Living Las Vegas

Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

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“Fear and Loafing in Las Vegas”

Since last November, I’ve actually been getting to like Monday mornings. Well, actually it’s only Monday morning’s Review-Journal I’ve been enjoying, because I know that’s when the Living section will be featuring a story by Corey Levitan.

Most journalists follow the revered practice of staying outside the stories they report on. Not Corey. He jumps in with both feet at a minimum, and usually his entire body — sometimes even in drag. That’s because each week, he takes on a different job around the valley, actually becoming a Dolly Parton impersonator, a dog groomer, a Chippendale’s dancer, a bingo caller, a day trader, a — well you get the idea. Corey tries his mightiest to fill the borrowed shoes (or bra), and then goes home to do what he’s actually good at — write about it.

I first saw Corey in the flesh one Monday night at the Bootlegger’s Celebrity Karaoke. He sang an Elvis song — not half badly — and I gave him a “thumbs up” on his way out the door. It turned out he was rehearsing for his one-night stand as an Elvis impersonator, having convinced Steve Connolly to share his stage. I was impressed that he actually took the time and made the effort to rehearse, because up to then, I figured that he didn’t really mind if things went badly. If he tripped, squawked, or got the hook, well, that’s just more funny material to write about, right?

Well, not quite, I learned when I caught up with Corey at a gospel church in North Las Vegas last week. He was there to rehearse with the Gastons, a group set to perform at the Gospel Brunch the following Sunday at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. They had agreed to let Corey sing one number with them, and they were even going to provide him with a robe.

Inside the church, while the Gastons set up their instruments, I got a chance to chat with Corey. Originally from Long Island, New York, he came to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, where he was a reporter with the Daily Breeze. It was at the Breeze that Corey first came up with the idea of putting himself into a story. “It was for the opening of a nude ranch,” he said. “A dude ranch?” I asked. “No, a nude ranch. A nudist colony. I had the idea that I should cover it, well, in the nude. I was thinking — my embarrassment would be so great to write about.” The story ran, a couple of Corey’s photographs became wildly popular screensavers in the Breeze’s newsroom, and his editor said, “This is a great idea for a series.”

And that’s how “Adventures with Corey,” which is what the series was called while he was still at the Breeze, came to be. When he moved to the Review-Journal last fall, the column got a hip new name: “Fear and Loafing in Las Vegas.”

As soon as the Gastons were ready, Corey joined them at the front of the church for a run-through of his number, “This Little Light of Mine.” I don’t know who chose the song, but it couldn’t have been more apropos. For starters, Corey’s not tall. In fact, he’s even written a book called The Napoleon Code: The Short Guy’s Guide to Life. Secondly, when he started bouncing around the sanctuary, I was reminded of that dancing candlestick in “Beauty and the Beast.” Thirdly, it’s an easy song, which is good because gospel music is virgin territory for Corey. He’s Jewish and doesn’t have a childhood background in “Jesus Loves Me” music to draw from.

The rehearsal ended up costing Corey two bucks, because the Gastons have a big glass jar, and anybody who makes a mistake gets fined a dollar. But only two flubs — I didn’t think that was half bad for somebody who’d never gone to Sunday school.

On Sunday, I headed over to the House of Blues to take in the second half of Corey’s adventure — the serious part, the part that would be captured by a photographer from the Review-Journal. This was hardly tough duty for me — the Gospel Brunch features a few hundred tons of down-home southern food and a show that encourages you to burn some of it off.

Although the Gastons, who are wonderful musicians, deserve a lot of the credit for Corey’s successful stint as a gospel singer, he definitely earned his own applause, too. He looked even more like a cute dancing candlestick in the bright blue high school graduation-style gown the Gastons loaned him, and he bounced right down into the audience singing, “Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!” At the end of the show, hostess Sylvia St. James “outed” him as a newspaper reporter, but I had the feeling most of the audience didn’t care in the slightest. The show was over, and they were too busy hiding burps behind their red napkins and checking their pockets for Tums. (Here are videos of Corey’s House of Blues debut and other adventures.)

Monday morning, I barely looked at the headlines before pulling out the Living section. I knew the gospel singer story wouldn’t be there yet, but I also knew I was guaranteed something else equally entertaining. Corey does 52 “Fear and Loafing” pieces a year, a pace that makes me tired just to think about it. “I spend twelve hours on an adventure,” he says, “because that’s all the time I have.” “Fear and Loafing” stories are only part of his work for the paper.

This week’s adventure was Corey’s one-day tenure as a “corrections trainee,” which pretty much meant he did a shift as a full-on prison guard. I am impressed enough that a guy who successfully passed for a seventh grader when he was nearly 40 was brave enough to be a bounty hunter for a day. But a prison guard! Damn! Corey obviously wasn’t kidding when he said, “I’m a chicken, but I’ll pretty much do anything but heroin and homosexuality.”

Now that I’ve watched Corey make a wholehearted stab at singing gospel and read about his day at the Southern Desert Correctional Center, I have a much better understanding of why he said, “I don’t buy into the journalistic objectivity thing.” Just because an observer is standing on the sidelines doesn’t mean that he has no bias. And just because Corey Levitan is willing to come eyeball to navel with a convicted felon in a violent mood, it doesn’t mean he can’t accurately report what it’s like. In fact, he’s the only reporter who can even come close. By actually becoming the subject of his stories, he’s a couple steps beyond “embedded.”

It’s probably just as well that few reporters have the desire and the nerve — not to mention the singing talent — to follow Corey’s lead. I’m not sure Norm Clarke in drag would sell papers. But Corey Levitan in a blue satin robe — somehow that works. I’m just hoping Las Vegas is enough to keep him interested for a good long time. It’s a promising sign that he’s buying a house here, and he isn’t even close to running out of quirky jobs to try. I’m looking forward to finding out what it’s like to be a living statue at the Venetian and work at a Las Vegas car wash. The latter conjures an odd image when I think about it. I keep seeing a little guy in a blue robe dancing around a limo singing, “Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!”

What's it like to live in Las Vegas? You'll find answers here! Living Las Vegas features news and views from nine local writers who call Southern Nevada home.