for a 17-year-old kid to be talking about his ex-wife," he recalled recently from his home in Hermosa Beach, Calif. "But there was a certain confidence, I think, that probably helped knowing I had material that worked already, even though I didn't know how to do it ... I already knew what it was like to be onstage and have material, even though it wasn't mine." Of course, he doesn't steal dear old Dad's jokes any longer. Capri, who officially went pro a dozen years ago, has developed his own observational style of humor. Onstage, "I talk about me, because that's really all I know about," he says. He's also quick to point out that he and his father are "two separate types of comics. I cut my teeth in comedy clubs in Southern California, while he cut his teeth back in the '50s in New York, in the Catskill Mountains ... I think he's still one of the funniest guys out there." The elder Capri, who in the 1970s toured with crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, still performs comedy. In 1991 he appeared on Broadway in the show "Catskills on Broadway." In '98 he was featured in the raucous New York Friar's Club Roast of Drew Carey, which aired on cable's Comedy Central (Cox cable channel 56). Meanwhile, Jeff Capri returned this fall from Iraq, where he and several other comics played a three-week series of gigs for U.S. military troops stationed there. In the past five years, he's performed for servicemen and women in Europe, Asia and other points on the globe, but calls his most recent comedic deployment "probably the most rewarding thing I've ever done." Stopping in such cities as Mosul, Tikrit, Babylon and Baghdad, shows were often staged at military base camps and on the backs of flatbed trucks. Others were held at abandoned drive-in movie theaters and at a soccer stadium that U.S. troops "hadn't blown up." Capri says he tweaked his comedy a bit for the troops by musing on topics specific to Iraq -- "what was local there, whether it be the heat or just simple observations that wouldn't fly" in a stateside show, he explains. Most important to the audiences was "just the fact that you're acknowledging what they're going through up front. Other than that, I thought it was important for us to bring (the set) we would do at home to them there, so they get a taste of home." All of the shows "were really packed" and the troops "were so appreciative and thankful," he says. "After every show, they would come up, look us in the eye, shake our hands and say, 'Thank you so much for coming here.' " Capri recorded one of his sets for his recent DVD, "Jeff Capri ... LIVE! From Baghdad," which is available on his website, www.jeffcapri.com. He says the situation in the war-torn country is "definitely different than how the media portrays it. It's not as negative." Also, the soldiers' morale is "pretty upbeat. They don't want to be there any longer than they have to, but they're aware they're doing a job and they're OK." Even if, at times, Capri wasn't sure he would be. "Sometimes, when you're performing, you could hear some distant gunfire, which was kind of creepy." He and the other comics were typically shuttled between shows in Blackhawk helicopters, but on one occasion they traveled via convoy and got stuck in a traffic jam. "One car tried to drive closer to our convoy, and there were (American) soldiers outside with weapons," he recalls. "They kept telling this guy, 'Don't come any closer,' and he kept coming. At one point, I heard a guy say, 'If that guy gets any closer, shoot,' and that was disconcerting." While he's "not in a hurry" to return to the region, Capri says he plans to do so next year and once again show his support for the troops through comedy. "There's no way ever that I'd consider being a military person, so this makes me feel like I've done something." Out for laughs Due to a private event, the show won't go on at Catch a Rising Star at Excalibur on New Year's Eve. It will reopen on Thursday with Rocky LaPorte and Karen Rontowski performing through Jan. 4. Be sure to catch Catch while you can: As of Jan. 31, the club will be closed. No official word yet on whether it will reopen (it's previously been housed at Bally's and MGM Grand) in the future at another Las Vegas venue. Speaking of New Year's Eve, comics Ron Pearson, Hal Spear and Harris Peet will ring in 2004 during the 10:30 p.m. performance at Riviera Comedy Club. The $49.99 ticket price includes unlimited drinks and party favors. Call 794-9433 for information.

