When comedian Shayma Tash moved from LA to Las Vegas in 2008, the first regular gig she landed was opening for the Amazing Johnathan.
“He could make anything fun. We’d do the show and then go out as a group, the whole [crew] and the producers, and we’d have a blast,” she says. “Even if we were at some diner late at night, he’d find a way to make some game out of it, and we’d laugh our asses off the whole time. It was the best time of my life.”
The comedy world has suffered too many significant losses this year, including Louie Anderson, Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Saget. The Amazing Johnathan died on February 22 in Las Vegas after a long battle with a heart condition. He was 63.
Tash says she was able to see him in his final days and recalls how doctors initially gave him two years to live, but it ended up being closer to seven. “He lived life to the fullest. There’s literally no one on the planet you can compare to him, such an individual.”
These days, Tash can be seen onstage in Fantasy at Luxor, the long-running female revue she started working with in 2009. She alternates with Laugh Factory headliner Murray Sawchuck to provide comic relief during the sexy spectacular, a very different experience than touring comedy clubs across the country or doing stand-up on cruise ships.
“One of the main things for me is the fact that I get to wear an evening gown. If I want to wear something sexy, as a female comic, that’s not always the most comfortable thing to do—not for me, but for audiences,” she says. “I think it’s changing, but audiences … historically put women in a certain category. When you do comedy, you’re supposed to be quirky, not sexy. But this show is giving me the opportunity to express both sides of myself in the same show, which is incredibly unique.”
Striking that balance has always been important to Tash’s comedy style. She has done a lot of all-female touring shows through the years, including the well-known Pretty, Funny Women.
She spent some time working with Carrot Top in her early Vegas days and eventually connected to Fantasy, since those shows share the same theater. She recently rejoined the production after the pandemic stalled her other projects.
“Job security is very important for a comedian,” she says. “There are a lot of people like me who have been in the business 20 years and don’t know where the next gig is going to come from. Being involved with something that is so well-established and is not going anywhere, that’s how I was able to set down roots.”
Plus, she loves working with women. “That’s something I think is a misconception about an all-female show or all-female anything, that women can’t work well together,” Tash says. “I’ve always found it to be the opposite. These women are fun, caring, attentive and supportive.”
FANTASY Monday-Saturday, 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8 & 10:30 p.m. Luxor, 702-262-4400, luxor.mgmresorts.com.
