Here’s What Las Vegas Headliners Will Look Like in Their Golden Years

By Scott Roeben, on September 08 2023
4 min read 6 comments
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We recently shared A.I. images of what dead Vegas entertainers would look like if they were alive today.

That exercise was mildly amusing, and the idea was sparked by an image of Elvis at 88, the age he’d be today. We decided to give that idea a little twist. We asked A.I. (artificial intelligence) to show what current Las Vegas performers would look like artificially aged to 88 years old. The results were captivating. At least to us. You’re pretty hard to please, all due respect.

We’ll start with one of our favorites: Lady Gaga.

It looks like Lady Gaga’s poker face will just get better with age.

A.I. has some limitations, as it’s still in the early stages of development, but it’s still fairly miraculous.

Next up, another popular diva and Caesars Palace headliner: Adele.

Of all the headliners A.I. depicted, Adele was the only one shown still doing what she does at 88.

We didn’t restrict our prompts to individuals, of course.

Here are the members of Blue Man Group at 88 years old.

This will probably never happen, as these guys are swapped out like the members of Menudo used to be.

If you don’t love that, you may not be Vegas enough.

What other Las Vegas headliners would like to see old?

How about Carrot Top?

A.I. isn’t perfect, but remember, the person in this image doesn’t actually exist.

Who else? Let’s see what A.I. thinks our beloved nemesis Criss Angel will look like in his eighties.

Money can’t buy happiness, apparently.

We’re just getting started!

Let’s take a quantum leap forward to see Bruno Mars in the twilight of his life.

Those times when you “put yo’ pinky rings up to the moon” and break a hip.

It’s been awhile since Britney Spears’ Las Vegas residency, but if she makes it through her current meltdown, we trust she’ll be back, so let’s see what A.I. thinks she’ll look like at 88.

Do not cancel us. Cancel A.I.

Now might be a good time to talk about what A.I. is, and what image generator we used to created these images. We used a service called Midjourney. Midjourney uses large language and diffusion models to create images based upon text prompts. Got it?

Since we’ve cleared that up, let’s check out Celine Dion at 88.

Celine has been having some health issues, but she’s still the queen of Las Vegas.

Too many singers, too few comedy-magicians so far, so let’s try Penn and Teller. The duo recently extended their residency at Rio, so they may actually be doing their show into their eighties.

Like we said, A.I. might not get it exactly right, but it often captures someone’s essence, which is fun to see.

Where are all the Katy Perry fans, and why aren’t you clamoring to see Katy Perry at 88 years old? We’ve got you.

Still sassy after all these years.

Cher could be coming back to Las Vegas for another residency, so let’s keep her top-of-mind.

Cher is currently 77, so it won’t be long before she transformers into Cruella.

While Donny is going solo in his current Las Vegas residency, we figured we’d better ask A.I. to include Marie as well, just to annoy her.

We aren’t saying Marie will keep being heavily retouched, A.I. is saying it. We’re totally off the hook.

Yes, Wayne Newton continues to perform on the Las Vegas Strip! Wayne Newton is 81, so we asked A.I. to show what Wayne Newton will look like at age 100. We got a surprising result.

Plastic surgery jokes are fun, no matter one’s age.

We kid because we love. Mr. Newton, we would love to have you on our podcast, despite the fact we pretty much just killed that remote possibly.

Are you not entertained?

We loved this theme so much, we decided to expand the requests to include non-human Las Vegas icons. Here’s Caesar Augustus (the guy whose statues are all around Caesars Palace) at 88.

Caesar only made it to 75, but they named a month after him, so there’s that. August was originally called Sextilus. So, Caesar pretty much ruined everything.

We also had Midjourney whip up an image of Vegas Vic at 88. That’s the neon sign on Fremont Street, but in human form.

Midjourney mostly churned out pasty white versions of Vic, but this was the most interesting.

Naturally, we had A.I. do Vegas Vickie at 88 years old as well. The original is on display at Circa Las Vegas.

When we are overtaken by our A.I. overlords, it will be hard to get mad because this is glorious.

Thank you for indulging our A.I. obsession!

If we were more ambitious or talented, we would’ve formatted this like a quiz: “Can you match this Las Vegas headliner with their A.I. aged photo?” What fun that would’ve been.

We love doing this blog, but A.I. has made it even more fun. Can you imagine all the new ways there will be to waste endless hours in the not-too-distant future? The possibilities are limitless.

Just like Las Vegas. Endless hours wasted and limitless possibilities. Ah, the circularity of the universe.