The Neon Gutter
Tales from the seedier side of Las Vegas and the gang who turned it upside down with scams, mischief, and mayhem.
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Episodes
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Surgeon General’s Warning: This episode of The Neon Gutter is a gift to you. And keeping it in the gutter, it’s cheap and may be hazardous to your ears. So, listeners be forewarned that you are entering the Stupak Community Center where the Neon Gutter Crew played “Stupak: the Game,” designed by Bob Stupak, whom you may have heard about in Episodes 1 and 2.
This is freewheeling, noisy, and as exciting as listening to a bunch of guys playing a terrible board game sounds. You have been warned.
Monday Aug 19, 2024
Monday Aug 19, 2024
The Neon Gutter crew takes a live stroll down Fremont Street, from the headwaters of the Plaza Hotel at Main Street past Binion’s, the Golden Nugget and all the way East, past the D, the El Cortez and on to the husk of the Western. Along the way, they reminisce of what used to be and used to happen along the fabled street, and they encounter surprise guests, panhandling locals, and the noise pollution that clutters downtown Las Vegas nowadays.
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Burt grills Matt, Dan, and their guest Phil on the crummiest, dirtiest, smelliest, and most fun casinos they ever wandered into or escaped from. A philosophical discussion breaks out about what makes a casino a shithole, the difference between good and bad shitholes, and why the dumps can be more fun. Stick around and learn where you can go today to have your clothes indelibly marked with stench of tobacco, bodo odor, and failure.
Sunday Jul 21, 2024
Sunday Jul 21, 2024
Burt queries Matt and Dan about all the terrible places they stayed in Vegas, including why in the world they stayed in them. Join us to hear about hookers working the front desk, broken Magic Fingers, jumping on beds, and dead pigeons by the pool.
Saturday Jul 06, 2024
Saturday Jul 06, 2024
Matt and Dan are joined by Phil and Mike for a look back to their first group trip to Las Vegas, when they were just babes in the woods, thrilled at the prospect of cheap buffets, free decks of cards, and a chance to see naked ladies.
Monday Apr 15, 2024
Monday Apr 15, 2024
In this episode, the Neon Gutter recounts the many ways they thanked Bob Stupak for the free money, free rooms, and free drinks with a series of practical jokes involving a lump of beef, police tape, Jell-o, and the most advanced printing technology the era offered to college kids. One of the jokes had a lasting legacy on Vegas World in its waning days.
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
In this episode, Burt, Dan, and Matt recall what was surely the strangest major hotel-casino in Las Vegas, the space-themed Bob Stupak’s Vegas World, its maverick owner, and how the Neon Gutter crew exploited a loophole to enrich themselves while the property fell into decay.
Join Us In the Neon Gutter
The Neon Gutter Podcast features Host Burt Cohen, and raconteurs Dan and Matt as they recall a forgotten Las Vegas, the dives and dumps, the thick haze of smoke, the pungent smells, hustlers, anglers, and watered-down cocktails served in paper cups by waitresses older (and possibly more dead) than your grandmothers. And the smells that never wash out. This is a podcast you can really smell.
The Neon Gutter recounts a time after the Rat Pack, when the mob was in decline and the corporate bean counters hadn’t yet set their sights on Las Vegas. Casinos were still owned by families who enticed a dwindling crowd to take a seat at their nickel slots with two-dollar steaks, topless showgirls, and free decks of cards.
While the Neon Gutter is a time and a feeling, it’s also a place. Specifically, the title refers to the rough edges of town, where intrepid seekers of adventure wandered off the beaten path to find cheap and unsavory thrills in casinos and bars not listed in travel guides and not welcoming of tourists. It’s a Vegas in the shadows of the giants, where the neon flickered, the carpet was worn through, and blood occasionally spilled.
Dan, Matt, and their friends wandered down every alley, into every smoke-hazed den and uninviting bar, and danced in every lounge that posted a “No Dancing” sign. They ate 15-cent hot dogs, pumped rolls of pennies into decrepit slots, climbed through windows and went through closed doors to find the backside of Las Vegas. Theirs are the stories of hustles, pranks, shrimp cocktail eating contests, condemned hotels, shady strip joints, impromptu accordion concerts, and decades-long friendships. And the smells. Oh, lord, the smells.