For about 1000 magicians, March Madness means something else entirely. It's time to attend
Joe Stevens' Big Dance in Las Vegas, a.k.a. the Desert Magic Seminar, for me the best of the big
international conventions, with its own loyal following, with incomparable shows and lectures,
celebrity-studded parties, late-night card sessions that border on real magic, the 24-hour light
show that is Las Vegas, and, ultimately, its own champion from a stellar field of contestants. As
if a normal week of such activity were not enough, this year's outing was DMS XX, and, with
the best of the past 20 years returning, the affair promised, and delivered, any number of special
moments.
I'll depart from my usual "thematic" review and instead provide a chronological string of my
impressions. I arrived in Las Vegas in the morning and, for the first time ever there, rented a car. Wow -- I
feel totally empowered. No more waiting for buses or snail-like shuttle rides from the airport.
The convention is still two days away.
MOVIE AND MAGIC HALL OF FAME -- Just across the street from Caesar's Palace, this
tourist spot had eluded me for years, even though it costs only five dollars with an easily
acquired coupon. For this minimal outlay you get a half-hour magic show plus entry to the
facility's museum. The show was most interesting as it featured Valentine Vox, a ventriloquist
who once appeared on the old tv panel show, To Tell the Truth. They ran a film of this segment,
in which Vox provided all the vocal answers, regardless of which contestant was asked the
question. He managed to completely stump the panel of Tom Poston (who asked him if he knew
Robert Orben), Peggy Cass, Larry Blyden, and Kitty Carlisle. The museum is the real treat,
with 20,000 square feet of antique magic apparatus laid out in a sort of wax museum scenic
format. At each of the illusion displays, videos were running of famous magicians performing
with the apparatus. I particularly enjoyed Willard's rendition of "Metamorphosis."
SIEGFRIED AND ROY'S SECRET GARDEN -- The Las Vegas sunshine made for a lovely
day in which to take in the new Secret Garden at the Mirage, an expansion of the original
dolphin exhibit that now includes many of the large mammals from the show, including the
elephant, white lions, and numerous tigers. The dolphin exhibit remains the highlight, and three
more babies have been born since my last visit, for a total of four -- Squirt, Peekaboo, Bugsy,
and Pablo. (Later during the DMS, Siegfried would host a ladies only tour of the garden.) SHOWGIRLS OF MAGIC -- Bonnie Saxe's show at the San Remo continues to pack in
audiences. The biggest change since last year is that Kevin James has left the show (he is
working at Caesar's Magical Empire) and has been replaced by Luna Shemada (the spelling of
her name keeps changing on me). Kevin's former partner Antonio Hoyas remains with the show
and is quite funny, occasionally hysterically so, in turns as The Great Antoine, Dolly Parton, and
Sonny Bono singing along with female impersonator Steve Daly as Cher. Another recent
departure is Sophie Evans, and Los Latin Cowboys remain with the show. As last year, the
running thread of the show is three quite beautiful girls who perform illusions and other stage
magic (esp. the dancing canes) throughout this lively variety revue. Note: I spoke with Kevin
James later at the seminar, and he is working with a new partner. SNOWSTORMS IN CHINA -- Every magic convention seems to produce one trick that gets
performed by every magician, and this would prove especially true in the World Challenge Stage
Competition, with the ubiquitous offender being "Snowstorm in China." But the real
snowstorms started much earlier, in the dealer room, where Mike Close was tirelessly
demonstrating Dean Dill's new card trick, "Blizzard." If you're unfamiliar with "Blizzard," the
basic effect is that a freely-named card winds up being the only card in a deck of 51 additional
blank cards. Unless you were born yesterday, this says deck switch, and my decision on whether
to buy the thing depended on how good the switch was. By the time I saw Mike demonstrate it, I
knew when the switch had to occur and exactly where it was coming from. It is to Mike's credit,
therefore, that he nailed me three times before I could finally catch him doing it. His handling
is a bit different from that in the writeup, and it will fool you. I bought the trick. (Mike also
demonstrated material from his excellent Workers series. These items and "Blizzard" made him
one of the most popular demonstrators of the convention.) MOST ORIGINAL TRICK OF THE CONVENTION -- Early on the first day, as folks were still
registering, Sonny Fontana and Kevin James were promoting a young Spanish magician named
Anton Lopez. I watched as Lopez had a card selected, in this case a jack of hearts. He
performed a brief ambitious card sequence with it, then noted that the jack sort of "looked like"
the spectator. The spectator looked more closely at his card and there, where the jack's face
should have been, was a perfect color photo of the spectator's face! The card was perfectly
smooth and was the spectator's to keep. The commercial value of such an effect, especially in a
trade show situation, was immediately apparent. I felt that the convention was off to an
excellent start. (The trick was later for sale for $79 on cd-rom and assumed you owned some
rather sophisticated computer equipment. The trick was selling well.)
