The Business of Spectacle: Inside Vegas Entertainment with Damian Costa

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on Damian Costa, a key figure in Las Vegas entertainment, highlighting his journey from leading operations at Caesar's Palace to co-owning Pompei Entertainment, which produces notable venues such as Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club. Through personal insights and experiences, Costa reveals the collaborative spirit and diverse skill set necessary to thrive in the dynamic Las Vegas entertainment industry.

Key takeaways

• In Las Vegas, the glitzy surface often masks the multitude of unseen supporters waiting to help you succeed.
• Acts of kindness are the hidden currency of Vegas; the more you give, the more you gain in unexpected ways.
• Las Vegas thrives on reinvention—each decade a new show, each day a fresh experience; the city's pulse never dulls.
• Memorable events are now about social shout-outs; it's not just fun, it's about broadcasting your exclusive experience.
• The entertainment middle space struggles while extremes expand; innovation is crucial for survival when giants dominate the landscape.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Tommy Mello (Host) · 12 min speaking
• Damian Costa (Guest) · 18 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Pompei Entertainment, Caesars Palace, Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, Susan Dea Costa
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Barnes & Noble, Bob Bogner, Metallica, Phil Ruffin
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, Pompei Entertainment, Area 15
4. 15:00 – 20:00: Nirvana

Notable quotes from "The Business of Spectacle: Inside Vegas Entertainment with Damian Costa"

• Today, he's the co-owner of Pompei Entertainment, the powerhouse behind Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, the Dwamo at the Rio, and the Composer's Room Show Lounge.

  about Pompei Entertainment · at 0:33

• And what it made me think about was Barnes & Noble. So I started studying Barnes & Noles in the late '90s and a lot of great companies came out of that and a lot of them folded like over 80% of the bookstores but the ones that.

  about Barnes & Noble · at 5:39

• Now makes a big impact across the landscape. I've worked directly for Bob Bogner. Bob Bogner was Boyd Gaming.

  about Bob Bogner · at 7:34

• To be a part of those that are creating that industry. You have a number of things off the strip now like Area 15.

  about Area 15 · at 11:19

• Them do? I'm a bigm fan and I don't think they're ever getting back together. So I'm like Nirvana somewhere in that area. Like it would just be fantastic to have that concert…

  about Nirvana · at 18:10

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Susan Dea Costa — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:22
  Damian Costa spent over 10 years leading the entertainment operations at Caesar's Palace. There's certainly a lot of entertainment in Las Vegas and what we're trying to provide is something.
• Bob Bogner — Person · 1 mention · first at 7:38
• Phil Ruffin — Person · 1 mention · first at 8:01
  Collapsed. we suspended that. So, I think those the guys like that and like Steve Win and Phil Ruffin, I think those are the guys that have really set what's in motion right now, those are the guys that I look up to.
• Steve Wynn — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Pompei Entertainment — Company · 4 mentions · first at 0:33
• Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club — Company · 3 mentions · first at 0:36
  Today, he's the co-owner of Pompei Entertainment, the powerhouse behind Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, the Dwamo at the Rio, and the Composer's Room Show Lounge.
• Caesars Palace — Company · 1 mention · first at 0:24
  Damian Costa spent over 10 years leading the entertainment operations at Caesar's Palace. There's certainly a lot of entertainment in Las Vegas and what we're trying to provide is something that is a little bit more personable.
• Barnes & Noble — Company · 1 mention · first at 5:40
• Area 15 — Company · 1 mention · first at 11:22

Concepts & topics

• Metallica — Concept · 1 mention · first at 8:19
  That doesn't have a sound system and terrible acoustics and, put Guns and Roses and Metallica and put on these huge rock concerts? Because there was not a rock venue. So why…
• Nirvana — Concept · 1 mention · first at 18:13
• Guns N' Roses — Concept · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 It really is amazing how how many people are out there to help you and you don't know it because there's so many other people in front of them acting as if they are

0:11 magnetic electric dynamic. Our guest today is Las Vegas entertainment royalty. No matter where you're at in what you're doing, do something for somebody else.

0:22 Damian Costa spent over 10 years leading the entertainment operations at Caesar's Palace. There's certainly a lot of entertainment in Las Vegas and what we're trying to provide is something that is a little bit more personable.

