Movable buffet: Vegas performers give their time and talents for ‘Ribbon of Life’

In a packed Las Vegas Hilton Showroom on a Sunday afternoon, 1,300 people watched a moment of flawless cuteness. In one of the 22 original segments for 2010’s “Ribbon of Life” benefit, “Grease Monkeys,” dozens of current and former Vegas performers took the stage with their offspring. Some children were carried by moms and dads in baby pouches, others were in a line of electric cars steered by their parents.

Of course, no matter if the line of child-driven toy cars was straight or went twisted, the entire thing was adorable. It was also a moment that said to the entire room: We are family. This is not the image people usually have of Vegas entertainment where the cutthroat world of show business meets the hard realities of business and all is supported by the passing whims of tourist cash.

But Chris Coaley, vice president of this year’s “Ribbon of Life,” knows a different side of Vegas entertainment and like many “Ribbon of Life” volunteers here he is a former performer, including time in the now-closed Vegas review Les Folies Bergere. The benefit supports Golden Rainbow, a charity that supports local HIV/AIDs patients:

According to Carol Hunter, a veteran herself for 24 years, the beginnings of the organization date to when HIV/AIDS still carried a social stigma and victims routinely requested anonymity. Yet AIDS was ravaging the Vegas entertainment community. Hunter says the final straw happened when: “There was a performer who didn’t have any place to live because his parents were so scared of the disease. His parents who were so ignorant and afraid of the disease literally they put him in the garage. He died there. His co-performers got together so this would never happen again.”

The success of these benefits more than two decades later has resulted in competition just for a spot on the “Ribbon of Life” stage: Only 22 acts chosen out of about70 submissions. Coaley notes that the hardest part in some ways is culling the best acts from submissions. “Everyone is giving of time completely free, and you have to say no to 2/3 of the submissions and you just hope they understand you can’t have a four hour show.” As a result is the quality of the sketches is extremely high. “There have been some beautiful numbers throughout the last 24 years that rival anything else on the Strip,” he said.

Still, not all performers are professionals from the vacation corridor. This year featured teen students reprising scenes from a high school production of “Rent” that had caused local controversy among some conservative parents.

What makes the continued dedication by performers and the success of “Ribbon of Life” each year so much more remarkable is that the face of the disease has changed; the health conscious, generally informed performers of Vegas are less likely than in past years to be directly affected by the disease. According to Hunter, “The face of the disease has changed so much since we started. These kids in the show now don’t know. They are so lucky.”

Still, performers responded. Katie Currow, 31, a showgirl in “Jubilee!” has managed to find time in her schedule to appear for three out of the last five years: “Whenever I can make it work I am here. It is an important cause. It is a great benefit.”

And, over the years “Ribbon of Life” has developed a fan base of powerful members of the Vegas entertainment community. This year among the audience, for example, was Siegfreid. According to Hunter, “Entertainers love to be on stage and they know this is an audience that can give them work on top of the good cause.”

One person who may be noticed is Andre Castin, a dancer in “Viva Elvis,” who choreographed 11 of his fellow cast members in a sexy dance to Muse’s “Uprising.” Castin said: “I really wanted to create something different and so I made a piece about being able to just live.”

This year, before heading off for their day jobs, performing up and down the Strip, the show kids, raised $175,000 for Golden Rainbow to help people with HIV/AIDS in Las Vegas do just that: live.