The Tiger Woods Foundation has announced that John Mellencamp and Third Eye Blind will headline the Tiger Jam IV benefit concert presented by Coca-Cola. The annual event will take place on April 28, at 8:30 p.m. in the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Tickets start at $45, call 702-474-4000.

Mellencamp made his musical debut in 1976, with his first album entitled "Chestnut Street Incident." He achieved commercial success with his 1982 album "American Fool."

Third Eye Blind had their self-titled debut album released in 1997. Their second album "Blue" has had a steady presence on the Billboard charts since its release in 1999.

The much-anticipated opening of "STORM" at Mandalay Bay has been put on hold while the creative team continues to hone the production show into a final product.

Catch A Rising Star comedy club will makes its debut at the Excalibur on March 28, with Catch alumni Caroline Rhea as the star attraction for the 7:30 and 10 p.m. shows. The new 300-plus seat showroom is located on the second level in the Excalibur's Medieval Village. Tickets are $25, tax inclusive for the two debut shows, call 702-597-7600.

Besides headlining at top comedy clubs nationally, Rhea currently plays the feisty Aunt Hilda on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch." She has been a regular on the new "Hollywood Squares" and recently worked as a supporting actress with Jim Carrey in "Man on the Moon," the story of the late comedian Andy Kaufman. Rhea has also been Drew Carey's girlfriend on "The Drew Carey Show" and hosted her own VH-1 series, "Fool for Love."

Catch will feature popular comedy headliners and a musical host who performs for the audience while they're being seated and emcees the shows. Each week the club will have a brand new line up. Tickets will be $16.95 with tax included.

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art will display actor Steve Martin's personal art collection from April 7 through Sept. 3. Martin's collection includes 28 modern and contemporary paintings and drawings. There's artwork by famous artists such as Georges Seurat and Pablo Picasso as well as paintings by actors Martin Mull and Eric Fischl.

Singing impressionist Bob Anderson will be working a new gig in the Las Vegas Hilton's NightClub from April 3 - 22. The Scintas are closing there on April 1, and then moving over to the Rio. The Fab Four will be performing at the NightClub most of May. In June, the hotel hopes to have a new show signed up for a year. Will it be Anderson?

Dennis Miller, the acerbic-witted host of "Saturday Night Live's" famous "Weekend Update" will bring his sharp observational humor to Paris Las Vegas for two shows on April 27 and 28. Tickets are $65, call 1-800-237-7469 or 702-946-4567.

Miller's humor has carried him from the stand-up comedy scene through "Saturday Night Live," to his own acclaimed, Emmy-winning show, HBO's "Dennis Miller Live," which is now in its eighth season. Last September, he joined ABC's "Monday Night Football" giving his humor-slanted observations for television audiences.

As an author, Doubleday recently published Miller's third edition of his ever-popular "Rants, I Rant, Therefore I Am." The first two editions, "The Rants," and "Ranting Again," climbed to the top of the New York Times Best Seller List.

Master magician and illusionist David Copperfield will return to the MGM Grand's intimate 740-seat Hollywood Theatre with his latest stage production show, "PORTAL," from April 5-11. On Saturday, April 7 and Sunday, April 8, he'll do three shows beginning with a matinee at 3 p.m. Tickets are $97 inclusive for the 7:30 and 10 p.m. shows, and $77.90 for the matinees, call 1-800-929-1111 or 702-891-7777.

Continually charting new territory, Copperfield in his current show transports himself from the stage to a different locale somewhere else on the planet. Since the concept is hard to believe, Copperfield takes proof and a member of the audience with him. He randomly collects distinctive mementos and clothing from audience members plus signed and dated Polaroid photographs of the audience. Together, he and the audience member vanish on a platform suspended over the heads of the audience. A live satellite uplink shows them at the chosen destination with the mementos.

Another groundbreaking illusion in the show has 13 randomly chosen members of the audience vanishing in a fiery blast. Some reappear miles away and some don't come back at all.

The 39th Ebony Fashion Show will be a fundraiser held at Palace Station on April 2, at a 2 p.m. brunch. The show is titled "Fashion Sensations" and produced by Ebony Fashion Fair, the world's largest traveling fashion show. Thirteen models will wear styles by world famous designers such as Bob Mackie, Yves Saint Laurent, and Valentino. Tickets are $50, call 702-648-4444.

TOP OF NEXT COLUMN

Ray Anthony and his Big Swing Band with vocalist Madeline Vergari will perform at the Stardust Resort on Saturday, April 7. Anthony will play swing tunes and also pay musical tribute to many famous leaders from the Big Band Era. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and dancing will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is $15.

