Golden Knights ‘Crowd Igniter’ Says You Come To Las Vegas ‘With Permission To Be Crazy’

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Cameron Hughes’ adult life has taken him from his dad’s basement in Ottawa to professional crowd igniter around the National Hockey League.

 

And this NHL season, Hughes is the Vegas Golden Knights’ secret weapon to stoke the T-Mobile Arena crowd when things in the VGK ice house get a little too quiet.

 

Hughes is the dancing man, the hockey fan-looking dude who strips off layer after layer of Golden Knights T-shirts while gyrating his legs and arm to songs like “Mony, Mony.”

 

 

The 47-year-old crowd igniter has a special place in the Golden Knights’ inaugural season, enlisted 13 times by the Knights in-game entertainment chief, Jonny Greco, to pump up the Vegas crowds. His everyman look resonates with all types of fans, who can relate to another guy who looks like another hockey dude from north of the border.

 

“I don’t want to work out too much,” Hughes told LVSportsBiz.com before Game 1 of the Golden Knights-LA Kings match Wednesday evening.

 

Greco typically sets up Hughes for three pre-arranged dance/T-shirt routines a game, but Hughes noted the Knights can call an audible and get Hughes gyrating in between the scheduled routines.

 

Hughes, who lives in the Los Angeles area, said the Las Vegas crowd is different from the other NHL crowds he works because he put it this way about Sin City: “You come here with permission to be crazy. There’s a certain vibe when you’re coming in here. You can’t copy Vegas in other cities.”

 

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His dancing routines have captured the hearts of Golden Knights fans, who recognized him as he strolled through The Park en route to T-Mobile Arena. They hugged him and enjoyed chatting with him.

 

“I’m the connector with the fans,” Hughes said. “I have a great relationship with the fans.”

 

Golden Knights season ticket holder Jennifer Schulz who sits in Section 11 wondered who Hughes was at first because, at first glance, he can come off as another fan. But then the gyrations start and the Golden Knights T-shirts come flying off his body — and the fans then go crazy.

 

“At his first game, I asked, ‘What is this guy doing?’ Every game he gets the crowd riled up. We look for him before the games,” Schulz said 90 minutes before the opening faceoff. “He’s kinda like an unofficial mascot.”

 

Hughes started his gig when he began dancing at an Ottawa Senators game 24 years when the arena was too quiet.

 

He parlayed it into a full-time entertainment career, working with technical assistant Zack Frongillo to coordinate the dance routines with Greco’s VGK in-game entertainment staff.

 

“It’s cool to see what people do for a shirt,” Frongillo said.

 

Hughes’ dancing and passion have propelled the entertainer to corporate motivation work.

 

“I’m firing them up, too, getting those CEOs dancing,” Hughes said.

 

And Las Vegas fans know the feeling.

 

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