The night is still young when a slight man with silver streaks in his hair quietly drags his personal bed of swords past the blackjack tables and into the Sound Trax Showroom at Palace Station.
"That's our midnight show, Zamora the Torture King," says magician Jeff McBride matter-of-factly, as he stands in front of the showroom welcoming guests to his new nightclub, Wonderground. "He's a faqir, a Middle Eastern holy man who can transcend the human realm. He was on "Ripley's Believe it or Not."
Later in the evening Zamora removes his silk smoking jacket and plunges a sharp skewer through his bicep to the horror and amazement of those in attendance.
"Did you see that!?" asks an excited McBride jumping up from his seat. "That's not an illusion. That's real. Not a drop of blood! It's mind over matter."
As tempting as it may sound, please do not attempt this stunt at home. This is the kind of thing that's best left to the professionals at Wonderground.
Every Friday and Saturday night following McBride's show, Magic at the Edge, the showroom is transformed into a mystical mecca for the weird, wacky and wonderful. Those thirsty for a diversion from the drunken Las Vegas club scene, gather for a magical evening, where velvet ropes and VIP table service give way to sideshow acts, performance art and close-up magic.
Yes, there's cocktail service, a DJ spinning techno music, scantily clad go-go girls and evanescent flashing lights. But there's also a painter putting her brush to a blank easel to create live art, jugglers skillfully traversing the room and balloon twisters blowing life into enormous multicolored, potentially popping sculptures.
While most Las Vegas clubs are specifically designed to help people forget their reality, McBride says Wonderground is built for those who want to remember.
"Our club is an alternative to alternative nightlife," says McBride, an acclaimed magician and director of McBride's Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas. "We offer enlightened nightlife."

More at: http://www.vegas.com/nightclubs/wonderground/

Vegas After Midnight: A Late Night Sideshow

Tim Cridland is the co-author of the book Weird Las Vegas, the latest in the Weird US series from Sterling Publications.
Cridland is not stranger to weirdness. He has been making his living as a sideshow performer for the last 15 years.Using the stage name of Zamora the Torture King, he was an original member of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, which brought its shocking style of classic entertainment to a jaded Generation X crowd in the 1992 Lollapalooza Festival. He formed with his own show and toured across the US and Canada numerous times. His appearances on TV shows like Ripley's TV and Guinness World Records paved the way for TV shows like Fear Factor and Jackass.

He moved to Las Vegas in 2003 as the star performer in the show Shock, which was at the now demolished Bourbon Street Casino. Shock was the first show of its kind in Las Vegas, combing campy comedy with shocking stunts.
After the closure of the Bourbon Street and Shock, Zamora began to work with Haunted Vegas Tours, both as a performer and researcher. This is no surprise to people who have know him for a long time, Zamora published a paranormal themed magazine before he became a professional entertainer.

He was a natural choice to help write the book Weird Las Vegas, the subject matter includes ghost and hauntings, roadside attractions, strange creatures, cemeteries and legends. "Vegas is weirder than you think," says Cridland. "There is information in Weird Las Vegas that will surprise the most jaded locals."

Combining his two interests, Cridland, or rather his stage personality Zamora, has put together a limited runs show, Vegas After Midnight, to celebrate the release of the book Weird Las Vegas.

Vegas After Midnight is a late night bizarre variety show that will run at the back showroom at the Aruba Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. "I want to bring the classic Vegas late night show back, but with a new twist." Says Zamora. "All the best shows in Vegas used to begin at midnight, nowadays all you that is open late night is high priced dance clubs. Vegas After Midnight might change all that."

Zamora promises that you will see all the stunts that people have seen him do in TV, the things that people keep requesting, like walking barefoot on broken glass, swallowing a string and pulling it out of a strange part of his body having concrete building blocks broken on his chest with a sledgehammer. But it is not all shock value. "I could not have been doing this for a living for the last 15 years if I did not make my show fun and entertaining." Says Zamora. I temper the more extreme acts with milder, but equally strange acts. Zamora promises that there will be sex appeal in the show as well. "There will be some beautiful young ladies doing some very strange things..." although Zamora does not go into the details. "...you could have a late night Vegas show without beautiful women, could you?!"

Zamora, or rather his other persona Tim Cridland, will be signing copies of his book Weird Las Vegas after the show.