Question of the Day - 02 May 2021

Wow! Now there's a blast from the long-ago past. You sure are a long-time subscriber -- and thank you for that and this question.

The Las Vegas Miser was a popular Las Vegas Advisor feature way back in the '90s. It was, obviously, a spoof on, and rhymed with, the Las Vegas Advisor and it took Couponomy and the bargain focus of the newsletter to an often-illogical and always-amusing extreme.

And now, 25 or so years later, since you ask, it can finally be revealed who the Las Vegas Miser was in real life. 

Drum roll, please, maestro.

The Las Vegas Miser was none of than Anthony Curtis' younger brother, Erik. And sure, Erik is still around. He's done very well for himself in business. 

He was gracious enough to provide a reminiscence about the Miser. Take it, Erik.

I was between jobs and college, so I was staying at my brother’s one-bedroom apartment in Las Vegas. He was writing one of the early issues of the Advisor [this would be in the mid-'80s] and grousing that he had a column to fill and no material.

I said, “I have something!”

Understand, Anthony Curtis has a rare, unlimited, self-deprecating, and irreverent sense of humor.

I handed him the first Miser column about finding quarters on casino floors and how certain lighting and carpeting made that “job” easier.

Then I heard him in the other room (there were only two) laughing out loud. I didn’t know if he knew then or if he even realizes now that I basically was satirizing his passion project, The Advisor. Unexpectedly, he asked for more Miser filler columns and the Miser became an instant expert at penuriousness, a Vegas anti-hero. The Miser resonated as another absurd over-exaggerated character in a town that is inherently absurd and over-exaggerated.

The style of the Miser columns — choppy, with insider non-sequiturs — was like the Golden Gate’s ninety-nine cent minuscule shrimpy cocktail on a bed of so-called lettuce: cheap and succulent.

So whatever happened to The Miser? Time twisted his gonies and flipped his fate. He took over a dying business in L.A. and made it an icon in its industry. Then he found a business on Craigslist and turned it into $8 million. He's been around the world twice so far (and has even picked up coins in a casino in Malta).

Thanks for remembering The Miser. It’s an anonym that has stuck.