X at Flamingo: Intimate, budget-friendly topless act still has bounce

 

 

As for show quality, X is squarely in the middle of the Strip's current offerings. Crazy Horse at the MGM Grand has the most sophisticated and, many say, the most physically perfect showgirls on the Strip; Cirque's Zumanity, at New York New York, is far more edgy and advanced in its exploration of sexuality.
But for raunchy playfulness and erotic daring, X has Crazy Girls beat. It is also more fun than the slightly more traditional and rigorous Fantasy at the Luxor. But the comedian in X is not particularly funny and Fantasy has as a bonus the phenomenal singer Stephanie Jordan. 

 

 

Overall, X has a lot of energy but very little originality.

One number comes from the recently closed "The Producers," and there is a Beatles segment that reminds you that "Love" is in town at the Mirage, and it has too much obligatory Elvis. Chairs and baths are used in the expected ways. Some of the structure is similar to Crazy Horse, and X owner Angela Stabile obviously brought some lessons from her many years as a dancer at Crazy Girls at the Riviera.

The constant in X is Stabile, who, along with her husband, is the producer and owner of X. She is a well-known Vegas fixture.

"My mom is the third butt to the right," says Tiffany Koepp, 24. Koepp is referring to the famous sculpture of the women from Crazy Girls' torsos at the Riviera that tourists to this day love to pose with in photographs. Koepp was in middle school when that advertising campaign came out. By the time her mom had retired from dancing and opened X, Koepp had decided to join the family business: "I was 19 when the show opened in the Aladdin. I was doing wardrobe."

Today she is the company manger for X.

I asked Koepp what it was like growing up in Vegas with a mom working on a major show on the Strip (back then Crazy Girls was far more high-profile, as was the Riviera). She laughed:

 

"First Grade. Mom was a showgirl. Parent day. I knew my mom did not look like the other moms. It always was the same comments about my mom being hot. There was nothing embarrassing. All the boys wanted to come to my house. They had seen my mom advertised on cabs. She helped choreograph a number in my fifth-grade dance show. Then my friends and I would go backstage to Crazy Girls and try on the wigs and outfits."

Since X first opened she has married a lighting designer from a show at Planet Hollywood and she had her first baby four months ago. Koepp decided for herself that behind-the-scenes work was the way to go in Vegas: "I was drafted once onstage in an emergency. I love the glamour of showgirls. But behind the scenes is a lot more fun. I get nervous on stage."

 

As for how growing up around the Vegas Strip affected her, Koepp says, "I love everything about Vegas. I don't think I could ever live anywhere else."

 

The anniversary performance of X finds the show has changed a great deal since I last saw it. The dancing has been improved by the same choreographer who worked on routines for the recently closed Fashionistas. Also, the music has been updated, including M.I.A. and other sounds of more recent vintage than other topless shows on the Strip offer.

For the anniversary performanance, during an audience participation segment, adult star Sunset Thomas was brought on stage by the X dancers and finished the number topless. I would not count on that happening every night.

Overall,  X is stronger now than my previous viewings found the show. But X is not really trying to be the best topless show in Vegas history. Rather, with a small room and a modest budget, X is a show that allows tourists to have fun by providing a surprisingly intimate Vegas topless show experience with all of the standard bases touched at a reasonable price (depending on how you go about getting the tickets).

(Photo of X girls and Tiffany Koepp by Sarah Gerke)