Jeff Beacher admits there are boundaries to what he does, but try selling that to Amazon Ashley, the world’s tallest stripper, or the little person Oompa Loompas who deliver bottle service by shooting out of an elephant’s rear end. Beacher’s Madhouse at MGM Grand is home to these and other curiosities, and former stand-up comedian Beacher is its ringleader. Jack Houston chatted with Beacher about his new venture and his unorthodox approach to nightlife.
Q: You’ve been a presence in Las Vegas for about a decade. How did you first get involved with your own venue?
A: We’ve done pop-up shows for 10 years, and that was our model. But all great people take risks and try new things, and I got offered a theater at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. It was more of a cabaret room that no one wanted, with pillars in the middle and no sight of the stage, and it was offered to me. It was a little room, about 100 seats, and we put a million dollars into it, and the show was a home run.
Q: Where do you find some of these performers?
A: We did a huge audition, and this one freak came into the show wearing a 6-foot hat … I’m thinking, I don’t want this guy as part of my show. But my creative director told me to hire this guy. So we’re doing the show, and all of a sudden, the music stops and on walks this guy. The next thing you know, he’s got 50 hula hoops, and he’s hula-hooping his whole body. His name is Leonid the Magnificent. The whole room gave him a standing ovation, and everyone was giving me props. And I didn’t even want this guy! Then he went on America’s Got Talent. …
Q: How do you know where to draw the line?
A: I don’t like hard-core (stuff). I don’t do the guys with the nails through the tongue. Everything we do is girl-friendly. It’s something that a girl will like. So if the girls like it, the guys will come.
Q: Little people are a large part of your act. Have you gotten any flak from that community?
A: I’m the single-largest employer of little people in the world. … You’ll have your haters and people that aren’t happy with you, but for the most part they all are.
Q: For people who might be skeptical about Beacher’s Madhouse, what would you tell them?
A:I made this show because I hated going to shows. I was going to talk shows and TV tapings in New York and L.A.—I was obsessed with them—and I was having more fun with the preshow, when they would send the audience warm-up out, and he was doing contests and things like that. So we’d copy those contests and make them more fun. And it just got crazier and crazier and crazier.
