Five Hundy by Midnight 131: Seeing Red

/ Tim

Las Vegas podcast #131 includes:

  • Gambling in Las Vegas opening clip
  • Tropicana postpones redevelopment
  • Another security scare on the Strip
  • Pam Anderson sticks around
  • Siegfried and Roy tell all
  • Book review: Las Vegas Little Red Book
  • Listener calls about downtown video poker, roulette and blackjack advice, Main Street Station Brew Pub, Gems Wild Tiles, Jay White as Neil Diamond, Planet Hollywood valet parking, Luxor, show discounts and more
  • Travelzoo show discounts


Five Hundy By Midnight 8/19/07 (65:53 min, 60.3 MB)

28 thoughts on “Five Hundy by Midnight 131: Seeing Red”

  4. I have to give credit to Kim for sending me the info about Sigfried and Roy. I don’t recall where she heard about it.

    You can park for free Downtown at Main Street Station.

  5. We may not have gotten to hear Michele’s karaoke a couple of weeks ago, but at least we got to hear her Tay Zonday voice when she broke into “Chocolate Rain” in this episode.

    Have fun in Vegas!

  7. O.K. so you hated the book. But if you are an insider it almost sounds like a fun read just for the laughs (as long as you don’t get vulgar, Michelle).

    BTW don’t some of the VP pay tables pay more for a Royal on a max coin?

    Dan

  9. That what I thought. How does book like that get published.

    I looked on the internet and yours is the first non-publicity review that I saw.

    Caveat Emptor.

    Have a great trip.

    Dan

  10. Great Books to read on the flight out to Vegas

    Busting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds by Ben Mezrich

    Sun, Sin And Suburbia: An Essential History Of Modern Las Vegas by Geoff Schumacher

    Super Casino: Inside the “New” Las Vegas by Pete Earley

    The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America by Sally Denton

    The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas (Nation Books) Paperback by Marc Cooper

    No Limit: The Rise and Fall of Bob Stupak and Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Tower Hardcover by John L. Smith

    The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas Paperback by Hal Rothman

    Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond Paperback by David G. Schwartz

  12. Sure … you mention the Gentlemen’s Club Owners’ convention, but not the UNITED STATES PROBATION OFFICE convention. Go figure. 😉 Great podcast. Lesley and I need it every week, and it helps us make it between trips.

  13. Friends of ours witness police roping off the IP looking for the gunmen. We were staying at Harrahs and still sleeping when all this happened. LONG NIGHT PREVIOUSLY 🙂

  14. Yes Michelle… Jay white does wear the sequin shirt. I think he went through about 4 different wardrobe changes. 🙂
    Excellent show. Highly recommended. Actually, I was so suprised as to how many songs I actually knew!

  15. I’ve read almost every Vegas guide book there is (suggestion: review the guide book of your fellow podcaster Steve Friess – I haven’t read that one yet). Here’s the review I posted about the Little Black Book two years ago on avlv. Based on that and your review, I won’t bother with the red one:

    Book Review: Las Vegas Little Black Book

    Authors: David deMontmollin and Hiram Norman

    Published by Justin, Charles & Co, 2005

    Price: $11.95

    238 pages

    The Little Black Book portends to be and most probably is “the very
    first frank, opinionated, smart and savvy guide to Vegas written
    specifically for groups of men”. It´s written by David deMontmollin,
    “star of the Travel Channel´s hit show American Casino” and Hiram
    Norman, “a seasoned L.A. screenwriter, webmaster and true Las Vegas
    aficionado”. With names like this, you´ve certainly got to be savvy to
    score in LV. And scoring is what this book mostly is about.

    The book contents 11 chapters, with advice on planning, accomodation,
    dining, gambling, daytime and nighttime diversions and gentleman´s
    clubs. There are itineraries and there´s basic information about most
    of the places mentioned, mostly only a phone number and not even
    adresses, let alone prices, cover charges or opening times. No maps
    save for one or two very basic ones.
    There are some charts which rate hotels and gentleman clubs.

