That Voodoo They Do Do So Well

You’ll find her in the cool night sky, where the breezes caress her crimson curls and a sprawling Las Vegas is her carpet of shimmering jewels. Patricia Puerner is a sprite under the stars--also a waitress in the Rio hotel’s rooftop Voodoo Lounge.

Crowds have flocked to the nightspot since it opened in May with a decor you could describe as Mardi Gras taboo, and an incomparable view of the Strip. Guests wait up to an hour for a glass elevator soaring 400 feet to the otherworldly, black-lighted venue. There, house band Ghalib Ghallab plays throbbing blues and bartenders juggle and twirl flasks and cocktail shakers.

“This is an old profession, from vaudeville,” says Todd Connell, whose three-bottle pouring and behind-the-back glass-passing out-dazzle the tricks Tom Cruise made famous in “Cocktail.” The waitresses glide through the teeming room carrying tall, multicolored concoctions named Witch Doctor or Sexual Trance.

But out on the patio, the customers fall mute, entranced by the sea of light and the vision of glowing gaming palaces below. “I am a server, not a performer,” says Puerner, who works in a clingy, low-cut dress. “But I know when people aren’t watching me.”