Before founding his own band, which thrived throughout the '40s and '50s, Anthony served an apprenticeship as a teenage trumpet prodigy with Glenn Miller. He recorded more than 100 albums for Capitol Records and hit the pop charts with inventively orchestrated instrumentals such as "Dragnet," "Peter Gunn," "The Bunny Hop" and "Harlem Nocturne."

Ray Anthony and his Bookends became a stellar attraction during the "Golden Age" of Las Vegas Lounges. The Bookend Revue was a premier Nevada lounge show from 1960 to 1980. Today the ageless maestro operates a successful compact disc mail order business producing an ongoing series of big band albums. His latest CD is "Swing Club."

Chubby Checker & The Wildcats - celebrating 40 years in the music industry - will bring their stage act to the Stratosphere Tower's Broadway Showroom on May 12 and 13, and perform 7 and 10 p.m. shows. Considered one of the pioneers of rock 'n' roll, Checker became an international household name after the release of the smash hit "The Twist."

Chubby Checker & The Wildcats have released more than 20 albums and 40 singles. Tickets are $40, plus tax and handling fees, call 702-380-7711.

Alonzo Bodden and John DiResta will co-headline the Riviera Comedy Club, April 2-8. Bodden has made television appearances and was featured in the Tupac Shakur video "I Ain't Mad At You." Riviera Comedy Club tickets are $16.95 plus tax and fee, call 702-794-9433. Dinner and show packages are also available.

DiResta will be making his Riviera debut. His background includes spending 12 years patrolling the New York Subways as a transit cop before forging ahead with his successful show business career. He is currently in "Miss Congeniality" as a FBI agent and soon will be seen opposite Robert De Niro in "Fifteen Minutes." Co-star Melina Kanakaredes in "Fifteen Minutes" had DiResta guest star on her hit NBC series "Providence," portraying a mobster.

Born in Queens, raised in Woodmere, Long Island, DiResta worked eight and a half hours a night in the subways of New York City as a transit cop on the swing and graveyard shifts for a dozen years. He spent two years working, performing as a comedian at comedy clubs and writing a one-man show "BEAT: A Subways Cop's Comedy." The show opened on Nov. 6, 1996 and ran for five months at the Kaufamn Theater on 42nd street. When the show ended at 9:05 p.m., he would run out of the theater before the audience even left to make it to work in Brooklyn's homeless unit at 9:30 p.m.

In January 1997, after 171 performances, DiResta's one-man show was sold to Disney and ABC. By the fall of 1998, "Beat" was turned into the Paramount sitcom, "DiResta," which ran on UPN during the 1998-'99 season. DiResta has just released his first CD titled, "Civil Service Monkey."

Comedienne/actress Pam Stone will headline The Improv Comedy Club at Harrah's, March 27-Apirl 1. Many people were first exposed to the six-foot tall Stone when she worked on the hit ABC show "Coach," playing the women's basketball coach Judy Watkins. She has also appeared on "The Drew Carey Show" and the "New Love Boat." Tickets to The Improv are $24.95 plus tax.

Arizona Charlie's West at 740 S. Decatur Blvd., which opened in 1988, has a newly refurbished Palace Grand Bingo Parlour. The room seats 500 and it is the only 24-hour bingo parlour in Las Vegas. For information, call 1-800-342-2695 or 702-258-5200.

The Blue Man Group playhouse will become the newest interactive addition to the Lied Discovery Children's Museum at 833 Las Vegas Blvd. on April 10. The playhouse will allow children to express their creative imaginations through a number of play tunnels, clear dome windows and specially designed "talk tubes."

The playhouse was built for the annual Nevada Association for the Handicapped dinner auction. It was purchased for $2,500 and subsequently donated to the children's museum.

The Lied Discovery Children's museum is one of the largest children's museums in the United States, with more than 100 hands-on exhibits on 25,000 square feet. Admission is $6 for adults and $5 for children and seniors, call 702-382-3445.

Mickki Brown, who has lived in Las Vegas since 1989, sings four afternoons a week in Bellagio's Allegro Lounge. Her hours are noon to 5:30 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays and 4:30 to 8:45 p.m. on Sundays. She will head to Geneva later this year to record her second CD.

The Air Force Thunderbirds have a modest museum attached to their spotless airplane hangar on Nellis Air Force Base. It's open for about an hour and 15 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The museum is a tribute to the U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron, a fleet of 11 F-16 fighter jets whose pilots have been thrilling audience with daring feats for almost a half century. Admission is free, call 702-652-9902 for information.

CONTINUE ON TO...:
>THIS WEEK'S LAUGHLIN SEGMENT
>LAST WEEK'S LAS VEGAS SEGMENT
>VEGAS VIEWS FULL ARCHIVES
>Return to "Heard Around Town"
>Return to Las Vegas Leisure Guide