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Day: January 15, 2025
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Eleven Things To Do In KC This Weekend, January 16–19
Here are eleven things to do in KC this weekend, January 16–19, including On Stage with Emmanuel Pahud, Ailey Trio and Winnie-the-Pooh Day.
Zach Towers
Stand-up comic, actor and writer Zach Towers is best known for hosting two E! series, Nightly Pop and Dating #NoFilter. While the St. Louis native has recently been on tour as an opening act for Fortune Feimster, the comic has now embarked on a solo-tour. Towers’ bawdy and often explicit sense of humor blends sex-positive topics with his sharp wit.
January 16. 7 pm. Funny Bone Comedy Theater.
Courtesy photo. On Stage with Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud’s upcoming performance at the Kauffman Center is the equivalent of the Super Bowl for classical music lovers. Pahud is the principal flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic—highly regarded as the world’s best symphony—and will deliver an evening of chamber music. Presented by the Kansas City Symphony, the up-close, intimate concert is capped at one hundred audience members.
January 16. 8 pm. Helzberg Hall.
Courtesy photo. KC Restaurant Week
The annual dining event KC Restaurant Week has returned for the sixteenth year. Featuring hundreds of restaurants around the city, the event offers special multi-course menus across ten days.
January 10—19. Times and locations vary.
Westport Cafe will be participating in KC Restaurant Week. Kansas City Tattoo Expo
The second annual Kansas City Tattoo Expo will be hosted by the tattoo reality competition show Ink Masters. All weekend there will be live tattooing and body piercings by nearly 100 award-winning tattoo artists and piercers, ranging in style from realism to traditional to new school. There will also be raffle giveaways with free tattoos by the artist of your choice.
January 17—19. Times vary. Downtown Marriott Hotel.
Snow Creek
No need to head to the mountains to go skiing—enjoy the slopes at Snow Creek. Located just outside of Weston on the scenic Missouri River bluffs, the 25-acre resort offers skiing, snowboarding and tubing throughout the season, or for as long as temps stay below freezing.
January 9—March. Times vary. 1 Snow Creek Dr, Weston, MO.
Photo courtesy of Snow Creek. Candlelight: Neo-Soul Favorites
Candlelight’s performance series transforms beloved pop songs into elegant string quartet arrangements, akin to the soundtrack of Netflix’s popular series Bridgerton. This month, Fountain City String Quartet will highlight neo-soul hits, including ’90s throwbacks like Ms. Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor” and modern classics such as Childish Gambino’s “Redbone,” in an intimate, candlelit setting.
January 17. 6:15 pm. Unity Temple.
Photo courtesy of Fountain City String Quartet. Stranded in the City
KC band Stranded in the City defies genre and upholds the groove. Weaving together rock, soul, a little bit of twang and much more, the band plays a danceable mix of music with a retro sound.
January 17. 9 or 10 pm. The Ship.
Courtesy photo. The Emo Night Tour
Starting a decade ago in an East L.A. bar, Emo Night quickly became wildly popular with aging millennials. The now-national tour plays hits from early 2000’s pop-punk bands like Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance for now-thirty-year-olds who got bullied in middle school and made it their entire personality.
January 17. 8 pm. The Truman.
Ailey Trio
For over thirty years, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey have brought free performances of the Ailey Trio to the area. Featuring dancers from New York’s prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the company shares the African American cultural experience through movement.
January 16. 7 pm. Gem Theater.
Courtesy photo. The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes
Actor Cary Elwes is offering a behind-the-scenes look at the cult classic film The Princess Bride. Elwes, who portrayed the farm boy Westley, will share secrets and stories from the movie and beyond at the Kauffman Center’s moderated discussion.
January 18. 7 pm. Muriel Kauffman Theatre.
Courtesy photo. Winnie-the-Pooh Day
National WWI Museum and Memorial’s educational Winnie-the-Pooh Day will provide insight on the real-life WWI bear that inspired the cuddly character. Activities at the all ages event include crafts, cake, storytime presented by The Coterie and a screening of Goodbye Christopher Robin.
January 18. 11 am—3 pm. National WWI Museum and Memorial.
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Sportsbooks Hit the Jackpot
Kansas City’s sports bars on the Missouri side could see a little more action on those NFL Sundays when the Chiefs have a bye or play on a different day of the week.
Thanks to the passage of a new Missouri law allowing sports betting, this time next year, Missourians won’t have to cross State Line to place a sports wager. That means the Show Me State will get sportsbook gambling sections in casinos, and with online smartphone-enabled gambling, every game can get more interesting—like it is in Kansas.
Could sportsbooks in Missouri lure patrons away from Kansas? Only time will tell.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, there wasn’t much football fatigue at KCK’s Hollywood Casino ESPN Bet. Even though the Chiefs had just come off an intense Black Friday win against the Raiders, an impressive midday crowd still showed up looking to bet. On peak nights, like the Chiefs Black Friday win, securing a table is next to impossible, and there are lines at the ESPN Bet’s 30 wagering kiosks.
Casinos and bookies in Missouri are hoping that come Dec. 1, 2025, when the new law goes into effect, sports gambling in Missouri will be just as popular. Until then, Missourians in the metro must still drive to Kansas to bet on events like the Super Bowl, college basketball, UFC and everything in between (not unlike Kansans needing to hit Missouri for weed).
When the sports-gambling switch flips in KCMO, there are several possibilities for sportsbooks in the local casino world. The Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City, just north of the Missouri River, Bally’s Kansas City, with its river-straddling outpost on the other side of the Missouri, and Harrah’s Kansas City are all versed in sports gambling, already offering it at other casinos they own.
Could sportsbooks in those outlets lure Missouri patrons away from Hollywood’s ESPN Bet and the like? Maybe. But Hollywood’s owner, Pennsylvania-based Penn Entertainment, also counts Argosy Casino & Hotel, in Riverside, as part of its national portfolio, where it could add sports wagers through its ESPN licensing deal.
Penn CEO Jay Snowden doesn’t seem too worried about potential competition to the Hollywood sportsbook. “We think we’re pretty well positioned,” Snowden said during the company’s most recent earnings call, also noting that in Missouri “there’s real sports fandom.”
The degree of that fandom and ability to bet anywhere at any time on a smartphone is the real competition any brick and mortar sportsbook faces. Penn has ESPN Bet, Bally’s is attached to FanDuel, and Caesars operates a namesake app, meaning if you can’t make it to the sportsbook, they’re more than happy to come to you. Anywhere.
Whatever plans are cooking for future sportsbooks at Kansas City’s casinos, the competition’s going to be tough in the form of an iPhone or Android that allows its users to bet wherever they please.
And if 2022’s Kansas gambling ad blitz was any indicator, Kansas City’s residents will hear all about their new options soon enough.