Showgirl Impersonators Brawl with Las Vegas Strip Tourists in Viral Video

Two showgirl impersonators were arrested and charged with battery after attacking a man and woman on the Las Vegas Strip this week. A wild bystander video of the attack was obtained and posted by TMZ on Friday (Oct. 2)

The video, embedded below, opens mid-brawl, as two impersonators attack a woman in white pants, knocking her to the ground near the entrance to a Las Vegas Strip pedestrian walkway by Flamingo Road.

Note how cinematically it begins—with a little boy watching from a nearby handrail he can barely see over.

Feathers Fly

During the attack, which took place around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 30), one of the impersonators begins punching the woman’s head until a shirtless man, whose face is already bloodied, rushes to her aid and backhands the attacker across the face.

At that point, all three impersonators converge on the shirtless man. One of them removes a white high heel and attempts to strike him in the face repeatedly. Though he successfully deflects the barrage with his left arm, the impersonator then turns her heel to the woman, who is still on the ground, and clocks her head hard with it.

“Maggie, stop!” one of the impersonators reprimands another as both sides shout bleeped-out expletives at each other.

“Can someone else please, can you please help and not stand there?!” a bystander’s voice yells.

“Where’s ****ing security?” a British woman wants to know.

The clip ends with an edit to two of the impersonators handcuffed by a police cruiser.

Worst in Show

TMZ‘s coverage got something incorrect. It identified the attackers as “showgirls.” But no showgirls have worked in Las Vegas since Jubilee! closed at Bally’s in February 2016, and none have ever stood on Strip sidewalks in full costume offering to take photos with passersby.

These ladies are actually costumed characters who make a living posing for selfies with tourists in exchange for unreasonably high tips they attempt to extort after the selfies are taken. This ranks as No. 4 in our “5 Biggest Scams in Las Vegas” to be on the lookout for.

While no information has been released about how this particular brawl began, tourists are not usually happy to hear that the photo session they just posed for will cost them up to $100.

This conversation usually happens once the impersonators are handed between $5 and $20 for their troubles. Typically, the impersonators will grab the money but then berate their marks loudly for more—sometimes giving chase for blocks until most finally capitulate to make the public scene stop.

Some tourists, however, refuse to capitulate and the scene can escalate.

This theory aligns with what police say they also charged the two women with—obtaining money under false pretenses.

Both suspects are scheduled back in court December 3.