Entertainment

Five thoughts: Cesar Millan’s August 15 performance at the Pearl

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One of Cesar Millan’s recent pack additions, Junior, made an appearance on the Pearl stage during Millan’s Leader of the Pack show Friday, August 15.

1. Time management was definitely an issue on this night. Cesar Millan's show, Leader of the Pack, was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. but was more than 30 minutes late. A gentleman wearing a headset came on instead, informing the crowd that this show was being filmed for an upcoming episode of Millan’s Nat Geo Wild show. So for what seemed like an eternity, the audience was made to do the following things on cue: applaud, laugh and giggle, as well as express shock, surprise, “amazing” and “half as amazing.” At the beginning, there was nervous laughter. Toward the end, not so much. “Start the show!” one impatient audience member eventually shouted.

2. What does anyone want to see when they go to a Cesar Millan show? Dogs! Unfortunately, it was a full 43 minutes before the first dog made an appearance—a very excitable boxer puppy. Cesar corrected the problem in just under a minute, after which he wished the owner “good luck” as the dog gets older and bigger. He would end up using his unique talents on several more “problem” dogs. In each case, not only did he correct the animal’s behavior, he told the owners what they were doing wrong (it usually involved body language).

3. Cesar was truly the Vegas entertainer on this night, displaying a high level of energy, twerking, moving around the stage like a cat and dancing like James Brown (or trying to, anyway). And he had several pretty good one-liners. Two especially well-observed moments concerned the differences between his native Mexico and America. On giving our pets doggie Prozac: “In Mexico, we may have a drug problem, but our dogs are drug-free.” On how we pamper our dogs: “You put the dogs in strollers, but you put your kids on a leash.”

4. And back comes the time management issue. For some inexplicable reason, a 10-minute intermission was added to what should have been a two-hour show. Headset guy urged as many as possible to stay in their seats during intermission (then why have it?), but of course no one did, and the show didn’t start back up until everyone was in their seat—resulting in a 23-minute break.

5. Of course, no one seemed to mind once Cesar came back on stage, roller-blading with three dogs he’d gotten from a local shelter two days prior. He announced that two of them were up for adoption—he’d adopted the third dog, and in honor of the occasion named him “Vegas.”

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Ken Miller

Ken Miller is the editor of Las Vegas Magazine, having previously served as associate editor at Las Vegas Weekly, assistant ...

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