Famous tap-dancing twins, Sean and John Scott, give it their all nightly in Las Vegas’ number one show, Absinthe. From TV appearances to performing with Queen Bey herself, Sean and John have reached the pinnacle of the tap dancing community with their precise technique and incredible energy.
In celebration of their new routine, we talked to Sean and John about their rise to fame, working with choreographer Nick Young, fun celebrity stories, and what makes them tick… or tap.
Take us back – how did you get started in tap?
John:
We started tap dancing–
Sean:
–Because we are big Michael Jackson fanatics. He ran our house. So, me and John were running around our house, dancing, singing to Michael Jackson. My mom was cleaning one day and she saw Sammy Davis Jr. on TV tap dancing and said maybe I’ll put them in that.
John:
‘Cause we were super hyper, like uber hyper. Like crazy hyper, bouncing off the walls. She had to harness this energy cuz we were so hyper.
Sean:
So, she saw Sammy Davis Jr. tap dance. And she decided to put us in Colburn School of Performing Arts with Alfred Desio, our teacher.
You went to school in the morning and then another in the afternoon?
John:
We would do that about three or four times a week. Eventually, we started street performing. Our mother took us to Santa Monica Promenade one day and we saw kids and adults performing. We went to school at Pacific Palisades right around the corner. She saw a kid dancing and she asked me if I wanna dance and I’m like, ‘uh…’
The week after, she convinced me. I ended up dancing by myself; Sean was too scared. I found a piece of wood, had a radio, and then I was tap dancing to hip hop. Cause that’s all I listened to back then.
Sean:
Now this is for money. This is for like, you know a summer job. So instead of working at McDonald’s, she’s like, ‘just go out there and work’ you know? We made a lot of money.
John:
Tell them how you started.
Sean:
So, I started because John was out there tap dancing– you know, he was like a mama’s boy type– and then the girls started coming. I was like, wow. Okay. He’s getting attention. But the thing that got me was the money.
John:
When I started to count money at the end of the day, he was trying to get in there and I said ‘no, this isn’t you.’
Sean:
So he danced, he did a couple of songs, and he made some money. Then I said okay, I want to dance now.
John:
Street performing really kind of taught us to be more of a showman.
Sean:
Yeah, connecting with the audience.
John:
They let us know what they like, with the ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahhs’ and stuff like that.
Sean:
And that’s important to find out about yourself as a performer; what’s your strong points and what’s your weak points? That’s the most important thing.
And what did you find out about yourselves?
Sean:
I know my strong points are adding swag to my tapping. I think my athleticism toward that, like jumping, splitting, moving. Really going for a look with swag– a little Michael Jackson-esque.
John:
I feel like my strong point is… everything I do. It’s always strong.
Aside from working for Gaz, what’s your most memorable performance?
Sean:
Man, we got so many, where do you start? We’ve been doing it professionally from 14 years old and we’re 38 now. So yeah, it’s all we know. Like, performing experience? Maybe performing at Leo in Ibiza.
John:
One of the coolest experiences was doing Reading Rainbow. We also did a Huggies commercial. What else… We did Apollo, Showtime at Apollo. We won that. We did The Gong Show, Steve Harvey’s Big Time, and The BETs Live from LA.
Sean:
We lived in Japan for about six months performing.
John:
We worked with Prince a few times. Yeah. We’ve been to his house.
Sean:
He was a nice guy and he really liked our talent, you know, he really respected it.
John:
So he featured us in that music video called Musicology and from there we grew a small relationship with him.
Sean:
We worked with Beyonce quite a few times. We did the last leg of her North American Tour at the Wynn. We did her private party with her and her husband in the Dominican Republic. We worked at Madonna’s private party. I taught her kids.
But the thing is now we are to the point where we feel like we’re equivalent to them. We feel like we’re great at what we do and just collab with them. That’s all.
John:
We may not get as many butts in the seat. I mean, we did America’s Got Talent a couple times, Dancing With The Stars two times, we went with Usher a lot. Um, yeah, we’ve done a lot.
But the most memorable and the most touching to me was performing with the Nicholas brothers. The Nicholas brothers are a tap dancing duo from the 1940s – 1960’s. They started out as child stars. They’re amazing. Me and Sean kind of resemble them. They were a duo. Well, a lot of people thought they were twins, but they’re brothers a few years apart.
You collaborated with tap choreographer, Nick Young, on the new routine. How has it been working together?
Sean:
Great guy. As soon as I met him, great energy. He is very receptive to us, very patient.
John:
See how we are? Yeah, a lot of patience.
Sean:
Especially, working with us. Because me and John, we gotta have patience working with each other to get it done. It’s all about communicating and talking and he has it all. I think his technicality is superb. You know, I think he is really a great and excellent tapper and he opened up our vocabulary with our tap. I really appreciate him and, truthfully, he’s a new friend.
What can audience members expect to see in your new act?
John:
Excitement and energy. First of all, the lights alone, you feel like James Brown about to come back from the dead and come out, but you’ll see us.
Sean:
I’ll say concert-style lights and energy.
John:
Something totally different to the last performance, and any other performance in Spiegelworld at the moment.
Sean:
I think there’s gonna be more comedy. I feel like the little time we have on stage, we give it our all, showing angles of our talent. I think it’s more audience-interactive.
John:
I feel like every time we’re on stage we, like Sean said, we give it all. And I think people see that we really give it our all; like it’s our last day tap dancing, because that’s how we were raised and that’s how we want to be remembered. Give it everything you got, leave it on stage, because we’ve always been that kind of performer.