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And the Scintas Said "Ha!"
By Bobbie Katz
Long ago, the computer industry turned LOL
(laugh out loud) into a standard chat abbreviation
Now the fun-loving Scintas have turned it into the long-term
family business at hand.
“Laugh Out Loud (LOL) with the Scintas,” appearing
nightly in the Shimmer Cabaret at the Las Vegas, is proof
positive that the siblings – Frankie, Joe, Chrissi and
“adopted” Scinta Pete O’Donnell -- are chips
off the old block. Not only do they bring back the type of
up close and personal entertainment value that Las Vegas rarely
sees anymore but they are back in “their space,”
serving up an intimacy that can only be found in a room that’s
like the home page of the Scintas’ professional life..
“We’ve come full circle, having started our Las
Vegas career in this room seven years ago,” says Frankie.
“We’re getting comfortable here again –
it’s starting to feel natural. It’s fantastic.”
 “For
years, we kept running into people that asked us when we were
coming back to the Hilton,” says Pete. “There’s
no feeling like this – we’ve come back.”
Still, after five years at the Rio and a year-and-half at
the Sahara in their own showrooms, the Scintas knew that they
had to come back to the Hilton with a different message --
that they had grown. To that avail, their first thought process
was to hire people out of the box that hadn’t known
them forever and who could reinvent the Scintas. Enter two
British fellows, Andy Walmsley, set designer for TV’s
“American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent”
and “So You Think You Can Dance,” and Steve Parker,
doing business together as Asient Entertainment. In what became
their first foray into the ticketed Las Vegas entertainment
arena, they took on the role of the Scintas’ producers.
Every segment of the sibling act was dissected with the pair
and what couldn’t be defended, was discarded..
“Andy and Steve had heard about us from our executive
assistant Patricia Dockswell and came to see us at the Sahara,”
explains Frankie. “They saw something in us that reminded
them of what entertainment should be. They chose us as the
first act that they would be producing in this country because
they knew they could be proud. They told us what they thought
didn’t work in each section. They wanted the show more
fast-paced and in your face. We write most of what we do and
we also ad-lib on stage – in fact, the show is usually
25-30 percent ad-lib. But overall, this show is a collaboration
of nine people – the four of us, the producers and designers
and our musicians”
“We weren’t going to give Andy and Steve any ideas,”
adds Peter. “We wanted to know their ideas for what
would take us to the next level. We ultimately know what works
for us – we give a full show and we don’t like
to leave any open spaces or wasted time. If we don’t
feel the energy, we know it’s not going to work. Then
they came through with stuff that amazed us.”
It goes without saying that Walmsley and Parker had a lot
to work with. The Scintas are multi-talented and possess great
comedic timing -- both Frankie and Joe sing, do impressions
and play instruments, Chrissi sings, and Pete plays drums
and all join in the humor. The natural three siblings -- Joe
is nine years older than Frankie and Frankie is five years
older than Chrissi – hail from Buffalo, New York, and
have been performing since they were kids. Joe was the renegade
of the family, performing rock music in bands, while Frankie
and Chriss performed in little nightclubs in their hometown,
playing to Middle America. Frankie was 11 at the time and
he brought Chrissi up on the stage for the first time when
she was 6.
“She kicked butt from the beginning,” notes Frankie.
“Chrissi and I performed all around western New York
for many years. Then Joe got out of the rock ‘n’
roll life and began doing some impressions and playing bass.
At 19, I auditioned and got hired as a keyboard player by
the group Joe was playing with and we went to Florida and
then to Hawaii. When the band decided to live in Hawaii, Joe
and I moved back to Buffalo. Family has always come first
with us.”
After helping to put a little place named McGuire’s,
which was owned by NFL color commentary Paul McGuire of the
Buffalo Bills, on the map, the brothers were hired to perform
at the Playboy Club in Buffalo, then owned by a man named
Jimmy Cosentino. This time, they brought Chrissi with them,
The gig opened the door for the siblings to perform in other
Playboy Clubs as well as in various lounges and they began
breaking records wherever they went.
Then, as fate would have it, Pete, who was living in Florida,
decided to come to New York to visit a girl he was dating.
It just so happened that she worked at the resort where the
Scintas were performing. When the Scintas’ drummer informed
them on a Friday that he would be leaving them that Sunday,
they asked Pete to fill in. He agreed to take the gig for
two weeks and ended up never leaving. And, the rest, as they
say, is history, as the four honed an act that accomplishes
its goal on several levels.
“I think the more intimate room, the better situation,”
says Joe, “because we interact better with the audience.
It’s instant gratification. I think what makes our show
work is that the audience feels that they’re part of
the show – we draw them in and their adrenalin pumps
up and they feel like they’re the center of attention.”
“All we want to do is make people feel again,”
Frankie sums up. “I think if you can get to someone’s
funny bone, if you can lift people up and touch them with
laughter and feelings, it opens the door to their hearts.
I’m proud that our show is one of the few in Las Vegas
where there’s a connection with the audience that doesn’t
exist anymore. I feel that our audiences leave with something
because of our connection with them. ”
LOL.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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