0:33 Today, he's the co-owner of Pompei Entertainment, the powerhouse behind Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, the Dwamo at the Rio, and the Composer's Room Show Lounge.

0:41 And that's what it takes to be in the entertainment industry. You have to know a little bit of everything.

0:46 Get ready. This conversation will take you inside the business of entertainment and the heart of Las Vegas. All right, welcome back to the Mellow Millionaire. Today I got Damen Costa here. He's a co-founder of Pompei Entertainment and he's a driving force for shaping modern Las Vegas entertainment landscape. Under his leadership, Pompei Entertainment has become a powerhouse created stages where worldclass talent thrives and the city's culture shines. Pleasure to have you, bro.

1:12 Hey, thanks for having me. This is going to be good, man. I I love Vegas. What is it about Vegas that's so alluring and what do you love most about the city? Well, I don't know that I have anything to compare it to. Born and grew up here. So, they say born and raised, but I'm not sure how much they raised us back when I was growing up. They used to just kick us out of the house and we had to fend for ourselves sort of a thing. But, I think people come to Las Vegas because you can do anything here. I think that that's what everyone uh you know wants to get away from the daily grind. And what a better way to spend your time and spend your money other than a place where there are no limits, right? At least that's the the perception, right?

1:51 And so, uh, people come to Vegas for the same reason that I stay. There's so much opportunity and you can do anything.

1:58 Your family has a lot of deep roots here. Can you tell me a little bit about the, uh, heritage here?

2:03 Yeah. Um, so my grandfather on my father's side, uh, was a musical director. So, he was what they call an MD. So, he, you know, during the Sinatra and Dean Martin days. Um, and then on the other side, my grand my other grandfather, uh, he was a horn player for a lot of the greats. A lot of Up and Down the Strip. He toured with Elvis. He's in all of the movies, Roy Orbitson to Connie Francis to to Elvis Presley. So, if you go to my restaurant, you'll see all of those pictures and the family heritage along the walls for many years.

2:35 My grandfather opened Jubilee, the longest running and largest show in Las Vegas. So, in the day, it would have been compared to the sphere, right? It is what brought everyone to town. Uh, you know, we're having our freedom event here. A couple billion dollars worth of home service people. What do you think separates a good event from a great event?

2:54 Yeah. It's it's right now and it's the thing, right? It it's experiences, but not just the experience that you're having, but being able to let others know that you had it. And so that's been the shift in what we see in social media and how people are using social media. It's to say, I'm doing this and you're not, not just I'm doing this. And so being able to create an event that is memorable, that will never happen again seems to be what it is that makes the biggest mark and makes the biggest impacts. Last year was 800, now it's 1,500. Next year we want to do 3,000.

3:27 And that continues to grow. Sure. And it's very specific. It's home service, home improvement. So we're not going to like open it up to anything else.

3:34 It's a market that's never going away either. Particularly here on the West Coast where it's it's outpacing almost every other industry. So, so you've seen Vegas entertainment evolve over the last years and really you've seen it reinvent itself every decade, I'm sure. Every day. I I mean, look, I I walked in, you know, on on the strip, every day I walk on the strip, I see something new. There's a new restaurant. There's, you know, something that it's it's been an establishment is gone and it's something new and different. And I I really like that. I I really like the fact that you have the ability to dream whatever it is that you you know somebody thinks will work. What have I seen? I mean, we've seen the big shows get bigger. I remember uh when nightclubs were like these independently owned next to the casinos and that's what a nightclub, you know, was. Well, Green reminded me nightclubs actually started in the

4:28 lounges and it was after 1:00 a.m. That's what they consider nightclubs. Yeah. right? 60s7s and then and then it turned into the those that era where it was in the in little side um businesses then they went into the the casinos and then I remember for me we produced these huge um arena style it was it was massive like how could you ever get bigger than this and now you look at EDC or Burning Man or any of these and it's like that's basically what that is. So I I think seeing the big stuff get bigger is is what I see uh more than anything.

