Sourses: Amazing Johnathan Spied on with hidden dressing room camera in Vegas

Mar. 14, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Sahara kept eye on dressing room

Two sources confirmed on Tuesday that the Sahara had surveillance cameras installed about two years ago in the dressing room of headliner Amazing Johnathan.

The hidden cameras were put in shortly after a small fire broke out in the comedy magician's dressing room in May 2005, said the sources, who worked on the Sahara's surveillance staff.

Management "went on a witch hunt," said one of the sources. The fire occurred about a week after Amazing Johnathan opened at the Sahara.

After four months, the cameras were removed from the dressing room and another room, when "they couldn't find anything to use against him," said a source.

Three female employees associated with Amazing Johnathan's show routinely used the dressing room, where two spy cameras were installed, I'm told. One camera was disguised as a sprinkler head over the door, and the other was in a vent above the dressing room table, the original sources said.

The surveillance cameras ran 24 hours a day and could be viewed by anyone who accessed the surveillance area, the sources said. Surveillance staffers were concerned, but "people wanted to keep their jobs," said a source.

Al Hummel, the Sahara's chief executive, and John Morocco, director of operations, did not respond to interview requests by deadline.

Reached by telephone, Amazing Johnathan issued a "no comment" and said he was talking to an attorney. He did acknowledge he found "random holes" during a check of the dressing room.

The comedian recently announced plans to leave the Sahara at the end of the year because of a heart condition.

The Sahara was recently sold to Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group, which is acquiring the property in partnership with San Francisco-based Stockbridge Real Estate Funds.