Sun Lite 6/30/03, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for June 30, 2003 Lisa Ferguson Monday, June 30, 2003 | 8:17 a.m. Holiday honors Anyone who has traveled abroad during a distinctly American holiday knows traditional celebrations can be tough if not impossible to come by. So as you're pondering this Independence Day whether to put relish and onions on your hot dog, remember there are scores of servicemen and women overseas sacrificing for this great nation, instead of whooping it up at backyard barbecues like the rest of us. Better yet, express your gratitude to those military members by sending a care package built by Denver-based Treats For Troops. Through the company's Foster-A-Soldier program, gifts can be sent to specific servicepeople, as well as random soldiers. Following the attacks of 9-11, the U.S. government put the brakes on programs that presented packages addressed to "Any Soldier." Nevertheless Deborah Crane, a military mom and Treats for Troops' owner, marched forward with her plan to allow Americans to send "boodle" (soldier slang for packages from the homefront) to those serving our country. Some of the gift packages featured on treatsfortroops.com cost less than $10. Themed boxes boast such names as "Snack Attack" (includes sunflower seeds, potato chips and other goodies, $19.95) and "Sweet Dreams" (Sleepytime tea bags, cookies and an inflatable pillow, $34.95). Individual items bungee cords, note pads, Ziploc bags, hand cream and brownies, among others are also available to create personalized packages. Worth writing home about Sure, you could put one of those dangerous, sparkling fireworks in Junior's hand this Fourth of July. But that's not a very smart idea. Here's one that is: Drop the sparkler and give the young lad (or lass, as the case may be) a pencil and have him or her whip up a composition to enter in SOS Children's Villages' first "Family Homecoming" essay contest. Washington, D.C.-based SOS, which bills itself as "the world's largest non-governmental child welfare organization," provides homes for more than 50,000 orphaned and abandoned children in 131 countries, so that youngsters may have parents, siblings and a place to call home. The group's celebrity spokeswoman is Paige Davis, host of the hit show, "Trading Spaces," on cable's The Learning Channel (Cox cable channel 38). For the essay contest, which kicks off Friday, kids ages 8-16 should pen no more than 100 words "about their family, why they feel safe at home, and what's special about their community." A national winner, to be named Sept. 1 (Labor Day, for those without calendars), will win a home computer. Essays including the writer's name, address and phone number are due by Aug. 1 to SOSessays@ tds.net. Pyro precautions Still thinking about those hot dog condiments we mentioned earlier? Who could blame you? There's no day like July Fourth to fire up the grill. Much like fireworks, it's important to be safe and sane when working with and around a grill. That's the message being spread again this (and every) summer by the experts at Underwriters Laboratories Inc. and the National Safety Council.

Trends 5/8/00, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Trends, May 8, 2000 Lisa Ferguson Monday, May 8, 2000 | 8:52 a.m. Lisa Ferguson is an Accent staff writer. Her Trends column appears Mondays. Reach her at lisa@lasvegassun.com or 259-4060. Lights, camera, action She's only human. Remember this on Sunday, Mother's Day: Nobody's perfect, including moms. Unless, of course, she's a TV mom, in which case she's able to tend to a boat-load of little ones (as well as an oversized kid she calls her husband), the house, the dog, the bills and her career without breaking a sweat -- or a nail. It is to these fictional superwomen that the website wwww.dearmom.com pays homage with a page dedicated to "TV Mom Trivia." Test your knowledge about these small-screen matriarchs: Which actress played the mom in a singing group and was also Miss Pittsburgh in 1952? (Shirley Jones of "The Partidge Family.) What did Peggy Bundy ("Married ... With Children") serve her family on Thanksgiving? (The "Bundy Turkey" -- pizza.) Roseanne ("Roseanne") was a working mom with many different jobs. Name three of them. (Assembly-line worker, telemarketer, waitress.) How old was ("The Munsters' " mom) Lily Munster? (304.) Where did Grace (Brett Butler) work in "Grace Under Fire"? (An oil refinery.) Regular or decaf? What to get the special lady in your life this Mother's Day? How about the chance to drink her first cup of hot coffee (not lukewarm, because it cooled down before she could drink it, while she was busy taking care of you all these years). The Plug-N-Mug, made by Eagle Flask USA, is an electric cup that can be plugged into a vehicle's cigarette lighter. Its North Carolina makers claim that the 18-ounce, stainless steel mug delivers coffee at the "perfect sipping temperature" of 160 degrees throughout the day. Featuring a splash-guard lid, anti-skid base and ergonomic handle, the Plug-N-Mug is dishwasher safe and can be engraved with a special Mother's Day message. Available at www.engraveAmug.com, it retails for $24.95 (plus $5 shipping and handling). When you care enough to send the best ... If you get Mom nothing else, at least take the time to send her a greeting card. The folks at Hallmark have compiled some data about Mother's Day and its card-giving tradition. The holiday is the third-largest card-sending occasion in the country. An estimated 144 million Mother's Day cards will be given this year. Lucky for consumers Hallmark reports it has more than 900 cards in its Mother's Day line. (Just for the record, the company has been producing cards for the holiday since the 1920s.) Twenty-one percent of men and 77 percent of women are purchasing the cards. The five days leading up to the holiday are when half of all Mother's Day purchases are made.