5:06 I also believe that it always has and the the middle space always seems to be what suffers right. So like anything that is is a new middle space because something has gotten bigger like when the sphere was built uh when the bigger stadium was built. If you're that middle space, that that next tier down, I think it's very problematic and you have to be very inventive to be able to drive that business to a new successful horizon. Yeah. I was just talking about so private equities, entering home service, home improvement like crazy.

5:38 Sure. And what it made me think about was Barnes & Noble. So I started studying Barnes & Noles in the late '90s and a lot of great companies came out of that and a lot of them folded like like over 80% of the bookstores but the ones that survive started like getting very involved in the community and started being just open up their doors to different ideas and everyone's forced to do better. It's actually a good thing and I would say kind of survival of the fittest. So the people the David and Goliath type story when David came out like there's a lot of Davids out there but they they stand a chance. It's just a lot of people fold and they they complain so much and they don't see a path for them to they've got to change and a lot of people don't change.

6:19 Not in this town. You have to change. You have to be ready to change. Reinvent yourself. Change.

6:23 Yeah. I mean that's why I love being in the comedy space because you know comedy is very reflective of uh criticism of the world around you or at least being able to laugh at the world around you. Um it's I like spending a lot of time in the magic space. Um I think I think music constantly evolves but um it's not it is also reflective of society but I think it's more the alter like whatever you have in front of you music escapes you the the opposite direction. I think comedy is exactly the opposite. Comedy says okay this is how the world is now sit here and laugh about it. And and I think it's it's I don't know I find it refreshing. Who's there's some giants here in Vegas. What would you say some of the people you look up to here and why?

7:11 Um, in some ways, I mean, a lot of the the people that I believe have driven Vegas to to, you know, be the the mega resort destination that it is. Um, the Gone family, you know, Michael gone, I would have I wouldn't have had a compass on how to navigate if it wasn't for the Gone family. And you know the the family now makes a big impact across the landscape. Uh I've worked directly for Bob Bogner. Bob Bogner was Boyd Gaming. Um you know he's the one who who built um Atlantic City the uh the Borgat in Atlantic City. And then you know he called me and asked me to help him build Echelon which is now Resorts World right because the 2008 uh housing crisis collapsed. Um we we suspended that. So, I think those the guys like that and like Steve Win and Phil Ruffin, I I think those are the the guys that have really set what's in motion right now, those are the guys that I look up to.

8:11 The the visionaries, Pat Christensen, who said, "Why don't we take this arena that doesn't have a sound system and terrible acoustics and, you know, put Guns and Roses and Metallica and put on these huge rock concerts?" Because there was not a rock venue. So why not take the basketball stadium and do it or basketball arena. And so I look up to visionaries like that. I look up to guys that took a chance in a really really big way. And in Vegas it usually tends to work out. You know, I was looking at the internal rate of return for a hotel restaurant. Not in Vegas, but it's really low to invest. I I mean, you think about it, you're at like a 7 and 12% return. Maybe even get to 12 and a half from what I I've been researching.

8:56 What's What do you think the science behind making it in Vegas is why they keep reinvesting? Because they got to tear stuff down that you know, you can build you can bring in all the restaurants you want. You can put as many hotel rooms in as you want, but unless they're coming here to be entertained, that stuff falls away. Yep.

9:13 That stuff becomes a necessity. You need a hotel room to stay in. If I kept you out late enough and you had enough fun, now you need to go to a hotel room. Yep.

9:23 And and same thing with restaurants and now restaurants are becoming entertainment in in their own. So yes, your your rate of return on a restaurant has always been low. I mean it it has always been um a difficult because it's it's such fixed margins, right? You're dealing with something you must do which is eat. Now how much can you get a premium on a person for the experience? Everyone is nibbling at that on the way. By the time you got a burger to the customer, it was like, how can you charge $22 for a burger? It's like I hope to make two bucks.

9:56 There's everyone else that has gotten this burger to me uh as a restaurant that uh makes it difficult. Very different and entertainment, right? Entertainment is the one thing that is it's it's all a human transaction from from the experience that you're trying to sell to the person that is putting on the performance to the person that is experiencing it. And I I think it's maybe that's why I'm hooked on it. That the one human experience that tonight will not happen again. It is only tonight. [snorts]

10:27 So you um you oversee Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club among other venues. Uh what inspired you to launch Pompei Entertainment after years at Caesars.

