My phone's beeping woke me up Friday morning indicating I had a ton of voice mails and text messages. I put on the TV and started checking my phone's messages. My family and friends were calling to see if I knew legendary Las Vegas performer Danny Gans died in his sleep at age 52 last night.

They all knew when I came out to Las Vegas I went to see a few shows including Danny's. It was the Danny Gans show at the Mirage that influenced me to move to Las Vegas. During his show, he talked about being a performer who was constantly on the road. He wanted to find a way to spend more time with his family and less time on the road. Performing nightly in Las Vegas allowed him to maintain more of a normal family life.

Since that is what I was also looking to do, his personal story put the wheels in motion for my move to Sin City.

My first job in Las Vegas was at the Rampart casino. Tom Willer was the entertainment director there who gave me my first Vegas break. The odd thing was Tom was the man who claimed to be responsible for giving Danny Gans his first Las Vegas break at the Stratosphere.

I remember a magazine article written about Tom soon after my Rampart show started. It wondered if Tom got lucky with his Danny Gans discovery, or did he really have an eye for talent? Did he capture lightening in a bottle again with his latest discovery, The Mentalist Gerry McCambridge.

After my Rampart gig ended, I moved over to the Legendary Stardust Casino and also started my internet business ShowTickets4Locals.com.

Danny's personal manager, Chip Lightman called me up without knowing me. He told me he and Danny were always looking for ways to give back to the Vegas locals and thought my idea was brilliant. Chip asked if he could be my business partner in the company. After meeting him in person, I really liked Chip. It was exciting to be his partner, and also was the opportunity to become closer to Danny Gans through Chip.

I first meet Danny at the Las Vegas Review Journals "Best Of" awards ceremony where both Danny and I were nominated for awards. Chip and Danny sat in front of Kim and I at the ceremony.

Because of my business connection and growing personal connection with Chip, I felt closer to Danny then I actually was.

The photo above was taken immediately following Danny's opening night performance at the Encore Casino. It was taken at the private, after show party in Blush nightclub. That night was the first time I had the opportunity to personally take time and thank Danny for being very influential in my move to Las Vegas.

He was very touched by my Vegas story, and how he played into my success. He promised to come see my show as soon as he settled into his new show at the Encore. I am sad that he never made it to my show. I never had a chance to entertain him.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and three children. in Peace Danny. The strip will mourn your loss and will miss your talented presence.

Sincerely,