Las Vegas Weekly

July 30, 2010 · 4:01 PM

Jabbawockeez dances to a string of successes on The Strip

By Robin Leach

Yo Jabba Jabba! Jabbawockeez get comfortable at MGM Grand.

Photo: David Becker/WireImage

From July 14 through Aug. 4, Robin Leach will be relaxing under the Tuscan sun on his annual vacation and keeping his eyes on what’s happening in Las Vegas from Italy. Meantime, a kindly crew of Las Vegas celebrities and VIPs has agreed to write guest columns for Vegas DeLuxe.

By Jabbawockeez, guest columnist

Hello, Las Vegas! We are the Jabbawockeez, stepping in to show some love to Mr. Robin Leach. In case you didn’t know, Las Vegas has been our temporary home for May, June and now August. We’ve been trying to stake our claim on the Las Vegas Strip with our Jabbawockeez Presents MÜS.I.C. (Muse-I-See) at The Hollywood Theater in MGM Grand. If you missed it in May or June, don’t worry because we have a third run coming up in August!

Since we won MTV Presents Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew Season 1 in 2008, we’ve been busy with TV and awards show performances, touring all over the world and shooting a Gatorade campaign with some of the greatest athletes to ever play sports. It’s been an amazing experience meeting so many people we’ve looked up to for so many years, and they’ve definitely motivated us to work hard toward our own goals and success.

Our newest baby, and we call it our baby because we’ve literally dedicated every waking minute to perfecting it, is our 90-minute variety show, which consists of comedy, acrobatics and even magic. We feel so blessed to have this opportunity, and we want nothing more than to share it with everybody who steps onto The Strip.

When MGM gave us this opportunity, we were anxious to put something together to show them that this was definitely something we could do. When they told us they were in and all the pieces started to fall together, it was still somewhat unbelievable, like, is this really happening? As we started to choreograph and practice day after day after day, the stress level quickly rose, and we were all just extremely nervous for the opening day. But it was really cool being a part of putting together such an extensive show from beginning to end.

We were involved in every aspect, from choosing costumes to producing the music. We got to produce our own original music for the show with The Bangerz, some of the most talented DJs and producers we’ve ever met. That’s another great thing about the show: Although we do feature some snippets of all-time hits, the show is primarily done with our own music. We hired Emmy-nominated choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha Dumo to direct our show. We’ve known them for years, and with their extensive Las Vegas experience, we knew we had to get them involved.

Our first run was from May 7-25. We kicked off our opening night with a pre-party at Tabu Ultra Lounge in MGM Grand. It was a nice venue for our friends, family and supporters to relax and have a few drinks before the red carpet. On the red carpet, it was great to see that so many celebrities were fans of ours. Sean Paul, DeMarcus Cousins, Lil Mama, Mary Murphy and many more came to show support. We also got a lot of support from our fellow ABDC champions and alums SuperCR3W, Beat Freaks and Quest Crew.

As the seats began to fill and the lights dimmed, our nerves were going crazy, but our long-awaited show time had finally come. The first show was a huge success, and it ended with a standing ovation. The feeling of adrenaline and accomplishment as everyone cheered was the best that night because it was our own show that we had poured everything into, and it was a success!

We then proceeded to the after-party at Studio 54, also in the MGM Grand, and celebrated with all of our loved ones. The only thing better than having our own show was being able to share it with all the people who had helped us get to that very day.

The rest of the May run continued the success from the opening night. With media praising our show, it quickly became a sold-out success. We had more celebrities dropping in to see our show, including Quinton Aaron, Anderson Silva and Rashad Evans. On a side note, we got to watch Rashad fight Quinton Jackson at Mandalay Bay, and as huge UFC fans, that was definitely a treat.

That’s one huge reason we love having a show in Las Vegas. The wide variety of people that come to Las Vegas equals every different type of show, event, performance and convention you could possibly think of. It’s an honor to be among all the great performers to ever hit The Strip.

With the unbelievable success of our May run, MGM gave us a second run from June 17-23. We were more than happy to be doing our show again. It was another sold-out success and ran a bit more smoothly for us, since we knew what to expect this time around. We also got to enjoy our free time more and went to see as many Vegas shows as time would allow us. We saw Mystere, Ka, Lance Burton’s magic show, Peepshow starring Holly Madison and Blue Man Group. All were spectacular and inspiring and definitely had us going home conjuring up new ideas for our own show.

Now we have our third run coming up from Aug. 19-25, and we hope that it continues to do as well as the first two runs. If you like music, you will definitely enjoy our show. We hope that you can come see it and share this wonderful experience with us. For ticket information, please visit Jbwkz.com/vegas. And follow us on Twitter: The_Wockeez.

The hunks from Thunder From Down Under at the Excalibur are the guest columnists tomorrow.

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.

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