10:38 We wanted to do it different. I I see that uh the strip is always going to be the strip, but the strip makes decisions based on what works, not what might work. And so what I believe Pompei is really setting out to do in in one segment of of at least one of the pillars is to go try things before they're ready for for a strip property. And that will drive what ends up happening even off off the strip. So we may come into a show that we really like and it makes sense and people really like it, but it may not be right for the rest of the world as they're touring and and coming into stay at a property. Um, we want to create that industry. We want to be a part of those that are creating that industry. You have a number of things off the strip now like Area 15.

11:26 Um, there's a number of different areas that are now looked at as being entertainment centers off the strip. So, we want to feed that and we want to help feed the evolution of on the strip and off the strip kind of at the same time. Um, Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club. You would know if you if if you know Jimmy, if you if you've met Jimmy, you would know instantly it's somebody you want to be working with. He's just the great the best guy to be in business with. Uh, we absolutely admire being able to drive his brand. That's the reason that we created Pompei Entertainment is to really help drive the future of entertainment. And obviously to do that, you have to take a big step back and we did. You know, I was running some of the largest venues in the world and to now running a number of under 500 seat venues. Uh, but there's something special about that.

12:20 Uh, and we love comedians. Like, it's the best time. Like, it lets off so many endorphins and serotonin and all this stuff, dopamine. Uh, what's it like working around all these comedians? I mean, what have you found that you like and don't like? It's a very human business. You have to remember backstage in these um any of the venues, it doesn't matter if you have somebody that just got off, you know, an award show or or if you have somebody who's going on stage for the first time. It's just a living room. It's it's a conversation.

12:46 Everything is is very conversational, very um friendly and and and maybe that's just the way that I run my venues. I think the thing that I like is that that's what it is. that there there's never a hey sign this hey you know make you know make me part of your life. Yeah. Like that's not what it is. Having these real personal uh connections and to know somebody where everyone gets to know them somewhat superficially because they're they have a barrier. I I've never have like I've always had access to talk to somebody as if we've been friends for a long time or we're just getting to know each other.

13:22 And I've never taken that for granted. I think that's part of um one of my secrets to success is to never take somebody else for granted. And um I don't I don't know that there's anything that I don't like. I I think for for an entertainer, I think the toughest part is that they can't have a bad day.

13:43 No. And and I and I used I went into a deep conversation. I think it was with Donnie Osman once about like I I admire what you do on stage because I I can't do that. Like I can go into a meeting and have a bad meeting. I can I can have, you know, a bad financial. I can have a bad interaction with an another executive. He can't have a bad day on stage. He has to be perfect. He has to nail everything all of the time. And I just I really think that's something special and maybe something we don't give enough um recognition to for somebody who puts themselves so out there. uh any anyone who's willing to get on stage as a mega star to put themselves out there and expose themselves every moment that they're on stage. I think it's a special quality that they have and and one that I couldn't do. I've seen some comedians at the improv in uh Tempe and they don't even they get on they they have a drink

14:39 and they're like, "What do you do for a living?" And they just know exactly. I I don't think necessarily I've ever seen any of them have a bad day cuz it's always funny. And even if they weren't famous, like super super famous, it's always funny.

14:52 Well, I mean, you don't have to be, that's a beautiful thing about Las Vegas. You don't have to be uh famous to be funny. In fact, I I think I I did this this news article where they're asking me all these questions about comedy and why is comedy so big in Las Vegas? And I actually started to develop this opinion that Las Vegas may be the one town that you can be a professional comic and that's it. Like you don't have to have another job. You don't have to, you know, also log online and sell widgets anywhere. Yeah. You can just be a comic. I think if you wanted to have a career as a comic, not also in on TV and also in the movies because obviously you have to go different places for that,

15:32 but if you wanted to just be not just be, if you wanted to be one of the world's best uh stand-up comedians, you could do it in Las Vegas. And there's something special about that. Um there is nothing like seeing those jokes that you saw online or that you may have seen uh you know special of the past uh to see it live because you see everyone else validate what you laughed at independently and privately to hear everyone else laugh about the same thing.

