Adult entertainer and former Playboy Playmate Teri Weigel will debut her own Las Vegas musical show, Desert Heat, during the second week of February 2004. And she says that if the show proves enough of a success, she will say goodbye to adult entertainment and concentrate fully on a new career in music and mainstream acting
"We're going to try it out for about a year and see what happens with it and we're going to take it from there," Weigel told AVN Online by telephone from Ft. Lauderdale, after finishing a December 16 appearance on popular Internet radio show SmutDrs, where she first announced her plans.
Weigel described Desert Heat as a combination show featuring herself and four backup singers of differing nationalities, plus a comedian, magician, and backup dancers. The show will run approximately an hour and ten minutes and will be featured in the main room of the Sahara in Las Vegas.
And Weigel – an accomplished singer and guitarist – admitted that she did not want to back away from adult entertainment until she was absolutely sure Desert Heat went well enough to justify the permanent move to mainstream musical entertainment.
"If in a year's time the show's doing good, I will leave the adult industry," she said. "But if there's any problems and I'm not happy, well, I'm just taking a little leave from (adult). I'm trying to be practical with it, because it's hard to end something and a year later come back to it. So I'm putting it on hold, and seeing what will happen with my singing career. This is a great opportunity for me."
Weigel said singing was a lifetime dream of hers. "The reason why I did the adult," she said, "was so I could do the dancing and the entertaining. I'm on the road forty weeks out of the year for ten years, and I always enjoyed the entertaining aspect of it. I just haven't had the opportunity to come up that's as good as this opportunity. It's the chance of a lifetime. It's a great tradition. It's tons of money. And, it's myself."
Before her banishment from Playboy's Playmate family, Weigel had featured in Playboy's Girls of Rock and Roll, a Las Vegas stage show which she did for four years. Then, when she moved to full-out adult entertainment, she divided her time between adult films and hitting the road with her own shows.
"I really liked doing the Vegas show," she said. "It was a stationary show, I was starring in it. I was on the show for four years. And I just decided that, you know, I want to sing again, and I want to play guitar."
Weigel's Desert Heat sponsorship includes Van Nuys, Calif.-based Farnell Guitars, and she's trying to get additional sponsorship for "either a motorcycle or a Mercedes in the show. Things are coming along. We've got an ensemble of four beautiful women, and they're going to be doing backup with me, and they're just great."
Weigel will spend January rehearsing to open the show in early February. She is co-producing the show with Dennis Levinson, with whom she worked in Playboy's Girls of Rock and Roll, and Murrill Maglio.
Wherever her future career reaches, Weigel said she appreciates adult entertainment for the exhaustive stage experience she said took any nervousness about performing in front of crowds away. "Being out there every single week has made me a strong performer," she said. "I am very good at interaction with the audience. As far as adult goes, that really helped me get to that point in my career where I'm strong and untouchable. And I can handle it. I've had ten years of experience every single night."
Almost. She does admit to taking Sundays through Tuesdays off, during which, she said, "I cook and clean and I take care of my nine Shelties, one hamster, and two birds." She has help from a live-in housekeeper, but those pets she calls her children.
"I kept the whole litter," Weigel said of her Shelties. "I have the mother and the father. They're my kids. And this is a great thing that, when I go to Vegas, I'll be with them full time." Mostly – she plans to split her time between her homes in the Las Vegas hills and in southern California.
She also wants to return to mainstream film and television work, similar to her memorable guest shot as Al Bundy's fantasy woman in Married…with Children. She's hoping Desert Heat also helps launch her back toward special appearances in situation comedies and other programs and films.
"This always was a plan," Weigel said of her resurrected music and mainstream acting. "And I was getting ready to turn over five years ago. But then I had that accident." (Weigel suffered a near-fatal accident when her vehicle was hit by a semi-truck.) "From that, I had five surgeries and fusions twice to my upper and lower back, and it kind of slowed me down a couple of years ago. But it's fixed now. And I'm stronger than ever."
SmutDrs fans can rest assured, however, that Weigel is not abandoning them or the show.
"They're my personal friends," she said of co-stars Dr. Johnny and Playpus. "I've known them for ten years. They're great people. They've DJed for me, and I've always kept to those two. They're my favorites in Florida. They've got a great show, it's put together very well, and they're very professional. They're coming out to see me when the show gets started. They call me every couple of months to check what's going on. They're great guys."
Weigel will also tend to her Website, which she does 24/7 featuring twelve voyeur cams throughout her entire home. Meanwhile, she's excited especially about returning to her guitar playing.
"In seventh and eighth grade, in Catholic school, I sang and played guitar in the church chorus," she said. "But I put it down. Then I started picking it up again the last three years. Between cooking, light housekeeping, and taking care of the dogs, at night I'd be practicing."
