On Tuesday morning, Scott Thompson, the comedian known as Carrot Top, was sipping tea in his dressing room at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, where he has been a headliner for 18 years. Ahead of an afternoon full of appearances on Radio Row, which is the mecca for sports talk radio stations during Super Bowl week, Mr. Thompson was reflecting on the game’s effect on Las Vegas.
“I think this is the biggest event we’ve ever had,” Mr. Thompson said.
How big? He was wearing a baseball cap with a handmade sticker that read “Need Tickets” across the front. Yes, even Carrot Top has had trouble scoring tickets to the game on Sunday between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
“That’s what everyone says: ‘You’re Carrot Top! You own this town!’” Mr. Thompson said. “But I really can’t get one.”
It can be challenging for even the glitziest events to make an impression on Las Vegas, a technicolor oasis in the Nevada desert embodied by the Strip — a vast collection of hotels, casinos and restaurants that lies just outside city limits and has the manic energy of a pinball machine.
But Las Vegas seems spellbound by the Super Bowl, which is making its first appearance in a place that the N.F.L., not so long ago, avoided to the point of parody. Now, ahead of the big game, the league has effectively wallpapered its image onto Las Vegas.
