Where are the Boy-Whores in Vegas?

At the beginning of the month I was in Las Vegas with my partner for a full seven days and I thought you might all like to hear about it.  I'll get to the title of my post later on but for now sit back and enjoy my story, please.  I kept a diary while we traveled but I'll try to keep it to the highlights for you all.

Day one, a Wednesday, and we did so much even on our first day but primarily we picked up as many of the show tickets that we bought so that we could relax (HA!) the other days.  That was the first day that we saw them - the "Girls! Girls! Girls" folks handing out little cards advertising their "escort" services. Technically prostitution is illegal in Clark County where Las Vegas is located along with a few other counties and cities; in the rest of Nevada brothels are legal and regulated.  We had a feeling these "cards" were a clever and ignored way around the law.  They were being handed out by both men and women, mostly Hispanic it looked like, and they rarely said much other than "Girls?" and offered you the cards.

We saw several shows while in Vegas.  "Tournament of Kings" at Excalibur Resort was dinner and a show.  We were in the Russian section front row and had cool neighbors.  We all agreed that our "king" was a bit evil as he continually cheated but at least he was pretty to look at.

"Jan Rouven" was an illusion/erotic dance show at the Riviera on the northern end of the Strip that was our second evening's highlight, that was a Thursday by the way. Rouven interacted well with his audience that was fairly small though the seating needs to be improved so the seats are angled upward so you can see. A couple of people in a nearby section were stacking chairs on top of each other and this really interfered with a family's enjoyment of it I think as was very rude and unsafe.  It was a lot of fun and in hindsight worth VIP seating I think especially on a more crowded spring/summer/fall weekend night.

Once more the "Girls! Girls! Girls" folks were out and about along with more scam artists, homeless, and performance artists some of which are really good.

Friday night we had VIP seating for the SinCity Comedy and Burlesque show at Planet Hollywood.  The two main comedians we saw were funny and the two burlesque dancers were great -- my partner had a pink boa tossed at him but he was too shy to hand it back to her, just left it on the stage at the end for her to find.

We got there over an hour early (we've been told repeatedly by staff when we picked up the tickets and well as the ticket outlet we bought them from to get their really early.  We showed our tickets and were accidentally taken into an earlier show called The Coop Show that was super fun and funny even more so than the one we bought tickets for. Coop was very talented both as a singer and an impersonator.  We highly recommend you check out his show but neither this nor the SinCity show really require VIP seating so learn from us.

Again the "Girls! Girls! Girls" folks were out and about along with even more scam artists, homeless, and performance artists.  By this night the crowds were starting to build up.  We discovered we were in town at the same time as the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo so that was why a lot of the resorts and stops along the middle of the Strip were being "westernized" in decoration and signage. I hope those folks had a great time but it was a bit trippy to see all the hats and boots.  But then again it was also 10-20 degrees below normal our entire stay... SIGH!

Saturday there were winter storm advisories for Las Vegas (didn't work out) so we decided to sort of take it easy and stay inside to see what was in the Mandalay Bay-Luxor-Excalibur resorts since they are all connected via internal walkways and shopping areas.  We went to the Excalibur Buffet that was above average for our regular hometown buffets then their Fun Dungeon (use your imaginations, I know you have one).  Back at Luxor we did the Titanic Experience (I survived, my partner didn't) that was educational and fun at the same time, two hours were gone like that (snap fingers).

Same for the Shark Reef Exhibit over at Mandalay Bay though one of the exhibit guides was hyper political and talkative and I had to pull my partner away.  There he is, my 14 year partner with his face partly hidden for privacy's sake, checking out fish and sharks both at the glass walkway under a bit part of the exhibit.  The little kids and adults there were so funny, hardly anyone bothered to read the signage and just made up stuff about what they were looking at.

No "Girls! Girls! Girls!" folks inside!  HURRAY because they were starting to annoying -- where were the "Boys! Boys! Boys!" cards?  Are brothels only legal if they have female prostitutes in Nevada? Nope, back at the end of 2009 the laws were changed to require examines of male prostitutes so they are legal. Where was the pushing of them?  If we were going to hire an "escort" it would be male after all... not that we were planning to do so but it is the fairness at all that was annoying me.

Sunday night we had to go off Strip to see the Penn & Teller Show at the Rio.  I liked it but frankly their repeated political comments lessened my enjoyment a great deal.  Do your political stuff once and move on, it wasn't advertised "with political commentary" so I wasn't prepared and ended up annoyed at certain points. I was expecting edgy and snarking performances with jabs at society or other shows but political stuff only takes a bit to annoy me. My partner enjoyed it more because he was more familiar with their work.

Damnit!  Those "Girls! Girls! Girls!" folks had been out there too!  We saw their discarded cards around but not them because we took a taxi back to the hotel room.

Monday we saw the B-Beatles Show at the Saxe Theater back at Planet Hollywood -- given how often we went there it might have been a better place for us to stay.  It was Awesome!  It was the best show and event we did our entire stay and only a small part of that was the fact that we were 4th row center stage for it!  On these early week day shows don't bother with a VIP pass just get there in line early and you may get amazing seats.  They allowed you to take photos during the show but most of my mind were too bright from the lights it turned out.  Here's one of them taking a bow at the end, the entire cast of the show in fact.

As soon as we left the resort the "Girls! Girls! Girls!" folks were everywhere. Two of them at every corner and often mid-block.  I turned to my partner "I'm think the next one that approaches I'm going to ask if they have boy-whores. Would you be OK with that?" He not only was OK but encouraged me so the next one, a woman, who offered us a card I stopped. I looked at her very seriously and asked "Do you have any boy-whores?" but she just stopped short, opened her mouth, shut her mouth, shook her head, and stepped back.

The "Girls! Girls! Girls!" folks stopped approaching us after that... hhhmmm though we had a good couple of blocks to go.  My partner also started speaking in German to the scammers and hawkers on the street -- real German, he has years of it, and we both have German ancestry and we just didn't want to be bothered on our second to last night.

There you go, a bit of our trip for your education and amusement.  What do you think?  Should there be "Boys! Boys! Boys!" cards handed out on the Strip, too?