Noteworthy: Sandoval as husband material, McCartney recalls radio career, and Handler paints The Colosseum blue

It has been a while since I’ve blogged in anger. Blame Wayne Newton and Carrot Top, and the massive multimedia projects we’ve been cutting loose in the Sun and Las Vegas Weekly lately. A profile on the Topper, who recently signed a contract extension to keep him at Luxor’s Atrium Showroom through 2015, is the cover story of the new L.V. Weekly (here is the Weekly online version).

The magazine is out Thursday morning, and the online versions on both the Weekly and Sun sites will incorporate the assorted bells and whistles appropriate for a story about one of the country’s foremost prop comics. We’ve got your video, we've got your time-lapse photography, we've got your photo galleries, we've got your 360-degree panoramic views of Topper's gadget-laden dressing room narrated by the comic himself. A version of the piece also appears Friday in the Sun's print edition. And I’ll be flying across the city, piloting an old bi-plane pulling excerpts of the story on a long sign behind me. I’ll even call random Las Vegans and read the story aloud over the phone, because I am all about service to the readers.

Having spent many hours with Scott Thompson (his offstage name) over the past few weeks, I’ll just say I think the guy is brilliant. He’s been an easy punch line over the years, yes, and sometimes you look at him and go, “Whoa.” But his act is terrifically imaginative, always morphing and changing to the comic’s countless whims. One line that always kills me is when a drunk woman walks up to him and says, “You look like that guy Carrot Top -- no offense!”

I’ve not been around too many people with C.T.’s relentless comedic thought process. You’ll be interested in what he (and his parents) has to say about his upbringing and comic development. His is quite a tale, and I’ll be blogging more about Carrot Top later this week. So, be looking forward to that.

But for now, I’ve got to get these notes processed before they expire:

Brian of the Schmooze

Led along by former Gov. Bob List, Republican candidate for governor Brian Sandoval worked the room last Thursday at the Nevada Cancer Institute’s “Rock for the Cure” event at The Mirage. Though the event was not a political fundraiser, Sandoval showed that he’s a highly engaging sort who is still accepting the sometimes tawdry but necessary function of using charm to raise cash. He shared a story about that process when he recently visited the home of an elderly woman living in North Las Vegas, who invited him into her living room and listened politely as he made his case to unseat Jim Gibbons in Carson City. As Sandoval said, “She said, ‘Well, I’m a life-long Democrat, so I would never vote for you, but I’d let you marry my daughter.’ ”

Also in on the conversation was “Jersey Boys” star Rick Faugno, who suggested the cast at the Palazzo production arrange for some sort of “Vote for Brian Sandoval” number. Faugno had not heard Sandoval tell the house-visit story and asked the former District Court judge if he was a Democrat. “Republican!” Sandoval said, grinning. “We’ll have to think about it, then,” Faugno said.

McCartney rocks

Planet Hollywood President Tom McCartney is maintaining his upbeat disposition in the face of relentlessy troubling financial reports. During the “Rock the Cure” event, he talked of his days decades ago as disc jockey at an FM station serving the Poconos in Pennsylvania. He went by “Thomas John McCartney” and remembers making $2.50 an hour. That was a point of controversy in the studio when a fellow DJ learned that McCartney, a part-timer, was actually making more per hour than any full-time staffer. Maybe that’s where McCartney gained such a sense of humor about the media.

Chelsea fires it up

I wasn’t in full review mode for Chelsea Handler’s performance at The Colosseum on Saturday night, but if I were, the one-word critique would be nasty. She was off-the-hook blue, baby. Her stand-up act is not for the meek. She makes Dane Cook look like Mr. Rogers. She’s Lenny Bruce with … female equipment. I now know more than even Judy Blume about how, why and where a woman masturbates.

While seeking to fill open dates after Bette Midler ends her two-year residency in January, AEG Live will be booking more one-nighters from comedians (ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is headlining Dec. 11-12). Those at The Colosseum say they would love to have Handler return, even as there are no immediate plans for her to be back in Vegas. But her show sold really well (I had it about three-quarters full), and she is said to be great fun to work with. Just brace yourself for some really combustible material. Numbing advice about how to deal with a mother who won’t quiet her 4-year-old kid, for instance.

Quiz!

What do Twisted Sister, Wynonna and Andy Williams have in common (answer in the next sentence)? All are performing Christmas-themed shows in December at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Hanging chads?

The voting results of New York-New York’s staged (yet suspenseful beyond belief) competition between Vinny Red and Vinny Blue was supposed to be announced Monday but has been pushed back to next Monday. No official reason why, but maybe the ballots were sent off to Afghanistan or Florida or some other election-challenged locale. For those not following this event with “Dancing With the Stars”-style fervor, this is a contest to select the new spokesman for New York-New York. They could have chosen Vinnie Paul of Pantera and been just fine, to my thinking.

As it is, the two contestants about evenly split their respective competitions, which included a hot dog-eating contest, an Irish jig dance-off, a game of trivia and cliff-diving in Acapulco (kidding). According to contest rules, each competitor earned bonus votes for each win. Actual, hard ballots have accounted for the remainder of the vote tally, whatever that is.

The contest has been spiced by comments by Vinny Blue -- whose off-contest name is Tom Cassell -- who trashed his former production, “Soprano’s Last Supper,” at Tropicana. His comments that the show was “lousy” irked the current cast, which by glad coincidence includes Vinny Red (Jon Raniola). Don’t know if that dust-up hurt or helped Vinny Blue’s chances, but I cast my ballot for third-party candidate … Vinny Nader.

Notes from a lighting

For all the years I’ve lived in Las Vegas, having moved here from Chattanooga with Darlene and the tribe back in ’56, I’ve not attended an Ethel M Cactus Garden lighting ceremony until last night. George Wallace, Zowie Bowie, bluesman Michael Grimm and Mosaic were the featured stars helping plug in the holiday season.

The event was a stunning, uplifting, can’t-avert-your-eyes experience … and that was just Marley Taylor.

About a half-million lights decorate the garden (counting them for verification was a real pain, actually), and the scene is really something to behold. Honestly, with a family rooted in Idaho, where we’ve always enjoyed Christmases as white as Pat Boone, touring hundreds of holiday-decorated cacti is a genuinely unique experience. It’s different, but hey, it’s home.

Wallace is sort of a year-round Santa for all the promotions he offers to his shows at Flamingo Las Vegas. His latest: Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 12, he’s offering a free ticket to any guest at his show who brings two new, unwrapped toys for his annual holiday toy drive. Tickets can be redeemed through Dec. 19, and the donation point is at the Flamingo Showroom (look for the Donny & Marie kiosk, or just ask Bert, the security guy at the entrance, and he’ll be glad to help). Donations benefit HELP of Southern Nevada, which furnishes toys to an estimated 10,000 families in the Las Vegas Valley each year.

A note from Goodwill

I learned something about Goodwill during this week’s episode of “Our Metropolis,” the 30-minute talk show I baby-sit each Tuesday at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM. There are certain items Goodwill will not accept as donations. Firearms, for example. Seriously, as spokeswoman Kathy Topp said, people have attempted to donate “gently used” firearms to the center. But it’s still a great place to shop for, or donate, kitchenware and end tables.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.