David Cassidy on the Web
'Viva' in Las Vegas
July 28, 1998
Comedy Central variety show hits town for specials
By Ken White
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Think about it for a second -- isn't Las Vegas the perfect setting for a "Viva Variety" special?
Producers of the "Eurotrash-style" sketch comedy show thought so, and last month cast and crew packed up from Los Angeles and came to the city of cheesy entertainment to tape two one-hour specials, the first of which, called the "Viva in Vegas Special," airs tonight at 10 on Comedy Central.
After all, where else in North America can you find talent that would be right at home with such guests as the wacky guy who stuffed 16 lighted cigarettes in his mouth, added a Kleenex and washed it all down with some orange juice?
The special, taped at the Flamingo Hilton, features Clint Carvalho and his bird act, Rip Taylor, the Radio City Rockettes, David Cassidy, Winsor Harmon, Susan Anton and Jack Jones. Special musical guests are The Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
For the uninitiated, the cast consists of Thomas Lennon, who stars as the show's host, Mr. Meredith Laupin; Kerri Kenney as Agatha, the former Mrs. Laupin; and Michael Black as Johnny Blue Jeans, the lobotomized dope and frequent butt of jokes who wants to be an American in the worst way.
All affect accents of indefinite origins, perhaps somewhere in Europe, but perhaps not. Lennon is the one with the perpetually raised eyebrow, Kenney has a constantly screwed-up mouth and a towering hairdo, while Black wears colorful vinyl outfits with a poofed-up hairstyle straight from the '50s.
The show, going into its third season, is the brainchild of the cast and producer-writer Ben Garant. All met at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York 10 years ago, where they formed a comedy troupe called The State. They performed around New York City and landed a show on MTV for a season, then moved on to Comedy Central where they created "Viva Variety."
The idea for the show came out of a sketch they did on MTV called "The Mr. and Former Mrs. Laupin Variety Program," which supposedly took place in Belgium. Everything the actors said in the sketch was followed by reaction shots of the crowd going nuts at every "hilarious" line.
"The characters were very different then than they are now," says Kenney, who also moonlights as the bass player with Cake Like, an alternative rock band. "Agatha was a bleached blonde, very poorly dressed, just a real drunk hussy. Her lipstick was coming off. And Tom had a perm."
Lennon also moved around the stage on roller skates. That idea was dropped when he fell once too often.
Blue Jeans has remained pretty much the same -- a sad case of arrested development.
"Basically Johnny is all the things that I liked when I was 13 years old," Black says. "It's just that he's an adult man now. So Johnny's a lot about Donkey Kong and professional wrestling and tacos."
Once the characters and basic ingredients were in place, a pilot was ordered by Comedy Central and it was picked up as a series.
"We toned it down and made it a little bit less `Pee Wee's Playhouse,' and here we are," Garant says.
Still, there have been some sketches dropped because they were a bit too much for Comedy Central.
Black remembers a skit called "Stump the Amputee," where an amputee comes out and contestants ask him baseball trivia questions.
And there was the one about the kidnapped Lindbergh baby that stepped way over the line of good taste. "It was one of those things we're glad we wrote, then put away," Garant says.
Some of the bits for the special are equally suspect.
For tonight's episode, Johnny takes viewers on a trip around the city called "How to Get Around Las Vegas on 85 Cents a Day," and nearly does "The Full Monty" in a strip-poker sketch with Mrs. Laupin.
Even though the Laupins and Blue Jeans are clearly identified as fictitious characters in the show's opening credits, some people still believe they are real.
"I've seen people recognize them, but when they start talking the people don't believe it's really them," Garant says. "They say, `No no no, that show isn't done here, it's done somewhere in Europe.' I've seen people look them in the face and say, `It's not you because that guy is European.' "
Their accents are deliberately unidentifiable, Kenney says. "I can't keep an accent going of one type or another anyway, so adding them all together makes it funny and it's also a good excuse for us not to do it perfectly."
"Our accents could be from anywhere but England," Lennon says.
The cast spent a week in Las Vegas shooting the specials (the second will air later in the season) and did the things tourists do here -- gamble and go to "Crazy Girls" and "Splash."
They love the city, Garant says. "This place is the Laupins' idea of what's wonderful about America. It's buffets and shouting and colors and showgirls! The Laupins probably think all of America is like this."
David Cassidy makes away with the loot during a skit on the "Viva in Vegas Special" as a member of the Swimsuit Squad looks on.
