Circus action with Incredible Shrinking Jeff Beacher atMGM and Flying Wallenda at Caesars

Steve Marcus

2014 Miss Nevada Ellie Smith performs the national anthem during the Clark County RepublicanParty Lincoln Day Dinner on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, at the Orleans. Former Florida Gov. JebBush spoke at the event.

By John Katsilometes (contact)

Published Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | 4:02 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | 7:46 p.m.

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is bracing for a barnburner of a weekend, though the actualburning of a barn seems not in the offing.

First off, the Miss Nevada America and Miss Nevada Outstanding Teen competitions are thisweekend for the first time at Reynolds Hall in the Smith Center for the Performing Arts. The MissOutstanding Teen Pageant is set for 7 p.m. Friday; Miss Nevada is 2 p.m. Saturday (for tickets, hitthe Smith Center website ticket link. Dana Martin, a Miss Texas America and wife of Smith CenterPresident Myron Martin, is a member of the Miss Nevada Board of Directors.

I am honored, and a little anxious, to be serving as one of the judges for this year's pageants. Havingcovered all of the Miss America Pageants at Planet Hollywood from 2006-2013, I well understandhow much pressure these contestants experience during the competition and how much work is

required to reach the state finals. It's an enormous honor to contribute to this pageant.

Elsewhere, I'll be rambling around Caesars Palace, the Venetian (for Human Nature's sound checkexperience), T Spot in Tuscany Suites and Golden Rainbow Ribbon of Life set for 1 p.m. Sunday atTropicana Theater. More on that fundraiser in an upcoming column; tickets are $45 and available atthe Tropicana website).

Meantime, let's rake some column matter:

o In column writing, as in fashion, sometimes it's best to start with the accessories.

Thus, we have caught up with the Jewelers of Las Vegas and the sparking adornments set aside forboxing champ and noted rich person Floyd Mayweather Jr. The undefeated pugilist and famousfashion plate is reportedly still pondering the purchase of a $16 million timepiece and matchingnecklace procured for him by Leor Yerushalmi, son of company founders Mordechai and VickiYerushalmi and a top exec in the family business. This set was made available to Mayweather inApril as he finished training for his May 2 bout with Manny Pacquiao at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Similar to an opponent who has been poleaxed by a Mayweather combination, this set of jewelry isstaggering. The watch is part of a set that involves a diamond cross and matching necklace madeentirely of 3-karat diamonds. The Jewelers staff designed the neckpiece, and the watch is a one-of-a-kind timepiece made by Jacob Co. That piece is called "The Billionaire," as Mayweather's goal(along with retiring undefeated in the ring) is to earn $1 billion in prize money. Mayweather hasmade a few visits to the Jewelers' flagship store but has not yet picked up the set.

As Yerushalmi says, "We have it, and it's his if he wants it."

o Jeff Beacher is looking more and more like a man ready for the beach. The club operator ofBeacher's Madhouse at MGM Grand and an impressively proficient promoter, Beacher has dropped100 pounds since October, from a high of 397 pounds to 295. Beacher is still shedding, too, as twomonths ago he underwent a gastric sleeve procedure, a relatively new variation of gastric bypassthat reduced leaves the stomach as a tube rather than a sack. Beacher also has been dieting andworking out and cut back significantly on his partying lifestyle.

"I basically had a mini-mental breakdown and decided that I had to be healthier for my body and mybrain," Beacher said during a phone conversation today. "I'm doing everything more moderately, ona personal level, and have drank just one time in the past six months. I had been under a lot ofstress, but I am feeling a lot better now."

Beacher said he is not allowed to speak of any reported changes in the productions at Beacher'sMadhouse, where the Jabbawockeez are to reopen their show later this summer with daily 7 p.m.performances. There also is talk of a new production being booked into the space, a 9 p.m. show,but, again, Beacher is not confirming or denying anything.

