Two years ago this week, the world experienced the Beatles music in a new way, the Cirque du Soleil way. The show “Love� arrived in the theater formerly occupied by Siegfried & Roy to rave reviews and its soundtrack of tracks remixed from the original tapes by the original producer, went on to win a Grammy. To honor the show, we’ll talk live in the studio tonight to Kyle Stokely, a 12-year-old actor who has been in the production from the beginning about what it’s like being a child actor on the Strip and about all the famous people he’s met on the job. In Banter: The New Yorker's Adelson opus, Cosmo v Cosmo, Trump in the dumps, Cirque gossip and a "locals" Sahara?Call 206-424-4737, e-mail [email protected], read VegasHappensHere.Com and visit TheStripPodcast.com. 

Reissuing the June 8, 2006 episode featuring George and Giles Martin, the father-and-son duo who created the Love soundtrack from the tracks at Abbey Road Studios. This interview was conducted for a USA Today piece in advance of the show's opening at the Mirage.

Call 206-424-4737, e-mail [email protected], visit TheStripPodcast.Com and read VegasHappensHere.Com daily.

As casino security chief Big Ed Deline on the now-defunct NBC soap “Las Vegas,� James Caan played the center of gravity at the fictional Montecito with a certain old-school Sin City panache. That and a few film roles related to the Strip were enough to earn him the first-ever Vegas Icon Award at the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival that’s on at the Palms this week. But what did Caan really think of those roles and that TV show? And, more importantly, what does he think led to its cancellation a year after he left the part? The colorful 68-year-old Oscar nominee lets loose on a variety of hot topics including drug use, bad films and the Mob. In Banter: New tech at Rio and Fontainebleau, NY travels, room taxes, the Hank Greenspun movie and getting gas from hookers.E-mail [email protected], 206-424-4737,  blog is vegashappenshere.com 

REISSUING THIS 11/07 INTERVIEW WITH PATTI LUPONE IN WHICH SHE HINTS AT SOMETHING BIG SHE MAY HAVE COMING UP... WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE THE SHOW THAT WON HER HER SECOND TONY TONIGHT.

Tony winner Patti Lupone talks about her long Broadway career and why she hated playing her signature role, Evita. Then, Ellen DeGeneres discusses the writer’s strike, her dog controversy and the TBS variety show she filmed in Vegas last week. Plus, news about Planet Hollywood, Zumanity, Crown Tower the Plaza and more.Donate $25 or more and pick anything you want off the prize list on thestrippodcast.com. You get a prize and you help us up. Good deal! There are a couple of items on the list that are exempt.

Call 206-424-4737, email [email protected], read the blog at thestrippodcast.blogspot.com.

REISSUING THIS 11/07 INTERVIEW WITH PATTI LUPONE IN WHICH SHE HINTS AT SOMETHING BIG SHE MAY HAVE COMING UP... WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE THE SHOW THAT WON HER HER SECOND TONY TONIGHT.

Tony winner Patti Lupone talks about her long Broadway career and why she hated playing her signature role, Evita. Then, Ellen DeGeneres discusses the writer’s strike, her dog controversy and the TBS variety show she filmed in Vegas last week. Plus, news about Planet Hollywood, Zumanity, Crown Tower the Plaza and more.Donate $25 or more and pick anything you want off the prize list on thestrippodcast.com. You get a prize and you help us up. Good deal! There are a couple of items on the list that are exempt.

Call 206-424-4737, email [email protected], read the blog at thestrippodcast.blogspot.com.

This week, Microsoft rolls out its new Surface technology in the form of six $10,000 bar-lounge tabletops at the I Bar inside the casino at the Rio upon which, via some sophisticated touch-screen tech, customers can play games (video bowling, pinball), view YouTube videos, see who's sitting at other tables and send messages, take photos of themselves to send to friends and, oh yes, order drinks. And here's some video I took -- think of it as The Strip Podcast Goes Pop-Up Video for all the comments I stuck in there. I used the thing to find my childhood home in Syosset, N.Y.!

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A year ago, Jerry Yang was a just a 39-year-old social worker from Temecula, California, with six kids, a hefty mortgage and a wife who worked nights to make ends meet. Today, he’s living proof of why the annual World Series of Poker is the one championship that anyone can win. Yang spent $225 to enter a local satellite tournament that led him to a seat at the 2007 Main Event where he walked away $8.25 million richer. Next month, he begins a defense of that crown but this week, he’s live in our studio to talk about the year that was, what he’s done with all that money and how he feels about the changes being made to this year’s W.S.O.P.

In Banter: CityCenter's brief strike, more Fontainbleau plans revealed, a tourism firm thinks straight men are neglected in Vegas and K-Fed is Father of the Year.

Call 206-424-4737, e-mail [email protected], the blog is at VegasHappensHere.Com

Rita Rudner is having another important career moment. The comic has a new book out that’s both funny and surprisingly emotional and she’s recently become the first Vegas comedian to star in a PBS special to air in June. Rudner, whose girly voice and wry battle-of-the-sexes observations continue to pack ‘em in nightly at the Harrah’s Las Vegas resort, joins us live this hour to catch us up on all of her activities. In Banter: The shit really flies at Panorama, revisiting Manilow, notes from Tussaud's and SATC is coming to Vegas, sort of.Call 206-424-4737, e-mail [email protected], read the blog at VegasHappensHere.Com.

We’re getting a little bit country, a little bit soul this week with interviews with two very different artists. First, former teen prodigy LeAnn Rimes is all grown up and writing her own music these days, some of it offering a window into what it was like to transition from teen phenom to married lady. Then, Erykah Badu, the R&B star often likened to Billie Holliday, is back after a five-year break with three – yes, three – new albums this year. She’ll explain how Apple’s Garageband kicked off that spate. Also, the winner of our Jersey Boys tickets giveaway is revealed!

In Banter/News: Steve's Angelic moment, singing about Aria, hooray to Jubilee and peeking in on Fontainebleau a tad.

Call 206-424-4737, e-mail [email protected], read the blog at VegasHappensHere.Com. 

A priceless falsetto took an Italian pipsqueak from New Jersey all the way to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. But it’s only now, with the huge success of the Tony-winning Broadway show based on his life, that Frankie Valli is feeling truly appreciated by the entertainment world. That show, “Jersey Boys,� opened last month to rave reviews at the Palazzo, returning the sound of Valli and the Four Seasons to the Strip in grand fashion.

In banter: Terry Fator takes over, Cher needs work, the WSOP undergoes big changes, shrimp cocktails are more expensive and Vegas.Com rules the world.

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