Charities prove to be a pretty good bet

As odd as it may seem for a city given to extravagant indulgence, stadium-filling charity concerts have become part of the regular tourist cycle in Vegas. Local Andre Agassi’s Grand Slam is perhaps the best known. But April brought two such concerts to Mandalay Bay’s Events Center: the Tiger Woods Foundation’s Tiger Jam last weekend (which scored Van Halen) and Concert for Lili Claire (with headliners the Goo Goo Dolls) which was scheduled to take place Saturday.

Of course, there is a Vegas twist. While the headliners bring the masses and the media, much of the real money comes from a select group of VIPs: rich corporate donors who attend high-priced dinners long before the band takes the stage. These dinners are inevitably attached to charity auctions.

And it is these pre-show events that are responsible for much of the $1.5 million raised by Tiger Jam this year. Regular attendee Kristi Yamaguchi told me at the dinner: “Vegas is great for charity. It brings people together for a cause and people love the town.” Longtime music industry executive and Tiger Jam supporter Irving Azoff, who lined up Van Halen for the concert, concurs: “The corporate guys love to party in Vegas, and Tiger and his buddies love Vegas.”

Woods, who recently had knee surgery, had crutches backstage but chose not to use them when he hobbled out to address the dinner and later introduce Van Halen.

One real advantage to Vegas is that the town is built on getting visitors to spend more than they planned. That dynamic works great for a charity auction. As shown on Buick’s website, a loaded Enclave costs about $37,000. Of course, if you went to a dealership, you could probably get that price down quite a bit. But then you would not have a Tiger Woods-signed visor in the car. At the Tiger Jam dinner, Bill Sopko, president of a company that makes grinding machinery in Cleveland, offered a winning bid of $46,000.

(By the way, these days you don’t send a check later. A woman promptly appeared at his dinner table with a mobile credit-card charging device to settle up.)

Brothels 101 class earns high marks

Afew months ago I got a call from an administrator at Randolph College, a liberal arts school (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) in Lynchburg, Va. She had taken 11 students and four professors to Vegas to study consumer consumption for the school’s American Culture program. So, along with visits to Bally’s Jubilee and the Fremont Street Experience, the visitors from Randolph wanted me to talk to them about a story I wrote in 2005 concerning the Chicken Ranch brothel in nearby Pahrump. But my experience in writing the story taught me that legal prostitution in Nevada is a subject best spoken about by the people involved.

So the class packed into a van and headed to the Chicken Ranch to meet two of the working girls and receive an unusual all-access tour.

One thing about Nevada brothels is that despite being legal, they still crave legitimacy. Therefore, the brothel sent out a news release, and the Randolph contingent seemed a bit surprised to discover their meeting was as packed with media as with students. That probably changed the dynamic a little until the students got their private tours. Two workers, who go by Alicia and Alexis, spoke to the students and members of the media. But there was one tiny delay before class: Alicia had a customer just before things started. Alexis seemed a little nervous and spoke from notecards. Alicia was more vivacious and spoke from the hip. The students were respectful and full of questions.

One student asked: “We have read a lot of books and journals about body image. Do you find that is really important here, and is there a certain look for this career choice?”

“There is a wide variety of women here,” Alicia replied. “It is about self-confidence. If you project yourself well, people will gravitate to that.”

“One of the interesting things I learned about being here is body image is about what you feel about yourself,” Alexis added. “I have seen girls who are absolutely beautiful and all you expect a model to be and society to love, and they don’t get picked at all. I have seen heavier women who get picked all the time. It all depends on your confidence in yourself.”

The class, familiar with the language of academic feminism, and the workers may have spoken a different argot, but they shared certain values.

“I loved that they saw themselves as feminists and were willing to discuss the intimate details of their lives with us,” said junior Johna Strickland, 22, after the trip. “When I thanked Alicia for allowing us to visit and showing me her room, she thanked me for being willing to visit and bringing an open mind. That she was willing to take a risk to enhance my education really touched me. Makes me wonder how the American education system could change if all professors and people met on field trips were so open and honest in what they had to impart.”

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