    The layout is pretty nice, with a good, readable typeset, not too much
    text on one page and quite a few boxed texts with “classic Vegas
    mistakes” or “if money is no object” info.

    The writing style is rather disastrous. Those guys come across as
    first class jerks. The first chapter is entitled “24 hours in Sin
    City” and follows a typical day in the life of philantropist, epitome
    of cool and general all around great guy David deMontmollin. “He lives
    and breathes casino”. “Reminiscing about the night before, he knows it
    will be hard to top it, but for him, Vegas just keeps getting better”.
    Today he´s running three(!) events at once: an audition for gogo
    dancers, a bikini photo shoot AND a blackjack tournament. But fear
    not, it is amazing “how he is always in control and maintains his
    cool”.

    Fortunately, the book cools it a bit after this chapter and there is
    quite a lot information that is good advice. Obviously, the American
    male group headed for Vegas is rather stupid, though, as the book
    feels the need to hammer down even most trivial point (yes, it pays to
    plan ahead, we get it). Apart from all that redundancy, there is very
    little you haven´t already read here in some form and I´m pretty sure
    there´s not much new to be learned here for guy group pros like Hog or
    singlemalt. The book also seems to have a hard time making it mind up
    about whether it´s a cheat sheet for cheapskates or advice on how to
    live it up. The “money is no object” part isn´t very helpful (you
    know, flying first class is a lot nicer than coach !).

    There´s a lot of opinionated reviews one can disagree with, but most
    of the info is solid.

    I enjoyed reading the book rather more on an entertainment level than
    that I´ve learned so much. Still, if you´ve read some basics before,
    this is an enjoyable read.

    Informational content: 5 out of 10
    General reading fun : 7 out of 10

  17. Suprised to hear Louis Theroux opening up your show. Here is a little rant – why is every Brit documentary on Vegas these days about the evils of gambling and competing to find the people who loose the most on the games ( or the ones playing as many machines as possible at the same time ).

    Was not so sure the Hilton being shown as the cutting edge of Vegas either.

    Have a good trip T&M – dont go wild on those tiles.

  18. I really liked the Theroux doc and didn’t find it too one-sided. The vacant high-roller whose perky mood got worse and worse as he lost was really great fun to watch.

    Thomas

  19. A dream come true. My wife on Five Hundy By Midnight! 🙂

    In regard to the shops at PH, there is quite a lot of outside work going on at Miracle Mile right now. Round the clock work putting up what looks to be a very cool exterior. As far as inside, still the same and rather empty. Most people there were in restaurants, but few in the shops that we saw.

    Listening back to my call, I note how I said park in the shop’s valet if “you are going to the casino or restaurants”. Didn’t even mention that one might actually be going shopping!! Tim, we are of like mind on that one. 🙂

  20. With respect to the Planet Ho parking, the free lot is behind the Miracle Mile (Desert Passage) and the mile is circular so you have to walk around the shopping to get to the casino as the entertainment centre is in the middle so you can’t cut accross.

    It may be easier to park in Paris and walk south.

    Dan

  21. Guys,

    Wishing you a great time in Vegas. Sure will be hot down there, so drink lots of water!

    Chris

  22. You can also park for free in El Cortez on the east side when visiting Downtown.

  25. Hi Guys nice podcast this week, i never new about those freaky magicians!
    Ever since they made Clark W Griswold disappear up that white tigers arse!

    You guys watch for podcast crashers next week!
    Bmo and Tommy are on the piss!

  26. I’m sensing a bookwriting opportunity. What we need is “An Insider’s Guide to the Insider’s Guides to Las Vegas.” Between books, blogs, and podcasts, there is so many to review that it would fill a book in itself.

  28. So i heard on this week’s The Strip Podcast that Miles and Steve were supposed to have lunch with Tim and Michelle… but that at the last minute they cancelled because Michelle had “food poisoning.” But as Steve said, that only true if you count alcohol as a food. Apparently the Football drinks (yes plural) were the culprit. 😛

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