Monti Rock III, a self-described no-talent television star and frequent closeted gay guest on the Tonight Show and other chat shows of the 1960s and ’70s, died in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas on February 23. He was 86.

Like gay contemporaries Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Liberace — whom Rock said “stole my act” — he was a pre-Stonewall archetype of wink-and-nod gay camp, though, unlike those popular celebrities, he had no particular talent to show for it.

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While he enjoyed some small success with a pair of dance hits in the 1970s, fronting a group called Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes, Rock found his greatest fame as a frequent guest on Johnny Carson’s late-night show.

“I was a failure for 11 years on TV,” Rock said in a 1976 profile.  

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And that was his schtick.

A flamboyant dresser in the style of Rip Taylor, another camp icon on the talk show circuit — see long capes, bedazzled shoes, zany jackets — Rock delighted Carson with his complete lack of any discernible talent.

“Every time I would come on, it was like, ‘I failed in this show, but I’m in a new show.’ Or, ‘I’m in a bad movie. I’m in a western,’” he told the Las Vegas Sun in 2005. Rock recalled Carson would ask, “‘How did you get a western?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but I can ride a horse.’ He would break up.”

Rock’s sincerity and oddball persona may have inspired Andy Kaufman’s act a decade later. Howard Stern called him one of the greatest talk show guests of all time.

Rock strode the shiny black floor to Carson’s couch 43 times in all, inspiring TV hosts Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, and Mike Douglas to showcase his sincerely subversive act.

Rock’s disco singles “Get Dancin’” and “I Wanna Dance Wit’ Choo (Doo Dat Dance),” in 1975 led to a cameo role two years later in Saturday Night Fever, as a DJ. His one line, delivered from the booth, became a signature catchphrase: “Hello, again! This is beautiful Monti, your delicious DJ!”

Rock started out as a hairdresser in New York, known among his semi-celebrity clientele as the Rebel with a Comb. Later, he booked cabaret shows in Manhattan, where he came to Carson’s attention.

Rock returned to small venues in the mid-70s in Miami and Las Vegas, where his schtick had limited success without a sympathetic celebrity foil.

“Not only does Monti Rock III have no discernible talent whatsoever,” one reviewer in Fort Lauderdale wrote, “he also has a filthy mouth.”

By the mid-90s, Rock was living in Las Vegas full-time, despite previous failures in the gambling mecca. His cabaret show at Caesars Palace in 1969 “bombed,” he said, and a stint as host of “Legends In Concert” in 1993 landed flat.

But later, he became a fixture among the city’s entertainment dead-enders. He was seen around town driving a leopard print-covered Ford Focus, and took to holding a stuffed cat in later appearances on stage. His insider status led him to write a gossip column for industry bible Gaming Today magazine.

A PR flak in Las Vegas well-acquainted with Rock in his later years — often bursting into his office unannounced with a variation on that catchphrase, “Hello, everybody! It’s the famous Monti Rock III!” — mourned the loss of the would-be star.

“Las Vegas has no shortage of characters, but Monti was in a league of his own. He was equal parts gracious and maddening,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“It’s sad that his great comeback, which was just around a corner that was always just out of reach, never came to be. The world is little more quiet and much less sparkly without Monti Rock.”

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