Fierce

These are the golden gates.
They represent more than 1970s decorating vision of two German illusionists.
They represent Las Vegas royalty, fantasy versus reality and mastery of the impossible.
They represent the elaborate compound that is Siegfried and Roy’s home.
To me, they represent an event that would give me the single best clip one could want from a Las Vegas internship.

The set up was simple, the duo was slated to introduce five tiger cubs. To my editors, it screamed intern assignment. Fine by me.

The journey to the assignment was stressful and downright infuriating, my directions were wrong and my gas tank was more than flirting with “empty.” I dialed all my trusted computer-bound TSN friends to no avail while I scouted around for a gas station, all of this with 10 minutes until the event was to start.

I couldn’t think of what would be worse, being lost and late to Siegfried and Roy’s house or running out of gas en route. I soldiered on, rationalizing that if I just found the place, I could probably just ride a tiger home or something.

When I got inside, I was ushered to a courtyard area with about a dozen photogs, reporters and S&R staffers. As I struggled to take in the bronze tiger statues, gazebos and somewhat tacky architecture, Robin Leach, former host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, sauntered past me. WTF?



I gathered he is more than a local celebrity, he plays blogger/journalist, too, who failed to park his sportscar correctly. I like to think he planned to drive a Jaguar to a tiger event.

After many delays, which I pegged up to the strategic placement of the still-recovering Roy, they moved us on to the lawn and corralled us behind blue velvet ropes.

There they were, pop culture icons and modern-day David Lee Roth look alikes, trying to look natural on a couch in the middle of their yard as five tiger cubs crawled around them. As the photographers frantically snapped photos, I followed suit with my digital camera.



When the hubbub quieted, Siegfried wandered over to the notebook-armed members of the crowd. In a strange twist, that was just myself, a nice gent from AP and (drum roll please) Robin Leach. Surprisingly, it was one of my more natural interviews. I had no qualms about asking whether the cubs had definable personalities or who their baby daddies are. What is my life?

It lasted about an hour and it broke my heart to watch Roy move awkwardly and struggle to whisper words. A tiger mauled him, an animal literally grabbed him by the jugular, on stage five years ago and he is still inching toward even slight recovery. We were a good 10 feet away from him and you can clearly see long scars and the palsy on his right side. I didn’t have the heart to shamefully ask for a photo with the duo as Siegfried and a nurse helped Roy limp away.

I mean, imagine what that photo would represent? The day was bizarre enough.