Richard N. Velotta
VEGAS INC Coverage
The folks at McCarran International Airport had a pretty cool idea to enlist some Las Vegas celebrities to guide passengers through the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint procedure.
It gave visitors to our city a smile before heading home and in my travels, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Among the lessons shared in separate videos:
• Luxor prop comic Carrot Top shows how you can’t take anything too big to fit through the scanner by hauling a massive backpack that’s so huge that it eventually topples him.
• A pack of Cirque du Soleil clowns shares how baby strollers should pass through security, while others explain how you have to take your shoes off (one of the clowns is overwhelmed by foot odor, something that somehow doesn’t seem far from the truth).
• Venetian comedian Rita Rudner zips her lip as she makes her way through the line, explaining why it’s best not to tell gun and bomb jokes in the security area.
• Knights from Excalibur’s “Tournament of Kings” show drop off their medieval weapons before passing through, a not-so-subtle reminder that you can’t carry knives or guns through security.
• Female impersonator Frank Marino of Imperial Palace’s “Divas Las Vegas” properly removes his/her furs, explaining that you have to remove coats and jackets in the security zone before you can get through.
• The Blue Man Group, soon to leave its home at the Venetian for the Monte Carlo, use an electronic sign gag to explain that only passengers can go to the gates.
There are a few more videos, some of which are dated and need freshening.
To explain that passengers need to remove their ear buds and shut down their iPods when passing through security, Star Fleet officers from “Star Trek: The Experience” tell one of their Klingon commanders that they have to take them off. Those relatively new to Las Vegas may ask, “What’s ‘Star Trek: The Experience’?”
It was a popular themed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton before it closed in 2008. When the “Star Trek” franchise was traveling at warp speed, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon, with two interactive experiences, a “museum of the future” filled with iconic movie and television props and a restaurant populated with “Star Trek” characters.
It’s now a part of Las Vegas history with the McCarran video a reminder of its passing.
A video admonishing passengers to remove all metal before passing through scanners was delivered by illusionist Lance Burton, who plucked coins from behind his ears and from up his sleeves, placing them in a bin.
Burton left his gig at the Monte Carlo just over a year ago and no longer performs in Las Vegas, a loss to our city because he always gave back to the community. But people traveling through McCarran can remember his act when they see the airport video.
Is it time for new videos? The nostalgic may say leave them the way they are.
But maybe it’s time to recruit some of Las Vegas’ new Strip talent for public service with fresh airport videos.
How about recruiting the Mirage’s Terry Fator and his friends to develop an instructional video? Maybe Caesars Palace’s Celine Dion, Rod Stewart or Elton John could sing one. Or the Flamingo’s Donny and Marie.
How about something outrageous from Rio illusionists Penn & Teller or Luxor’s Criss Angel? Or Flamingo comic George Wallace?
There are plenty of possibilities and I’m sure readers already are cooking up some storyboards to share.
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Las Vegas cabdrivers have been ripped for long-hauling customers through the airport tunnel, but a national travel publication is pinning a scam to local drivers that could happen anywhere.
Writing in Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, Ray Pagliarulo says local drivers, whom he calls “notoriously sketchy,” frequently unload bags from the trunk at hotels, but don’t remove all of them, driving off with a suitcase. “Only later,” the article says, “do you notice one of your bags is missing.”
I’ve covered the Nevada Taxicab Authority for years, and this issue has never been raised.
Does it happen? Probably once in awhile. And it’s also possible that a driver honestly didn’t see the missing bag and turned it in later to supervisors.
Unfortunately, the local industry has been implicated in a scam that can occur anywhere you can hail a cab.