Las Vegas Weekly

January 27, 2010 · 11:04 AM

Jake Steinfeld ponders next move after successful MGM solo debut

By Robin Leach

Jake Steinfeld.

Photo: Courtesy

It wasn’t advertised. It wasn’t publicized. “Don’t Quit” fitness guru Jake Steinfeld wouldn’t even do any radio, TV or print interviews for the show he debuted at MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater -- yet the place was filled and standing room only.

Admittedly, the tickets were free because Showtime filmed the 85-minute stand-up storytelling. But other than a long conversation with me that we posted on Vegas DeLuxe, there was no advance publicity.

The show was titled No Expectations because Jake didn’t have any. He also didn’t know how it would be received. He didn’t even know if anybody would show up.

But when I arrived at MGM on Saturday night, Jake had the crowd roaring with laughter, rolling in the aisles and held them quietly in the palm of his hand as he related inside secret stories of working with Hollywood stars. He told laugh out loud stories of a night in a British pub with Harrison Ford.

Jake regaled the audience with wild, hysterical tales of how he got tipsy with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and movie mogul Steven Spielberg at a theater premiere. He told humorous secrets from his days of selling fitness equipment on the Home Shopping Network and just what happened to the porcelain doll he put on the “silent and soft” treadmill.

“The response was so positive,” Jake told me yesterday. “It felt so great. We got offers to take it to New York immediately, plus some special weeks here in Vegas. But I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to accept. So we had an unexpected success, and I don’t know the next step. Can you believe not one four-letter word, no obscenities? Just down-home funny stories and an inspirational message that sent everybody home saying, they, too could achieve something successful in life.”

I told Jake his show is so funny, warm and likable that he has to perform it and myriad other stories again -- be it a week on Broadway or a week in Los Angeles or Las Vegas -- and then shoot it as a TV series.

He might have had No Expectations, but now we have high expectations for him!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

Share This