Chris Bliss, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Bliss tossed successful juggling career for comedy Lisa Ferguson Friday, Oct. 1, 2004 | 8:44 a.m. Dropping the ball isn't typically something most jugglers want to do -- unless, of course, you're Chris Bliss. After a decade spent touring the globe as the opening act for some of the biggest rock acts of the '80s -- including Eric Clapton and Michael Jackson -- Bliss let his shiny orbs fall where they may in 1988, when he abandoned his juggling career in favor of stand-up comedy. In the years since, Bliss -- who headlines Monday through Oct. 10 at Riviera Comedy Club -- has appeared several times on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"; at international comedy festivals; and comedy clubs throughout the country, among other venues. Ironically enough, "I never wanted to be an entertainer," Bliss, who learned to juggle in his late teens, contended during a recent call from his Scottsdale, Ariz., home. "I never thought twice about it, and mostly knew what I didn't want to do and I tried to do something else." What he didn't want to do was study comparative literature. So in the early '70s he dropped out of college, packed up his juggling devices and hit the road with a fledgling rock band performing his act -- set to rock 'n' roll tunes and bathed in black light -- during breaks in the music. After several years spent "kicking around" with the band and working odd jobs, he was offered to tour arena-sized venues as the opener for the music group Asia. That gig led to a slot opening several shows on Jackson's "Thriller" tour; and a similar spot on the 1984 "Victory" tour, which reunited onstage all of the Jackson brothers. "I never thought juggling would take me anywhere," Bliss recalls, "and it took me all over the world." All the while, he claims, his celebrity bosses urged him to consider giving comedy a shot. Following the "Victory" tour, Washington, D.C.-bred Bliss moved to Los Angeles, where requests for his talents all but dried up ("You know how much L.A. loves a juggler," he jokes). He was offered a job performing in the "City Lights" production show at the Flamingo in Las Vegas, but passed on the opportunity "to do 12 minutes a night for the rest of my life. That sounded like a prison sentence." After touring with singer Julian Lennon in 1986, Bliss recalls, "I said, 'I've gotta do stand-up.' " Making the calculated career switch took some doing, however. "As a juggling act, I'd tried to fit in everywhere and please everyone." Upon entering comedy, "My first decision was that I'm gonna try to find out what's funny to me and then make it funny to other people. "The other decision was, I will use the juggling as a crutch to buy me stage time, but I am going to move it to the end of my show and eliminate it as soon as possible, because I didn't want to be what they call the 'juggling joke book,' " he says. Bliss has done exactly as he promised: His stand-up act includes a good bit of political comedy and social commentary. "I need to do stuff that I'm passionately connected to, so I have to be committed" to the material, he says. "I'm not really one who's gonna get up and say, 'Hey, the Republicans are full of it because of this; and the Democrats are full of it because of this.' I have a point of view, so the point of view ends up coming through." Most of the jokes he writes are born from "whatever it is that's bothering me, and usually it's where I think that something not true is being propagated in one form or another, and I have to put my finger on, for my own self, what about it is not true ... Basically, I'm trying to find a funny way to say the emperor has no clothes." But it's the method in which he skillfully weaves the bits together -- he sails, for example, from school violence, teen suicide and pointing the finger at Hollywood for such incidents, to American history, immigration practices and the Civil War, before eventually landing on, of all subjects, professional soccer -- that makes it