16:02 Yeah. We just need so much more of it. We need everyone to to be in the room to say, "Yeah, I I can laugh about that." If somebody is keeping very much to themselves, um I tend to to think that maybe um they're not in it for the greater good of what of this small community Las Vegas is.

16:22 Uh so this is the wedding capital of the world. Um look, we leaned into the wedding capital of the world. Uh it's a funny story. It was called for the third time. And I have this weird rule about about the third time. if it ever comes about the third time, I I should probably go ahead and and go and take the plunge, whatever that is. And and so I get called the first time, hey, the uh county clerk, Lyn, who's great. She's a fantastic uh person and politician here in Las Vegas, uh wants, you know, talk about they she's put this group together and we all meet all of the time and and want to get a celebrity involved in this. And then that's where I start to, okay, so we just need to call a celebrity, get him involved in something, not my thing. And that happened twice by friends that I really respect. And then I get a call from a former uh lieutenant governor and said, "Look, you really should probably

17:16 listen to what it is that they're trying to do. A lot of the money from wedding licenses goes back into the community and does really good things." And I start learning about all of this and I'm like, "Okay, fine. I'm I'm in. How How do I help?" So, we actually produced a large event here in in town that celebrates um the over 5 million love stories that have been, you know, started in Las Vegas. Over 5 million couples have have been married here. And we're a very young town, so that's kind of surprising. Um and it's and it's a not only is it a major business, a major tourism business, uh it is also something that gives back to the community. So there's a lot of good that goes into the community from people getting married in Las Vegas. I find that people like like to talk about it.

18:02 So if you could bring back one legendary Las Vegas performer for a Pompei stage, who would it be and what would you have them do? I'm a bigm fan and I don't think they're ever getting back together. So I'm like Nirvana somewhere in that area. Like it would just be fantastic to have that concert again where uh you know everyone that was creating all this this we all these weird sounds of the '9s were trying to get out of that 80s you know everything was very cookie cutter and and I if I could put on a show I think it would be you know all of those those great bands that were making new um new sounds and putting the new music and you you think about the lyrics of the '90s. It I don't think any of it made any sense, but for some reason it it built who I am. But I will take it to to comedy and I would say uh see Carlin see Carlin in his early 30s would just be would just be I think mind-blowing.

19:07 Me and Brian over there used to I just remember getting in his dad's bus and we listened to Dave Chappelle for the first time. This was like 20 some odd years ago when he came out with a show and

19:17 I read them. It was so amazing, groundbreaking. Uh, tell me Pompei's entertainment mission using three just three words. I would just say we want to be accessible, fun, entertaining. Well, tell me about the restaurant. A restaurant is something I never thought I would be doing. We call it a restaurant, but really it's a live entertainment venue. It's an incubator. So the goal after being through uh you know I'm from the arena and stadium world. So you know back when the college football team was playing out in the middle of nowhere at Samboy Stadium, beautiful stadium, but it was really far out of town. And uh seeing how big entertainment can get and then and then being a part of putting so many shows on the strip, I started seeing kind of like the lack of evolution of who's next. at least not being created in Las Vegas.

20:09 And when you look at Seek Frey or Circus Ole or Pen and Teller or uh Danny Gans, you know, you look at all of these brands that really Absin and and Spiegel World, you really look at the brands that are the really big entertainment conglomerates, they have a mainstay in Las Vegas. I don't know that they were necessarily created here, but they were certainly cultivated and and found their mark here. Blue Man Group, another great example.

20:36 Yeah. So I said well why don't we why don't we uh start to curate in a very you know and incubate um the artists of tomorrow and it and it may be you know a year from now or maybe 10 years from now but let's really get uh in front of it and and that's what this restaurant does. What's a piece of gamechanging advice you wish you knew in your 20s?

20:59 Oh I think in my 20s I thought I knew everything. Um, I the things that I wish I knew is how many people are out there working against you with a smile. And it and it really is amazing how how many people are out there to help you and you don't know it because there's so many other people in front of them acting as if they are. And that's one of the most difficult things as I have kids in their 20s now, helping them get through is to to understand, you know, who is just selling you a bill of goods and who's actually trying to help you advance with a mutual goal.

