Sacramento trial lawyer Joe Genshlea has hundreds of stories about growing up and working in the capital city.

Now he's putting them into a one-man show next month as a benefit for the Sacramento Theatre Co.

Genshlea, 70, a founder of what is now the Weintraub, Genshlea, Chediak Law Corp., says the idea came up in a conversation with STC artistic director Peggy Shannon.

The lifelong Sacramentan will describe colorful characters he's known. He'll riff on ill-fated decisions, like taking cars off K Street downtown. ("We need a time machine" to reverse that one, he says.)

And tackle public art. (The nude statue of Poseidon outside the Sacramento Convention Center, he says, resembles an Olympics athlete who "forgot his javelin … and his jockstrap.")

Genshlea has done plenty of public speaking. Arguments in court. Eulogies for friends.

Telling stories in front of a crowd doesn't worry him. But he is concerned about filling 2,000 seats for the Oct. 25 "A Sense of Place" evening at the Wells Fargo Pavilion.

He implores: "Bring all your friends, will you?"

Most certainly.

Where shopping comes first

KCRA Channel 3 is ending its four-year-plus presence at Arden Fair.

"They had a great run here, but I think it's run its course," mall exec Tod Strain says of the KCRA Experience studio and retail store on the mall's second floor.

The operation probably will close by year's end, says Strain, senior property manager for Macerich Co., Arden Fair's operator.

KCRA execs could not be reached for comment.

The studio has been a crowd-pleaser at the mall with people stopping to watch Walt Gray and other KCRA anchors do the noon news.

"It was good for the community, good for us and good for KCRA," Strain says. "It was a great partnership. Now we're both moving on."

Deal 'em

There's a glitzy bar, an Asian menu, original artwork, 15 flat-screen TVs and nine tables for poker, blackjack, pai gow and baccarat.

Welcome to Casino Royale, a 24-hour card room opening next Wednesday evening at 2052 Auburn Blvd.

"We're trying to bring a little Vegas to Sacramento," says GM James Kouretas of the splashy enterprise he and his partners have spent two years planning.

New card rooms are a rarity because licenses are so hard to get, Kouretas says.

He and his partners – William Blanas and Faye Stearns – are using the license Stearns had for Duffy's Cardroom, which burned down in 2005.

They've hired about 100 people and spent $2 million to fix up the former site of the Sacramento Joe eatery.

The Casino Royale name? It's catchy, the partners say.

And the James Bond reference is apt, says Blanas, a real estate developer and the son of former Sac County Sheriff Lou Blanas.

After all, he says, "Some people think I look like the new Bond (actor Daniel Craig)."

Well, maybe a little.

A trashy welcome

One of the great perks at Intel Corp. is a two-month paid sabbatical every seven years. But Folsom employees who leave pay a price: Their offices are trashed upon their return.

"It's an ongoing joke around here," says Dean Cabrey, a physical design engineer who recently returned to find his cubicle filled to its 6-foot brim with crumpled-up pages from phone books.

Even the cabinets and drawers were stuffed with paper.

"This was one of the better ones," he says of the prank. "You measure it by how long it takes you to get back to work and I spent half a day cleaning up."

As he was loading the debris into numerous 30-gallon trash bags, Cabrey, 45, made a discovery. At his desk, completely buried by paper, was a business-attired mannequin.

A lot of overloaded office folk can relate to that plight.

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.