interesting. "In my head, I'm on a bit of a mission," Bliss explains, which is to "really try to connect the dots different from the way they've been connected in people's heads, or just are disconnected in people's heads." "Americans are not necessarily the best-educated people on Earth, but we're very well informed. People don't necessarily know how to assemble that information -- there's a lot of content, but not a lot of context. So I sort of try and provide an interesting context," he says. "Humor is a great way to bring down a wall or get around a wall. It hits people from an odd angle, so it gets around people's defenses. That, to me, is the value of it and the challenge of it." Bliss says he's "willing to alienate an audience, and I don't mean gratuitously, I mean, with an idea or a subject matter that they're not comfortable with ... I'm willing to find out where their area of discomfort is and push it a little bit further than that, and then I have a little bit more room to roam in, and by the end of the night, I think people are gonna say to themselves, 'That was different and also funny, but a good show.' " They may also ask, "Hey, wasn't he supposed to throw some stuff into the air?" As promised, 51-year-old Bliss long ago trimmed juggling from his act -- well, almost. While he opts against tossing items during Las Vegas performances, he continues to include brief juggling segments in shows he plays at private events and aboard cruise ships. "To me, it's the icing on the cake," he says, "and after 45 or 50 minutes of (comedy that) can be kind of cynical and dark sometimes, you offer this thing that's pretty joyous." Out for laughs Roseanne Barr takes the stage at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay tonight at 8:30 p.m. Tickets range from $25 to $40. Todd Glass -- whose presence has graced both the second and third seasons of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" -- opens for David Spade at 9 p.m. tonight and 10:30 p.m. Saturday at The Mirage. Tickets are $70. The "Hollywood Comedy Tour" pulls into the Lounge at the Palms for a pair of shows at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Celebrity roaster Jeffrey Ross, Jeff Richards of "Saturday Night Live" fame, and Bobby Lee of "MAD TV" share the bill. Tickets are $25. Suzanne Whang -- host of the popular series "House Hunters" on cable's HGTV, who was profiled here in March -- and her alter ego, a misguided comedian named Sung Hee Park, play The Improv at Harrah's through Sunday.

Kip Addotta, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Comedy’s downfall no laughing matter for Addotta Lisa Ferguson Friday, July 18, 2003 | 9:16 a.m. Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at lmsferguson@yahoo.com. Kip Addotta has comedy down to a science. Of the jokes he pens, the longtime stand-up comic figures about 80 percent make the grade with audiences at the comedy clubs and other venues where he performs, while 20 percent might fall flat. "There's always that unknown factor," says Addotta, who takes the stage Tuesday through July 26 at Palace Station's Laugh Trax. "I'll tell a joke three times onstage, and if it doesn't work, I put it away in a file." He knows he has a hit on his hands after listening to the tapes he makes of each of his performances. That's also when he calculates the distance between laughs (about seven seconds) he receives onstage. It's quality -- not quantity -- that counts. "It has to be a full laugh. It can't be some guy in the corner who just swallowed his cigarette," Addotta explained during a recent call from his Hollywood, Calif., home. After 30-plus years in the comedy business, such attention to detail is to be expected. Or is it? Addotta clearly has an ax to grind when it comes to his perceived lack of dedication to the craft of comedy he says is exhibited by most of his fellow stand-up comics. "I don't consider everyone that says, 'I'm a comedian,' a comedian at all, because they're not," he says. "They don't know the first thing about it." What