18th birthday, to get my first professional puppet and was walter. gave it to me on my 18th birthday and winston is my close second. [ applause ] charles from vegas? this one is for rita. i heard, you are so buiflt but i heard you were a wall flower. is that true? yes. [ laughter ] i just wanted to do this before i talk. people ask me if i was the class clown, i wasn t. i was very shy but i was the class anesthesiologist. we don t believe that? i never wanted to be a comedian. i was in therapy and i forgot
time. but, you know, when we talk about gaming, the truth is, las vegas is no longer the center of the gaming industry, that s wall street. that s what they re doing there. you may not have realized it, but wall street has replaced las vegas as the gambling center, because what s really gone on on wall street is not so much that we have a money problem, but we ve got an ethical issue, with people who no longer believe that investing is investing in the tangible values of goods and services, but people who believe in betting on what a good or service may be worth in the future. it s completely changed what wall street is all about and guess who hasn t kept an eye on it? washingtons. you know why? because of the collusion between washington and wall street in this access of power. and here is what s really the ultimate irony of it all, the president has come twice to vegas to raise campaign cash,
is considered tradition did al tourism. absolutely. i think vegas we can be blamed for something. for instance, i think the restaurants, some of them are great, but they are too expensive. we want to this one, they didn t have prices on the menu and because the faces were different expressions of horror. [ laughter ] i think some of the crowd has been to that restaurant. i do think this is wake-up call for vegas to get back where we were. we were affordable vacations to people in america. it once was the gaming industry subsidize add lot of things like food and lodging because people did more of the gaming. is that part of the reason why we have seen a shift? i think wall street has a lot to answer for it. wanting to make money out of
reason that people should come to las vegas and be a part of this live entertainment that s so prevalent here? vegas is pa place where you can really leave everything behind and just become, just let out the child. it really is. it s a place where you can come out and have a lot of fun and forget about the worries and troubles. and i m here. yeah. woo. and if you want tickets to terry s show at the mirage, order them early because i m it willing you, there s a long line. it s a great show. it s definitely worth coming to vegas for and i hope people will. rita, i ve got to ask you, why should people come to las vegas. because we re always inventing something new about ourselves and every time you come there ll be something different except we have a ballet company now. it s topless, but it s a ballet company. woo! (applause) so for the first time, there are going to be men who want to go to the ballet. that s it.
(laughter) we are awe down yeah. yeah. [applause] all right, terry, let me ask you. i can t top that. i sure can, i m tossing to you. the president s comments about don t go to vegas, were you personally a little offended that he took vegas on. . were a lot of cities across the country, but he picked on vegas. of course i was. it s ridiculous, why didn t he say, don t go to miami. we re in tough times and don t go to miami or or chicago, it s ridiculous. and it s true, why take on vegas, vegas is when i heard him say it i thought did he really just say that? doesn t he understands he s the president of an entire country and there that he just did something that he s going hurt part of the country. and what about the people in