Last week, Tim League and I went to Vegas for four days on an Official Business Trip that included going into this big crazy licensing conference where the heads of Mattel and Sony figured out how the Ghostbusters toys you’ll see at Target next year will be manufactured, a super expensive omakase sushi dinner at Nobu followed by an impromptu decision to buy 5th row seats to the Criss Angel Cirque du Soleil show, an entire day lost to food poisoning that may or may not have been caused by the Nobu dinner, and a late night beer pong competition at a sports bar where they have all-you-can-drink Bud and Bud Light for $20 for the entire night.

But I didn’t take a lot of photos of those adventures the way Sarah would have, and even if I had photos I don’t want to talk about any of that anyway.

Instead, I’m going to tell you about the single greatest thing that Las Vegas has ever given the world. I’m talking, of course, about Ellis Island, the casino/restaurant/lounge at the Super 8 motel one block behind the strip.

The beautiful and classy exterior of Ellis Island

We heard about this gem from friends who run the Cinevegas film festival after we asked them for some suggestions on the best karaoke that Sin City has to offer, and oh my god, they didn’t disappoint. The first night we went in, we only had time for one drink and didn’t get to sign up to sing. But that didn’t matter, because their homebrewed amber ale beers were poured into huge glasses, were delicious, and only cost $2.

It was Monday night, and it was early, so it wasn’t too crowded yet, but there was one table in the middle full of the greatest mix of demographics and ages that I’ve ever seen. Included among this mystical group was one man you always want to see in Las Vegas – an Elvis impersonator who was just hanging out in his wig and sunglasses. All night long.

Tim and I were lucky enough to see him perform that first night, and as soon as he started “singing” our jaws just dropped. We had definitely found karaoke heaven.

See, Skinny Vinny dresses awesomely, and he puts his heart and soul into every performance, but Skinny Vinny does not sing. Not only that, but he doesn’t really make words at all. He mumbles and slurs and you think he’s too drunk to stand, but there he is, in front of you, staying up on his own two feet… somehow.

Words, of course, can not do Skinny Vinny justice. Instead, check out this video. It’s crappy, because I took it from the bar and didn’t want to get beat up by the kid they called Stiffler who had just come off stage after singing She Bangs and had a black eye, but you’ll get the idea:

So after that, we were very sad that we had to move on for the night, but there was another delicious dinner waiting for us. The next night, though, we came back, and we did it right. We stayed from 10:30 until 3am and we closed that karaoke party down. As we were driving over there we thought, “Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if that entire table of locals was there, even though it’s now the much busier Wednesday night?” We had nooo idea.

By the end of the night, I had won Stiffler over with my stirring performance of I Want It That Way that followed his own version of N’Sync’s Girlfriend. Tim had been reprimanded for leaving the six inch high stage and warned that he was not going to be allowed to unbutton the snaps on his shirt ever again or we’d both be kicked out, and we got to see Skinny Vinny perform in a full on jumpsuit:

We were staying over at the Wynn, but our hearts stayed at Ellis Island throughout the entire trip.

LINKS

When I returned from the trip and told Sarah about the magic of Ellis Island, she said, “Wait, you said it was at a Super 8? I think they did a story about that place on NPR.” And you guys, she was RIGHT. Not only did they do a story on NPR, but they interviewed Skinny Vinny (but only called him Vinny). Check it out!

Micael has been doing the covers for the Alamo Guide for the past year or so, and he posted the latest one up on his blog before I even placed it into the InDesign document. Elvira is coming!

I’ve loved local lawyer commercials for years and years (Josh, PLEASE start a private practice so we can flood latenight local broadcast TV with images of your face!), but as great as Austin’s lawyers are, none of the ones I’ve seen locally has featured so many exploding cars. This guy is the lawyer for me.

Lastly, I would never want to live somewhere cold, but if I did I would own this jacket.