makes 59-year-old Addotta an expert on the subject? After all, this is a guy who, as a teenager, was groomed by his grandmother to enter the priesthood. Following her death, he built a career as a hairdresser. In the early '70s, when he "got bored" teasing tresses, he packed up his wife and three kids and headed for Los Angeles, where he took a job parking cars while attempting to break into comedy. "I knew I was funny," Addotta recalls. "What I didn't know was, 'Can I do this?' Being funny is one thing; knowing how to entertain an audience is a total other thing." Turned out, he had "God-given talent" on both fronts: After three decades and -- count 'em -- 32 guest spots on "The Tonight Show," he's still entertaining crowds at clubs and on the radio. His original "novelty songs," including the ditties, "Wet Dream (The Fish Song), "Big Cock Roach" and "I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus," are favorites with drive-time disc jockeys throughout the country. His most recent CD, released earlier this year, is titled, "Forced to Have Sex With an Alien." In his music and his stand-up act, Addotta says, "I talk about relationships. I talk about my own human foibles, my fears, my triumphs," as well as some less-pressing topics. A few examples of his quips are featured on kipaddotta.com: "Why does my garbage always weigh more than my groceries did?" "How deep would the ocean be if there were no sponges?" "When I die, I want to die peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not kicking and screaming like the passengers in his car." "I like to take the audience down little roads, then pull the rug out from under them," Addotta says. "Entertaining is a surprise. It's, 'Gee, I didn't know I was gonna see that or hear that.' " While his approach to comedy may be traditional, he balks at being lumped into the "old-school" category of comics. "That's inaccurate. I'm cutting-edge ... I'm an old guy, but I'm not old-school. People who say that have never seen my act." Addotta says he sometimes spends up to six months writing a single joke. "I put so much work into my material and into my show that I have disdain" for comics who go up onstage and tell jokes about bodily functions and such. "That's not art." Spewing obscenities and spinning indiscreet tales does not a comic make, he contends."These jokers that come out and they're saying one word after another, and they're using scatological references and they're talking about things that really shouldn't be discussed in public, those are not comedians -- those are charlatans." Comedy, as a profession, has been "devalued to the point now where I don't hear guys even admitting they're comedians anymore," he says. "We used to take pride ... Now they kind of avoid it because comedians have lost the public's respect." Don't get him wrong: Addotta does have some favorite fellow comics, including legends Steve Martin and Richard Pryor, as well as Vegas frequenters Dennis Miller and Wendy Liebman. "I'm delighted when I see someone I can appreciate and laugh at. I'm not intimidated at all." Still, he's not about to rest on his laurels as an elder statesman of comedy. "If I don't do something new in every show, to me the show is work," Addotta says. "I'm proud of myself that I took the chance; that I suffered the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach of fear." Out for laughs The next installment of Sunset Station's bimonthly "Kazam Komedy" show is slated for Aug. 4 through Aug. 8. Hosted by comic Matt Kazam, the featured performer will be Kathleen Dunbar, who was awarded the gig as the grand prize for winning a local version of CBS's "Star Search," sponsored by KLAS-TV (Channel 8). Tickets for "Kazam Komedy's" 7 p.m. nightly shows are $12.95; call 547-5300. It will be as close to a "Police Academy" reunion as it gets when Catch a Rising Star at Excalibur hosts two of the flick's co-stars: Bobcat Goldthwait performs Aug. 8 and Aug. 9, while Michael Winslow (the human sound-effects guy) headlines Aug. 29 and Aug. 30.

