Both performers have said they would rather close their shows than agree to new cost-cutting terms with Damian Costa’s Pompey Entertainment.
Sad news to start Wednesday (alongside the death of Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard at age 56) from my longtime and dear friend and mentor John Katsilometes at the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Damian Costa continues to “fight the good fight,” to use his term, at The Magicians Room at The Linq Promenade on the Las Vegas Strip.
That fight means whittling the venue’s schedule as shows file out.
Former Tropicana Theater headliner David Goldrake is closing his show on Aug. 23. Matt Donnelly, an accomplished improv comic, podcaster, comedy writer and – more recently – headlining magician, is not booked after Aug. 26.
Both performers have said they would rather close their shows than agree to new cost-cutting terms with Costa’s Pompey Entertainment, which runs the venue.
A show that is still playing but at a reduced schedule, “Late Night Magic,” has dropped two productions at the venue and now plays 10:30 p.m. Sundays and Mondays. Proven host and accomplished card manipulator Doug “Lefty” Leferovich leads a stellar lineup of The Shocker, Bizzaro Galore and Hollie England.
Goldrake is the rare headliner to perform a residency in a Strip theater and small-cap venue with rotating acts. He also occasionally joined the “Late Night Magic” cast as a guest star.
The outgoing showman said the opportunity to stay on the Strip didn’t make sense financially.
“We started conversations, and the proposed changes that they gave for what we have going were not really in the best interest either of my team, myself, my production or the show in general,” Goldrake said in a phone chat Tuesday afternoon.
“I just decided that we would not continue our, you know, collaboration. I’m grateful that we had great audiences. We had a great platform to perform a smaller, more intimate show, as opposed to what I had at the Tropicana.”
Costa said Goldrake’s show was “fantastic,” and he would be welcome back anytime. The show was simply undercut by a lack of ticket demand.
Read the full story here.
I recently met and interviewed Goldrake and still plan to post the fascinating and lengthy chat despite the change in show status – and I must see his closing show at The Linq Promenade!
