Las Vegas Weekly

Freaky and Fabulous

The Vegas contestants of “The Gong Show” with Dave Attell

Photo: Iris Dumuk

Clad in a nude bodysuit accented with bulls-eyes, Lott croons "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as judges and audience members do just that with Velcro balls.

Name: Mona Lott (Todd Simmonds)

Talent: Clad in a nude bodysuit accented with strategic bulls-eyes, Lott croons “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” as cast, judges and audience members do just that with small Velcro balls.

Where you’ve seen him: Rita Rudner’s Room 776, Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, The Soprano’s Last Supper, Lucky Chang’s, gondoliering at the Venetian

On the genesis of his character: “I was just looking for songs, and that number came to me. I thought, ‘How can I make this crazy?’ and it just went from there. I told my roommate about the act, and he’s like, ‘No way, it’ll never work.’ I performed it in a bar, and the audience went nuts. So I’ve been doing it ever since, and it always goes over well.”

Photo: Beverly Poppe

This sword-swallowing former mortician was also featured in "Las Vegas Weekly"'s Beautiful People issue.

Name: Lady Diabla (Alex Kaminski)

Talent: Sword-swallowing

Where you’ve seen her: The upcoming Beer For My Horses with Willie Nelson, David Allan Coe and Ted Nugent; The Brothers Grimm Sideshow on the 2007 Ozzfest tour; Jerry Springer; the cover of Las Vegas Weekly’s Most Beautiful People issue

Fun Fact:“I was a mortician for a while. When I was growing up that’s what I wanted to do as a career.”

Photo: Jacob Kepler

Thompson's "Gong Show" act includes trick jump roping and a finale in which he jumps with three women clinging to him.

Name: The Rope Master (James Brewster Thompson)

Talent: Trick jump-roping, including a finale in which he jumps with three women clinging to his body

Where you’ve seen him: As a specialty act at Beacher’s Madhouse, performing ventriloquism with the Hack Daniels Band Mondays at the Stratosphere

Words of wisdom: “It’s a lot easier to throw your voice than to be throwing people around.”

Photo: Iris Dumuk

This multi-talented contortionist uses some interesting parts of her body to play a mean game of billiards.

Name: Stephanie Castellone

Talents: Contortion, billiards

Where you’ve seen her: The Ed Bernstein Show, the 2006 Tribute to Magicians of Las Vegas calendar, Paris Hilton’s CD-release party. Additionally, “I think I was on Fox once.”

Career highlight: Performing three months in Germany last year for upward of 6,000 people

Photo: Iris Dumuk

The couples' talents include "Pussy Darts" (her) and "Face Coil" (him).

Name: Swing Shift Sideshow’s Kelvikta the Blade and Andrew S (Kellie Christopher and Andrew Stanton)

Talent: “Pussy Darts” (her), “Face Coil” (him)

Where you’ve seen them: The Bunkhouse, The Box Office, Circus Circus’ Fright Dome, Extreme Thing, House of Blues

How the couple got together: “… We met at the Double Down. I saw her long red dreadlocks and tight corset and witch boots and makeup, and she was screaming at the top of her lungs at the band, and I’m like, ‘I think I remember her. How come she’s alone?’ She brought me home and demanded that she cut the cables out of my back … She pulls out one cable, then a few more, and all the sudden I’m like, ‘Why are you licking the blood off my back?’

Read more about The Gong Show's local contingent in Julie Seabaugh's story, Gonged but not forgotten