21:34 I love that. What are your millionaire habits that sets you apart from everybody else? And don't say you get up earlier than everybody. It's played out.

21:44 No, I probably go to bed later because we, you know, we usually settle shows and do settlements at 2 a.m. You know, I give you a little bit of just, you know, my compass on it, which is, you know, to begin with, I believe you have to accomplish something every day. Start by making your bed. I And I tell this to new employees. I tell this to employees that have known me for a very long time. I'll just use it as a philosophy. Look, we got to make the bed. We have to make sure that we accomplish something. Stop trying to go after the most difficult task. Go after the task that matters and and to start off your day, do something that you can accomplish without any like it's not up to anybody else. It's just up to you. We say uh to say uh yes if and not know because so it's it's it's something that changed my life is to just say yes I can you do that? Yes. Are you available? Yes. And and so we just

22:38 try to adopt in my life and in my team, we try to adopt this yes if mentality. Um and I think it's one of the biggest things that I've I've brought to most of my bigger jobs that I've somehow landed in in changing the culture. We stop saying no.

22:54 I love that because I hear no all the time and I'm like, if I gave you $10 million and 100 people, could you get it done? And they're like, well, yeah. Like then what would it take?

23:03 I I took this I took this arena job. I became the director of operations. Uh and and uh they said, you know, you need a day and a half to be able to go from a hockey uh to a concert. I said, I that just doesn't make sense to me. Like you have to build a stage, you have to take down the hockey rink. That seems like you should be able to get that done in 4 hours. And and the reasoning was, well, no, we only have six people that work here. I said, 'Well, we need 60 people that work here. They only need to work here for two hours,

23:40 right? And and sure enough, that arena went from I think we were scheduled to do 65 shows a year, and we did well over 200 250 shows a year. And a lot of people got to work because of it. A lot of people actually had a better life and had a better lifestyle because we were able to make decisions um based on yes. Can you do it? Yes. Do you have that song? Yes. Do you have a singer? Yes. And uh if you if you can give me till noon tomorrow, I can have that solved. Yeah. I was just listening to Steve Jobs back in the day and he had this foresight to go against what everybody thought was possible. And people people want to say you're crazy if you don't accept the norm. And sometimes you are crazy or sometimes you're brilliant. And you have to hit a lot of crazy to be able to get the one that's brilliant.

24:27 Well, we were talking about Uber earlier and there was a lot of problems with Uber even existing. I mean, a lot of think about a medallion. I don't know what they cost in in Vegas back in the day, but in in New York they were 56 700 grand.

24:39 And think about the people that were driving them. I mean, most of it what the the cabs they used to screw. I just remember every cab I've ever taken was not not necessarily a good deal. I was like, why are we going this way? I know where I'm going. And it was always like kind of shady. or you go to the same place three times and never it's the same way,

24:56 right? I love HOAs because people don't have couches in their front yard. Sure.

25:00 But some regulations really handcuff getting things done. I'm a believer in that we are all kind of in the ecosystem that we created. I know that a lot of people view that we are part of a community that somebody else created. I just don't I don't adopt that. I adopt that. Okay, I understand this is the way that it is because we all decided it's this way. What if we have to tweak that? Why why don't we just make a a little change? And if we can get enough people to say that, yeah, we should make that change or because times have changed or whatever it may be. You just have to get enough people to agree to that. And and I think that's why we're, you know, in the city that we're in, right? At some point, you weren't allowed to build a tower as tall as we're in right now. There's lots of, I guess I would call them flash in a pan millionaires, and then there's the ones that actually make it here and create

25:47 true wealth. What what are the differences between the business men and women that actually make it here versus I'm going to go to Vegas and try to create a name? Being that I've seen so many people come through, I and and and see this the the city grow so rapidly during that period of time of of my career, I think it's very easy to tell who is here for a quick buck and who is not here for the Vegas lifestyle. You you know you you can tell when somebody is doing things the right way when it becomes less selfish because there is so much opportunity in Las Vegas. If you make it all about yourself, then you can tell that you're you're probably quick to not be here very long. When somebody wants to be a part of the community and and you can see that not just in philanthropy, but just being involved, just showing up and being at other people's events. You know, there's there's all these stories about how uh

26:45 Sammy or Dean and Frank would all like have to fill in for one another. So, this is just rapid fire as we close out here. Um, I'm going to name some of the bands that I like and maybe you can hit me back with a quick Vegas story. Incubus played a really big New Year's Eve concert last year. Um, and I've heard them doing possibly becoming a resident. They'd be they'd be a great they'd be a great resident in Las Vegas. Um, mainly because nobody's really done a show like that. A show that Incubis could do. So, I think that'd be fantastic.

