…I blundered at the Thunder Down Under show. 🙂
Friends Renae Kinsey and Bill Francis took me to see this wild male-stripper show at the Excalibur in Vegas. These guys (the performers, not Bill and Renae) are kids, really, albeit very athletic and well-built ones, and since they’re Aussie’s, they have that dry and rather irreverent sense of humor. And do they ever strip.
So, okay, I really was minding my own business, bundled in my fake fur coat with the light-up Santa Claus pin, being a sport and ever so grateful that the room was essentially dark and absolutely packed with screaming females who wanted nothing so much as to get up on stage and make a fool of themselves. Me, I was keeping a low profile.
Well, here’s what happened next. The MC was frolicking around in the audience, looking for victims, and I made the mistake of yawning.
Even then, I thought I was safe. I mean, it was dark, and all the rest, and he spots little ole low-profile me?
Of course he did, because that is God’s sense of humor. The MC pointed at me, I was bathed in light, and then he demanded good-naturedly, “Did you just yawn?!”
Gulp.
Well, yeah, but I didn’t mean anything by it.
Honest.
Long story short, the only romance writer in the audience gets hauled up on stage, and that was when the fun really started. (For the audience.) I was a sport and I played along, and the funny thing is, all the while this young MC was gyrating for the crowd, he was saying the most gentlemanly things to me, sotto voce. Like, “Relax” and, as he was helping me down from the stage, at which time I was completely blinded by lights and practically deafened by the delight of the audience, “I’ve got you, love.”
What a show. My friends will probably never let me forget the experience. Thank GOD no cameras were allowed!
My take on Thunder Down Under? It’s truly worth seeing–there’s a reason these guys have been on every big-time network TV show. They’re gifted athletes, they’re dancers, and they’re charming Aussies. Above all, though, they are showmen.
We took in the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor, and that was a little more my speed. The exhibit will be in Vegas for a while–another nine years, I think–so do see it if you get the chance. I was near tears the whole time, looking at people’s belongings, miraculously retrieved from the site where the great ship settled–some 2.5 miles below the surface. They had an actual iceberg in the exhibit, which was touchable, and gave one a chilling (no pun intended) idea of just how cold the North Atlantic would have been that fateful April night in 1912. I felt sad, as I’ve mentioned already, but I wouldn’t have missed that experience for anything.
Now, for last week’s winners! NO, I did not forget. They are Eileen Kolick and Lynne W, and they will each receive a $50 giftcard from either Barnes and Noble or Amazon, along with a signed book by moi. And the contest isn’t over, so be sure to comment, comment, comment!
More adventures in Vegas later.
About Linda
The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West.
Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane.