Sun Lite 4/26/04, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for April 26, 2004 Lisa Ferguson Monday, April 26, 2004 | 8:20 a.m. That's some order If you aren't a devotee of the age-old spring-cleaning ritual, you probably don't give a hoot that April has been designated Tackle Your Clutter Month (no doubt, by some annoyingly organized person with way too much time on his or her yellow rubber-gloved hands). Esselte, an office supply company based in Stamford, Conn., wants to help the disordered, time-crunched masses get their stuff together. Its organizational experts have devised the "Great 8" program, and claim by following eight, one-minute steps per day, people can save themselves eight hours of time each month while improving their "officiency" at work. Here are the steps in an abbreviated, time-saving summary: "Clear away clutter" by maintaining an "action items" folder on your desk to keep piles at bay. Also, start using desk drawers to file away paperwork. The company cites studies showing that the average employee has 37 hours worth of unfinished work sitting on his/her desk. Get some color-coded files to cut in half "the time spent file searching." Meanwhile, ditch your paper trail: "There is no need to keep every copy" of e-mails received and other documents, the experts say, so file only first and final versions. Don't forget to label your work; and prioritize tasks by writing scheduled appointment and meeting times in a daily planner. "Always leave 15 minutes between jobs to ensure major projects are allotted adequate time." Forget spontaneity: "Script" telephone calls in advance of placing them to keep from veering onto other subjects during conversations, and remain standing while chatting to keep the call moving. Finally, "unplug yourself" by turning the phone off and logging off from e-mail while working on other projects. Resist the urge to check messages any other time except while you're between tasks. Kooky co-workers Disregard the above tips if, of course, you're counting on your disorganization skills to help you lose your job. Cindy Cashman has a slew of other suggestions to offer workers hoping to be handed walking papers and gives a nod to the catchphrase of America's new favorite boss, Donald Trump in her new online book, "You're Fired: 17 Things You Can Do to Help Speed Up the Process," which can be downloaded for $7 at www.cindycashman.com. Cashman has authored several other books published by Newport House Inc., the company she co-founded, and is also a professional speaker whose topics include "sales, marketing and intuition." In Chapter One, "Punctuality: It's a Relative Concept," she recommends aspiring short-timers arrive "fashionably late" throughout the workday to meetings, after lunch and following extended break times. Same goes for returning (or not) phone calls, e-mail messages and borrowed items. "Punctuality is such a flexible part of your employment that there is no limit to the way you can abuse it for the termination of your service," Cashman explains in her tongue-in-cheek tome. Similar screw-ups are suggested in Chapter Two, "Excuses: Let Your Creativity Shine." Need to explain to supervisors your bizarre office antics, but don't want to let on that you're looking to get the boot? Blame it on little green men, government spies or whatever else strikes your fancy. "Explain that they' are watching you," Cashman writes, "and that you have to keep a low profile." Quicker than you can ask, "Is it OK if I keep the company car as a souvenir?" you'll be on the corporate fast track to the unemployment office.

Shuli, Las Vegas Sun

0 Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Stand-up comics in Las Vegas overlooked? Shuli, you jest Lisa Ferguson Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 8:41 a.m. Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at lmsferguson@yahoo.com. If you're under the impression that in order to see live comedy performed in Las Vegas you must fork over big bucks and watch an established showroom headliner, or visit one of the chain comedy clubs in town, well then, you're not alone. There are, however, plenty of locally grown yuks to be had at venues beyond the Strip and downtown areas. That's also where you'll likely encounter Shuli. On any given night, this one-name comedy machine inhabits the stages of small showrooms, clubs and bars throughout Southern Nevada. On Saturday he headlines the "Laughs at The Beach" show at The Beach nightclub on Convention Center Drive, where he's scheduled to play again Jan. 27. If you miss those shows, don't fret: Wander down the block to the Greek Isles, where for three years Shuli has been a regular player Saturday through Thursday evenings at Sandy Hackett's Comedy Club. Then again, you can also catch him hosting weekly open-mike nights Sundays at Boomer's, 3200 Sirius Ave.; and on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Freakin' Frog, 4700 S. Maryland Parkway. As though his schedule isn't full enough (multiple engagements on a single night are no problem, he boasts), Shuli also occasionally takes the stage at comedy clubs in Pahrump and Primm and hits the road for weekend gigs at clubs around the country. Meanwhile, he continues to collaborate and perform as part of the Renegades of Comedy, a local sketch-comedy troupe he co-founded five years ago. "I'd like to be working a lot more," Shuli insisted recently