Frank Marino didn’t get to be the longest lasting headliner on the Strip by taking a casual approach to his career.
“I don’t have a minute free,” says the creator and host of the female impersonation show, Frank Marino’s Divas Las Vegas. “I never stop. I spend 24 hours a day running a huge company. I’m moving into a 15,000-square-foot house. I have 60 employees. I’m busy 24/7. When other people tell me they’re busy, I laugh.”
Anyone who has witnessed the larger-than-life production Marino has dedicated his life to can understand what keeps him so busy. Marino, famous for his Joan Rivers character that appears early in the show, is the emcee for a cavalcade of impersonators of stars that have included Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli and Shania Twain. Sometimes the energy level is so high, such as when Larry Edwards’ Tina Turner struts onstage to the pulsing rhythms and triumphant chorus of “Simply the Best,” that the acts themselves seem to transcend the source inspirations.
Keeping up that level of entertainment, with glamorous costuming and choreography to constantly consider, is a 24/7 lifestyle job. No ordinary party would do for the 30th anniversary celebration, which took place last September at a huge penthouse at Caesars Palace overlooking the Strip. “I had all the top executives in town there, anybody who was instrumental in my career for the last 30 years,” says Marino. “I had Pia Zadora, who gave me my start at the Riviera hotel, as one of my guests, which was really special. Without her, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
Zadora saw Marino perform in Florida and gave him a three-month contract that turned into a 25-year run for the star. “She built the showroom for us that just got imploded, last night actually,” he says. “The whole mirrored front of the building was our showroom.”
Marino and Divas Las Vegas have been performing at The Linq Hotel for the last seven years, occasionally coming into the national spotlight. Derrick Barry (Britney Spears) has appeared on America’s Got Talent, while both Barry and 2010 Miss Gay America Coco Montrese (Janet Jackson) were contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Marino says the crowd has skewed a bit younger since the opening two years ago of The Linq Promenade adjoining the hotel, but he still looks out at the audience and sees “everything from prom kids to senior citizens.”
“It’s a show that has something for everybody. I have people in the show like Katy Perry, and yet I have people in the show like Cher. It’s got every age group,” says Marino, adding that sometimes people leave the theater with a different outlook than when they entered. “I had a Marine come out to my show last month in his fatigues on leave. After the show, he told me I changed his viewpoint on the world, so that is really good.”
The Linq, 9:30 p.m. daily, $26.99-$97.88 plus tax and fee, 12+. 702.777.2782