27:20 What about uh Coldplay? Yeah, as long as they don't bring their cameras and their video screen. I think it's going to be

27:26 What do you think about Morgan Wallen? Uh, obviously Bri loves Morgan Wallen. I've taken on a liking for him.

27:31 Look, I mean, huge. Like, there's there's nobody that doesn't want to go see Morgan Wallen. and I thank him and and the team for, you know, the ticket prices that they're able to get. It's just fantastic the amount of tickets that they're selling. And I I really look at Wallen as being somebody who is really bringing back that that live concert experience that's that's as big as any of these. Like we talked about the nightclubs and stuff like that, going into arenas and stadiums in such a big way. I feel like he's doing it with with such might and and knowing his personal story and how he treats people, at least what I hear, uh it's it's pretty inspiring.

28:10 I'm going to let you close us out. Anything that we haven't talked about, I'll let you kind of just wrap us up. Anything you want the audience to hear about.

28:16 Don't think about that. Uh Las Vegas is any different than it's always been. I think that we are bringing experiences that nobody in the world can bring. And you can go from one experience to the next experience. It's completely, you know, you'd have to go to a different part of the world to be able to have and we kind of do it all within three zip codes.

28:34 It's kind of a special thing. Um, and uh, I thank you for what you're doing and your story that you're sharing, you know, and um, I really think you you embody the the working harder, not always. It doesn't always have to just be let's sit around and try to outthink things. Let's actually get out there and get it done. And I was listening to your story about how you um would have to go meet quotas, like you'd have the rest of the team go working and then you had to actually go meet the quota to be able to pay the bills. And it's stories like that that keep me going because, you know, it's not always um people look at people look and they assume that they know the results. They don't they don't understand how much work went in to get there. They just want what it is that you have. And so you sharing those stories and bringing other stories to light like that is very special.

29:24 I would say everyone wants the views, but no one wants to take the hike. That's so true. And and the view is worth it. You you appreciate the view if you do take the hike.

29:32 Well, you're the man, Damian. I really appreciate this. This is great. Thank you for your time.

29:35 Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always, we're going to close it out with the Tommy truth, which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now. Let's just talk real quick about scarcity. It's the ultimate power move for driving action. So in 1975, there was an experiment done with a psychologist that he took two jars of cookie, same size jars, but in one there was only two cookies and the other one there was 10. People overwhelmingly preferred the jar with two cookies. The fear of missing out made them more desirable and more trustworthy. And that's the scarcity effect. In the real world, events with fewer spots left or products with limited time offers drive action because scarcity taps into urgency. It's about creating opportunities people are excited to act on. And when businesses use this correctly, it's not about

30:28 manipulation. It's about helping people recognize opportunities they regret missing out on. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Business of Spectacle: Inside Vegas Entertainment with Damian Costa"?

Tommy Mello (Host), Damian Costa (Guest).

What is "The Business of Spectacle: Inside Vegas Entertainment with Damian Costa" about?

The discussion centers on Damian Costa, a key figure in Las Vegas entertainment, highlighting his journey from leading operations at Caesar's Palace to co-owning Pompei Entertainment, which produces notable venues such as Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club. Through personal insights and experiences, Costa reveals the collaborative spirit and diverse skill set necessary to thrive in the dynamic Las Vegas…

What is mentioned in this Tommy Mello episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Pompei Entertainment, Jimmy Kimmel's Comedy Club, Susan Dea Costa, Caesars Palace, Barnes & Noble, Bob Bogner. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Business of Spectacle: Inside Vegas Entertainment with Damian Costa"?

The episode runs 31 min; the transcript is about 6,095 words in 66 timestamped sections.

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