from his Las Vegas home. "For me, it's about (getting) stage time ... Even if you bomb, nothing bad comes out of going onstage. You learn something every time." Bombing isn't much of an issue these days for Shuli, who was born in Israel, raised in Los Angeles and moved to Las Vegas 11 years ago to kick-start his comedy career. Early on he met Hackett, a local comedy impresario of sorts, who gave the then-fledgling comic a shot performing in a comedy show Hackett formerly staged at the Olympic Garden strip club. "I had maybe a minute's worth of material, and I asked him for some time," Shuli recalls. "I didn't do well, but he, for some reason, saw something and told me to keep coming back." Shuli assures that his material -- which is loaded with racy (and often racial) comments about relationships, drug use and current events, among other topics -- has since strengthened considerably. By the late '90s he'd caught the attention of shock jock Howard Stern and has become a frequent call-in guest and contributor to Stern's nationally syndicated morning radio show. When an opportunity arose last year to join Stern's cast of off-color characters full time in New York, Shuli auditioned and was among the finalists considered for the job. Though he failed to land the gig, he contends the national radio exposure he received as a result made his efforts worthwhile. During the on-air audition process, "I got booked on that show five days in a row -- I was on for a week. So for me, I've already won," he explains. "I've known comics (with) 20-something years in the business who can't get (booked) a day on that show ... so it's an honor." The appearances continue to pay dividends: Shuli will perform Feb. 5 with Stern show sidekick Artie Lange in "Beacher's Madhouse" at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. "That's gonna be huge. I cannot wait," he says. For a time, Shuli and his Renegades of Comedy cohorts -- Jason Kiefer, Michael Potter and Jaime "Maddog" Mattern -- hosted a local radio show of their own, called "Lighten Up," which aired several years ago on KLAV 1230-AM. These days, the foursome have a habit of torturing area radio DJs with prank "character-driven" phone calls that often find their way onto the air (several audio clips can be downloaded at www.renegadecomedy.com). "We all have the same kind of ideas and directions," Shuli says of the Renegades. The troupe has produced a pair of comedy CDs, as well as the short 2003 "mockumentary" titled "No Laughing Matter," about a group of unsuccessful open-mike-night comics. "We try to have fun, and we try to do things different and try to stand out" on the local comedy scene, 30-year-old Shuli says. "Not everybody here is Danny Gans, you know." Which is why, despite having made big strides in his own career, he remains dedicated to helping other aspiring comics climb the ranks. Granted, orchestrating the weekly open-mike nights "cuts into my paid gigs," he concedes. It's also time he might otherwise spend working on his forthcoming solo CD; tweaking the script for a mock-reality TV show he says he's written; or talking with execs from Sirius Satellite Radio (future home of "The Howard Stern Show" when it moves to satellite later this year), to whom he claims to have pitched a pair of program ideas. "But at the same time," Shuli explains, "if it wasn't for (performing in) the open mikes here in Vegas, I wouldn't have gotten to where I am right now." He describes the circuit of local comedians as "a really close family of comics, and I love that. So, for me, it's hard to get more and more work and then say, 'All right, find your own open-mike somewhere.' A lot of comics look at it as kind of slumming or going back down. It's where I came from ... and I have no shame and no problem (to) keep doing that." On the other hand, "It saddens me," he says, that up-and-coming comics have only a handful of venues where they can hone their craft. Through open-mike nights at Freakin' Frog and Boomer's, he explains, "We can only show them one side of comedy -- the bar side. In any other city, the major comedy clubs have a locals' night or an open-mike night." Not so in Las Vegas, where none of the larger comedy clubs offer such events. "There's very little room for advancement here," Shuli laments. "You can learn and learn and learn, but to make that jump, people always say you've gotta go to L.A. or New York. The jury's still out for me. I don't buy that." Out for laughs "Nothing Sacred," a new book by Lewis Black -- who headlines today and Saturday at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay -- is scheduled for release in April by publisher Simon & Schuster. The tome will include tales about the comic-commentator's personal history, as well as his sardonic views on current events. Laugh Lines friend Hiram Kasten sent a note to remind us that he's on the bill through Sunday at Riviera Comedy Club. The funny man reports he recently wrapped production on an installment of the WB series "7th Heaven" (set to air in early February); as well as on the CBS short-timer "Everybody Loves Raymond," which takes its final bow later this year. Catch comedians Godfrey, star of the 7-Up commercials, and Jon Reep (aka "The Hemi Guy"), of the ABC sitcom "Rodney," when they headline a pair of shows on the "Hollywood Comedy Tour" at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Palms. Tickets are $25.