PINE NUTS – Revisiting Virginia City
January 24, 2025 | McAvoy Lane
This past summer, Reno advertising guru Michael Lucido invited me to help him publicize a few of Virginia City’s family attractions with a TV commercial. So I hauled a white suit out of the closet, grabbed a cigar, and headed for my old stomping grounds, the Comstock Lode. It was like coming home again, for in the halcyon summer of ’88 I presented 200 shows in Piper’s Opera House to launch a 36-year career as an impressionist of Mark Twain, who, as you know, got his start in Virginia City. The Comstock Lode was one lucky stop for Twain, and one sunny stop for Layne…
We started the shoot at the V&T train station. The V&T was so slow in Twain’s day that
they once transported a prisoner from Virginia City to Carson, and by the time they got him there he had aged so, they could no longer identify him; they had to let him go. It was so slow, they took the cowcatcher off the front and moved it around to the backside. Well, they knew they weren’t going to catch any cows, but they were afraid one might try to climb on from behind and bite the passengers.”
Michael issued a casting call for extras to meet Mark Twain at the Bucket of Blood Saloon, where ‘Samuel’ would be sharing some tales. Well, you never saw such a heartwarming bunch of fun lovers in your life, and Mr. Twain got to hear more stories than he told.
One gentleman in a stovepipe hat told Samuel that he was glad to get out of the house, because his wife was so mad at him that he had to take the batteries out of the cattle prodder. I wondered what it was he had done to make her so mad, but handed him a drink and let it slide.
Interestingly, the extras never left. They joined us from the Ponderosa Mine to Fourth Ward School, skipping and singing and hollering to beat the band. You’d have thought it was Nevada Day!
As I walked out of Grandma’s Fudge with a humongous ice cream cone in my hand a beautiful lady asked me if she could have a taste. I handed her my coveted cone, she gave me a wink, and walked away with it. Some things never change up there on the Loveable Lode.
In the final scene we were back at the V&T, and I invited folks to revisit Virginia City, where, “Who knows, you might even see a ghost!” Whereupon I snap my fingers and magically disappear.
I hope the Comstock gets as much custom from Michael’s TV commercial as I received from its viewing. One wag was quick to attest, “McAvoy, I haven’t seen you disappear like that since the waitress at the Café Del Rio brought us the check!”
Thank you, Virginia City, and Michael Lucido, for reminding me of just how delightful an adventure the Comstock Lode can be in 2025…