Modified On January 12, 2006
Olympia, the young lady who cheerfully checked us in at the front desk of the Borgata apologetically warned us that there might be construction noise, audible from our room from 8 AM to 3 PM. Sure enough, there are a pair of pile drivers, that collaborate on a bizarre percussion riff every so often, visible just outside our 14th floor window. The Borgata has a lot of money jingling in its pocket and they’ve decided to expand their convention space. After that’s done, the word on the street is that they’ll build a second tower to match the first. And the other word on the street is that MGM will break ground on a mega resort next door to this one.
While we were on the treadmill yesterday, the crawl at the bottom of CNN stated that annual A.C. casino revenue for ’06 was up double digits over last year. Things have never been better here in “America’s Playground.” Nor has there ever been more comedy.
Don Gavin, John Knight and Joe Bronzi are at the Comedy Stop at the Trop (at least accordig to their website). Jackie Kashian and Eric Tartaglione are at the Catch A Rising Star at the Resorts Hotel-Casino. (This we know for sure, owing to a visit to the Borgata green room last night by Tartaglione himself.) And The Male Half of the Staff is sharing the bill with John DiCrosta and Paul Bond at the Borgata. Andrew Dice Clay will be here Saturday night and it’s already sold out. That same night, Bill Cosby will be at the House of Blues at the Showboat.
Over the next few weeks, Mario Cantone is coming to the Borgata, as is Bill Maher. Rich Jeni will be a the Trump Marina. And we’re pretty sure we saw a billboard on the way into town heralding the arrival of Comedy You Can’t Refuse,” which, according to their press release, “sprinkles some music in with a heaping helping of comedy, is headlined by Michael Imperioli, who plays Christopher Moltisanti, Steve R. Schirripa (Bobby “Baccala” Baccalieri), Vince Curatola (Johnny “Sack” Sacramoni) and John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco).”