You’re an athlete and a big sports fan, and there are a lot of shout-outs to teams and pics of you and your wife at games on social. What are your favorite sports to play and your favorite teams to watch, ranked?

Right okay, sports to play: definitely, tennis is number one. I am a big, big tennis player. And basketball is number two.

Sports to watch: on TV, same order, tennis, basketball, football, maybe number three. Hockey’s on the list. Maybe hockey number three, we’ll put football number four.

Now, to watch in person. Man, I really love to go to the WNBA games. You know, like being at a Las Vegas Aces game, there’s just nothing like it. So, I gotta put that experience at the top. Love going to tennis tournaments in person. That’s also a lot of fun. Baseball is probably at the bottom on both TV and in person. For some reason, that puts me to sleep.

Where were you for the Super Bowl?

At home, watching from the safety of my couch.

You are a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo. Who would you rather meet in the Octagon? Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley or disgraced former Congressman George Santos?

Oh, hmmm. Haley. I think she’d put up more of a fight, be more of a challenge. Santos might tap out, you know, within seconds (laughing).

Maybe contrary to your sports addiction, you studied theatre at the Las Vegas Academy. What’s your favorite Broadway musical and why?

Rent. And that just may be a function of my age, the time in which I grew up. But Rent was huge, and my mom took me to see it live here in Las Vegas. I saw it when I went to New York on Broadway, and Joey Fatone was in it, you know, just shortly after NSYNC disbanded. And so lots of fond memories of that. I could probably do the whole thing out loud at any moment if I needed to.

I was looking at a calendar of upcoming Las Vegas concerts so I could ask you about what you’d like to see, which I’ll do.

Okay.

But not before adding that it was maybe the whitest list of musicians anyone could ever come up with: Donny Osmond, Carrie Underwood, Barry Manilow, Wayne Newton, Miranda Lambert, Chicago, Bret Michaels, 311. I mean, there was literally not one Black act or artist upcoming and there were only, like two B-list Latino comedians.

Are Black people and the people who admire them just not into Vegas anymore, or did none of these hotels see Usher at the Superbowl?

Well, you know, Usher just actually finished a residency here in Las Vegas, so we had him for a decent amount of time. Maybe we’ll chalk it up to some of those African American artists are just too big to play in Las Vegas at the moment, right? We can’t hold Beyonce at a residency. I’m just kidding, we could. It’s Las Vegas. Beyonce is not ready to do a residency, but we’ll take her when she’s ready.

SZA’s coming off winning some Grammys, you know, if she wants to do a residency, I’d love to see her, too, but she’s at the peak of her career. So it’d be great to come on down and do a residency or come do a concert. We got space for them all.

There were three more artists that I didn’t mention with upcoming concert dates. And they’re all gay icons. You get two tickets to see either Madonna, Adele, or Christina Aguilera. Who do you choose?

Oh, oh, oh. Adele. I think Adele. It would be between Adele and Madonna.

By the way, on March 1, all three of those performers are going to be on stage in Vegas all at the same time. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. There could be like, a tear in the space-time continuum. Or a black hole or I don’t know what.

A break in the sound barrier.

Either/or: Frank Sinatra or Sammy Davis?

Sammy Davis.

ARIA Hotel or Fontainebleau Hotel?

I haven’t been to the Fontainebleau yet. So I’ll say Fontainebleau, but only because I wanna give it a chance.

Wicked Spoon Buffet at the Cosmopolitan or Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars?

Wicked Spoon.

The New York, New York roller coaster or Stratosphere roller coaster?

Stratosphere.

Blackjack or craps?

DH: Blackjack.

Red or black?

Red.

What’s the best part of your job as state senator for Nevada’s 11th district?

Talking to people. I think a legislator, our job is to solve problems. And so I enjoy listening to people and the issues they’re having, and trying to figure out ways that we can solve them. Like, people can come and complain to me all day long. I want to hear it, and I want to be able to hash out solutions to their problems that the government can provide. The government isn’t always the answer, but sometimes just being there to listen is helpful. Even that’s a solution.
That TKD question made me laugh.