Wanted: One funny, sexy emcee to hang out with Channing Tatum and host a revolutionary new Las Vegas male revue by the name of Magic Mike Live. Requirements: Lots of experience performing and teaching improv and sketch comedy.
That might not make a lot of sense, but when you see Lyndsay Hailey do her thing in the sizzling new show at the Hard Rock Hotel, it will. An alumna of the Second City National Touring Company, the Richmond, Virginia, native has taught acting and improv workshops in 10 different countries. Las Vegas and Magic Mike were definitely a change of pace, for which Hailey was well-prepared.
“I’d never seen a job description before that so captured all the confusing assets of me in one job title,” she jokes. “But I did have to do a fair amount of research. We are trying to create something really rooted in the female perspective ... a knowingness of what a woman feels is sexy versus the male interpretation of what that might be. Channing is wise in that way, because he doesn’t pretend to be a woman with those answers. He lets his female directors and choreographers and writer tell him, and we go from there.”
That perspective has established the show as a unique entertainment option in Las Vegas, and Hailey’s background provides a major assist. “I go in phases between teaching and performing, and teaching has taught me that comedy is in the truth of things. Time and time again I’ve watched students try to be funny and it doesn’t work, but when they access the truth the entire room would be laughing.”
The Vegas newcomer has already found there’s more to her new home than the showbiz world and the wild stories she’s accumulating observing the Magic Mike audience. Hailey is looking to connect with the entertainment community on a deeper level and help develop the Vegas improv scene, and she has already launched a production company with some of her castmates.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to some really crazy stuff happening at these shows,” she says. “But yeah, it seems like Vegas has got me. I don’t know how it happened, and I never saw it coming.”
