The Captain’s Travels: Las Vegas – Day 2 – A Wild Dragon Appears!

Oops. I made a mistake. When preparing to go to bed last night, I closed the heavy blackout curtains completely. Those are some really great curtains, because when my alarm went off in the morning to ensure I was up in time to meet my family for breakfast, I thought for certain I’d done something wrong, because it didn’t look a minute past 3am in my room. Nope! It was 9:30 already.

I regret that I didn’t get pictures of the food.

I joined my family downstairs for breakfast (though it was closer to brunch by the time we all met up). My sister was familiar with and recommended one of the restaurants in the hotel – Mon Ami Gabi – and she was right. The giant bowls of cappuccino were well-prepared and delicious, as were my bananas foster waffles.

After breakfast, my sister and her boyfriend split off to do their own thing (as they would do for the majority of the rest of the trip), and my parents and I hit up the Tix4Tonight booth in the Bally’s Grand Bazaar. My dad recognized a comedian from America’s Got Talent in the list: Piff the Magic Dragon. I’d never heard of him, but my dad insisted he was good, so we got tickets for that tonight and Anthony Cools the for the following night. I also convinced him to join me for a VR adventure later in the trip – more on that later!

My dad is a huge Elvis fan – YUUUUGE – and it was complete happenstance when we stumbled upon Elvis’s star in the sidewalk. Of course I had to get a photo of my dad with it.

Classic Elvis lip curl and all.

The rest of the day prior to the show was spent donating more money to the destitute casinos in the vicinity, after which I decided I was uncomfortable with the rate at which I was losing money and vowed that the next day would be “gambling-free”. We did make a quick stop at Beer Park for brews and a bite beforehand though, and I met with another friend of mine I’ve known since I was a kid who was coincidentally in Vegas at the same time with his girlfriend. It was a pretty decent experience, even if the atmosphere was on the louder side – which, considering it’s an outdoor, open-wall venue, is pretty impressive.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for…

I super believe in you Tad Cooper!

I entered the show with zero expectations – good or bad – and I was pleasantly surprised. Piff’s comedic delivery is wonderfully understated, and his magic tricks often intentionally fizzle out to great comedic effect to lower your expectations before a successful one. Here, just have a look:

See what I mean? A true master of the understated dry wit and lowering expectations.

We met “Piff” and “Mr. Piffles” after the show, and I got to hold the puppy!

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