What used to be "The Joint" at Hard Rock is no more! Meet Chas Smith who detailed the brand new venue that has some amazing shows coming up soon.
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00:00We have no words, really, honestly. I mean, between the property and the theater itself,
00:04like this property has come full circle and we're excited to get as many people to get down here
00:10and see it and enjoy it as possible. Absolutely. Well, I want to make sure one thing. Tell us
00:15about your role in the theater. Like, why are we talking to you today? Oh, who doesn't want to talk
00:20to me? That's why. Because you make such a, you have so much involvement in the theater and what
00:25you guys do here every day. So tell us a little bit about what you do. Yeah. So I'm the general
00:29manager of the theater. So basically we have a talent buyer that goes out and buys the talent.
00:35Yeah. Once that talent is acquired, then they pass the contracts off to me and my team. And then we
00:41go ahead and produce those shows. Right. Make them the spectacular events that they are. There's so
00:45many great events coming up at the theater, but I want to know from your perspective, all the acts
00:52are going to be great, but which one are you most excited for to have? I'm actually, I'm excited about
00:56these young guys, these Rex Orange County guys. Really? Like I, I, it's something completely out
01:01of my wheelhouse, completely out of my genre. But you know, again, being, being an inclusive,
01:06uh, and doing as much diversity as we can, as far as our broadcasting, I think it's going to be a
01:12really exciting show for us in the property. Now for my locals who have, you know, been around Las
01:16Vegas for a while, we knew the theater as the joint. Oh yeah. And you've been all about it since
01:22it was the joint, right? I was with the hard rock for 20 plus years, all in entertainment. And they
01:27kept you around to create what we have created here in Virgin Hotel. This is incredible. What is
01:31the, you know, when I step into the theater for a show, am I going to get joint vibes? Is it the
01:35same? Is it different? No, which is really cool. And again, I'm glad you brought that up because we,
01:40we, we, AEG put about $7 million into the theater. So we have upgraded a lot of the VIP amenities. We
01:47have upgraded a lot of the aesthetics of the theater. It's just, you, you will get the, you
01:52know, it has the shape of it still, but the color tones, the patterns, the decor completely different.
01:59The VIP process and the program is absolutely amazing. Well, I was thinking the same thing with
02:05what you guys have done here with the hotel and casino. It's like the shape is like the only thing
02:09that really is familiar to me. Everything else is completely rebranded and redone. So we know of
02:15the acts and people can go check them out on the website as well and book their tickets there. But
02:19do you have any upcoming announcements, any breaking exclusives you can give me now? Oh,
02:24we don't have any of the top secret ones yet. I was told I would get breaking news. I ran it up
02:30the food chain. I really did. I did. I was sworn to secrecy. Well, I understand that. But if people
02:35want, are we, we can follow on Instagram, correct? That's where I get a lot of my information. We
02:41were just talking about the shag room and all of the great stuff you've done with the open mic
02:44nights and all of that. Now for the theater, I am so excited because I have yet to see a show at
02:50the rebranded theater. Oh, wow. You're missing out. I know. You're missing out. We got to get you in
02:54there. Well, the timing could not have been better with things wrapping up. You know, we're, we're past
02:58the COVID, we're past the mask wearing. So now we can like openly feel comfortable going out and
03:03being together. So it is, it is so good to see and have people coming back and just seeing their
03:08smiling faces, talking to them, asking them questions about the theater, how they enjoy the
03:14experience. And it's been nothing but positive feedback. So you've obviously committed your life
03:18to being in entertainment for you. You know, when you had that first show back, when you saw that
03:23first act take the stage, did you get choked up a little bit? Absolutely. Because that's
03:27like, absolutely. It was something that we were all waiting for. You know, entertainment was one
03:33of the last businesses to come back online. And, you know, once we knew what we had, and we had
03:38shows actually confirming, we all got really excited and actually start having the conversations
03:43with the bands and the agents. Just to put on that first show was to have people come through
03:49our doors again, made it all worthwhile. I was gonna say, were you cautious at first? Because I feel
03:53like we had so many like, oh, are we coming back? Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. We didn't get too
03:58excited until we actually opened the doors. And we knew our artist was in the building. We are in
04:02here. Yeah. The fans are here. It's like one way or the other. Somebody's getting on that stage at
04:06this point, and they're gonna perform. And now, do you come from any sort of performance background
04:10yourself? I don't, actually. So what got you into the field of putting on amazing shows here at
04:16Virginia Tech? Oh, wow. It goes back to like my high school days, honestly. Really? Yeah, I was in a theater arts
04:20program. And all the kids in my school were all like the guys who wanted to be on stage and the girls
04:25who wanted to be up on stage. Right. I wanted to be the guy doing the lighting or the sound. That's so neat.
04:31So I followed that path, went into the military for a few years, and then I picked up after that and got a
04:37really cool job running a spotlight in Hawaii. That's so neat. Had a show out there. And then everything kind of
04:43rolled. And now here you are running the show here in Las Vegas. That is so special. Now, I did theater
04:48in high school. I was on the performance side. If I would have guessed what you did in high school,
04:52I would have said football. Sorry. You're just a big, fit guy. And if you looked at me, you'd say
04:58like, you know, it's a chess team. No, no. But this is what I love about performance is anybody who has
05:04a passion for it, you found it just on a lighting board. Absolutely. Just getting excited about being on
05:09the stage crew when you were, what, 15? Yeah. And now here you are making a living out of it.
05:13Yes. It's one of those things, again, it fuels you. It's something, if it's a passion and you
05:18want to go for it, it's so easy to do and it's very fulfilling. I love it. And I always recommend,
05:24now this is like my secret inside, every time I go see a show, I always go on the website to see if
05:29I can stay at the hotel that night. Okay. Because that's like, that's how you get the ultimate
05:33experience. Because when you look at a place, a location like this, you're not just going to go to the
05:37theater and then leave. There's so many places to get food. There's so many places to go after the
05:42theater. The bar scene is always hopping, whether it's before or after the show. So I know you're
05:47directly involved with the theater, but is there something in on the property that you're like,
05:52that's my spot when I'm not working at the theater? That's the Shag Room. Yeah. The Shag Room is
05:56amazing. It's just one of a kind in this town. And again, when we get three, 4,000 people coming
06:01through the theater and then afterwards you go down, you can either take the band down there. We do a
06:06little after show get together or whatever it is. The place is just jumping. It's a great vibe.
06:12I never thought about that, where the acts go after they perform. Because they're in Vegas.
06:17They want to have fun. Yeah. And we want to keep them on property. Right. Of course.
06:21We want to push this property and get this property going. So yeah, we do our best to do after show or
06:27pre-show events that are actually on the property. So in your time at the joint, what was your favorite
06:31show you guys put on here? Oh, wow. That would be Metallica. Oh my gosh. 2003, New Year's Eve.
06:37That's insane. That was to me just one show that I'll never forget as long as I live. Wow. And for
06:43you, you know, we talked about what's going on with the theater. I'm just really excited to get back
06:47out there. Everybody, locals, come on down. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. It's because of guys like Chaz
06:52Smith and your entire team. Oh, absolutely. Can't do it without Scott Tabura and the team and all the
06:57guys. Oh, that's awesome. Chaz, thank you so much for joining. Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate
07:01you. All right.