He's probably on a treadmill somewhere. And wait for more fitness-related news from Beacher bythe end of next week. It's a groovy idea.

o It's not quite true that Lijana Wallenda learned to walk the high wire before she learned to walk onthe ground. But it isn't a stretch to say that by the time she was walking on the ground, she also waswalking the high wire.

Or, more accurately, the low wire.

"There was always a low wire in our backyard 2 to 3 feet off the ground," Wallenda said during thelatest episode of "Kats With the Dish" co-hosted by Tricia McCrone and airing 8 p.m. Friday onKUNV 91.5-FM. "I don't remember how old I was when I started walking the wire."

Wallenda, a seventh-generation member of the legendary Flying Wallendas family of high-wireacrobats, has trained The Frat Pack artists in "Absinthe." She also has appeared as a swingperformer in the production and is to be featured on the wire again Friday night in the "MelodySweets Big Top Circus and Burlesque Show" at the Spiegelworld Tent at Caesars Palace.

The show starts promptly at 11:59 p.m., or thereabouts, and proceeds are to benefit the UNLVCollege of Fine Arts (tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and available at this website.)

Wallenda has taken part in two major high-wire stunts with her similarly adventurous brother, Nik.The two spanned a pair of cranes in Detroit (where Lijana spent 11 minutes longer on the wire thanexpected for a technical malfunction) and walked across Charlotte Motor Speedway before the Bankof America 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup in October 2012.

More recently, on April 29, Nik Wallenda walked along the new Orlando Eye observation wheel inFlorida, the largest such wheel on the East Coast. Wallenda made his way down from the top of thewheel to its center, where he walked along the six-inch "eye" at of the wheel as the attraction slowlyrotated. As Lijana Wallenda noted during the radio interview, Las Vegas does have a comparativelyimpressive observation wheel -- the High Roller at the Linq Promenade, which is more than 100 feettaller that the Orlando Eye, and also happens to be the tallest such wheel in the world.

"(Nik) walked the Orlando Eye recently and broke a world record, and that's the big Ferris wheel

there," Wallenda said. "And I'm like the Linq (High Roller) is taller. I could break his record. We'vegotta get a little sibling rivalry going."

The link to the Linq, and also to great stunts on the Strip, is further reinforced by the fact that theWallenda family was long friendly with Evel Knievel. The motorcycle daredevil performed one of themore famous and astonishing stunts ever when he crashed while clearing the fountains at CaesarsPalace in 1967. Caesars Entertainment owns Caesars Palace and the Linq Promenade, and"Absinthe" is a Caesars Palace show ... this is not so crazy, right?

Smith Center for the Performing Arts The Smith Center for the Performing Arts offers a blend ofperformances by resident companies and touring attractions. The 5-acre cultural campus featuresthree performance spaces, which includes a main performance area with more than 2,000 seats.This downtown cultural center of Las Vegas looks to educate, entertain and excite communitymembers.

361 Symphony Park Ave Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas,

NV 89106

702-749-2000 Caesars Palace

Transport yourself to the opulent and excessive Roman Empire at Caesars Palace. But the ever-changing Caesars Palace is far from ancient. The hotel and casino is constantly raising the bar forwhat visitors can expect in a Vegas resort experience.

Caesars Palace features 3,348 rooms and suites in five towers, including the new luxury boutiqueNobu Hotel and Restaurant, which opened Feb. 4, 2013, in the totally remodeled Centurian Tower.Caesars features 129,000 square feet of gaming space, including the Strip's largest poker room anda 250-seat sports book. Other amenities include about two dozen restaurants, a four-level shoppingmall, four pools, a spa, Pure and Poetry nightclubs and Pussycat Dolls.

Dining options include restaurants from world-renown chefs Guy Savoy, Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay,Gordon Ramsay and, on Feb. 4, 2013, Nobu Matsuhisa.

You never know what characters you'll run into at Caesars with regular performers like JerrySeinfeld, Bette Midler, Elton John and maybe even the emperor himself.

3570 S. Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas,

NV 89109

702-731-7110 Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow "KatsWith the Dish" at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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