90 MINUTES WITH THE THINKERS -- This 3:00 P.M. event was a panel discussion with
some of the columnists on Joe Stevens' GeMiNi network. Hosted by T.A. Waters, it produced
some lively discussion, with the initial focus being on Herbert Becker's recent appearance on the
Maury Povich show, exposing magic tricks. (A sometimes contributor to GeMiNi, I found
myself on this panel, where I had the honor of passing the microphone back and forth between
Mike Rogers and Karrell Fox.) In the dealer room, by the way, Mark Stevens manned the
GeMiNi booth and signed up numerous magi to this increasingly popular bbs. Its recent
migration from a modem-based to internet-based forum should greatly increase its accessibility.
As an incentive, the Stevens crew had printed up a most professional booklet of contributions
from some of the GeMiNi columnists. (See the ad under "March Madness Shopping Center," in the
main section of the magazine.)
20TH ANNIVERSARY ROARING TWENTIES COSTUME PARTY -- These parties occur in a
cavernous room with numerous large round tables, hot and cold food offerings, and multiple
bars. Music is provided, starting early this evening with a band and ending with Mike Close on
piano. Costumes are encouraged, and the Board of Directors' Obie O'Brien, Jay Marshall, Pete
Biro, and Bill Wells along with Joe Stevens arrived in colorful zoot suits, looking rather like
gangster extras from the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie. These guys along with various ladies
in flapper dresses set the tone for a pleasant evening in which to renew old friendships. With
many returning guests, these conventions take on a reunion atmosphere, and I was delighted that
many of my favorite magicians/friends chose to attend this year.
GARY DARWIN'S LAS VEGAS MAGIC CLUB MEETING/ DAN HARLAN LECTURE --
Gary Darwin's magic club has been sponsoring lectures in Las Vegas for years, and this modest
extra pay event (only $5) has become an integral part of DMS. Dan Harlan passed out napkins
and rubber bands so that the audience could follow along with him. I found this to be
impossible, but the results were often quite amusing, especially when audience members held up
their napkins to display their success at Dan's "Starcle" effect. Many of these napkin tears
looked nothing like stars. JUAN MAYORAL LECTURE -- I was in Group B this year, which means my first lecture would
be by Spain's Juan Mayoral. He asked us to excuse his English, which he learned from
cassettes. "Very cheap cassettes," he added for a big laugh. His material was an exciting
melange of electronic magic, a nifty rope effect, and a lot of stuff with fire. In the dealer room,
Juan worked adjacent to Mike Close. Mike would be in the middle of a "Blizzard"
demonstration, and then there would be a huge burst of flame, inches off to his right. Mike
would pause and say, "Menopause is such a bitch," or whatever seemed appropriate to the
particular blast. It got the laughs but had to be disconcerting, to say the least.
TAMARIZ LECTURE -- Juan Tamariz is one of my favorites from past DMS experiences, and
indeed I've enjoyed him most when he was not a featured performer, but was simply one of the
late-night session guys. A trick for trick face-off between Juan and Chris Kenner one night
stands out especially. In this lecture he both convulsed and confounded the audience with
several items, but earned the most attention during a theoretical discussion on how to start with
high interest and build from there.
"THE WINNERS" STAGE SHOW -- This show, the contest, and the other big stage shows at
the Tropicana are held in the beautiful Tiffany Theatre. This is the room which nightly hosts the
Trop's Folies Bergere show, where Lance Burton performed nightly for nine years before
branching out on his own. Fortunately, it's available to us in the afternoons, as it was for this
1:00 P.M. event. Following brief messages and shtick by Karrell Fox, Jay Marshall, and Joe
Stevens, the emcee duties for the rest of the afternoon were assumed by Tom Mullica. The acts
included some of the best of the past winners, specifically Danny Cole (last year's teen winner
and recently seen on the Lance Burton special, Jason Byrne (last year's winner), Tina Lenert
with her mopman act (perhaps it was because I had a really great seat for a change, but this was
the best I've seen Tina do this; I was completely sold on the romance and oblivious to method),
Mike Michaels (an award winner with his mechanical man act a few years ago and back with a
brand new Jack in the Box act), and the ever-popular mayhem of Kohl and Co. Equally starring
on this afternoon's show was Mullica himself, who satirized Lance's underwater escape, who
had us howling as his "Tobacco Patch baby" wolfed down cigarette after cigarette, and who
finally treated us to Duke, his legendary rabbit puppet we've often seen photos of but which few
of us have seen Tom perform. Tom also conducted a joke-off in which he awarded the winner a
set of his new videos. Although the prize went for a clean joke about a talking frog, jokes about
flatulence, locked bowels, and oral sex touched this audience as well. (Personal note: I was
sitting in a spot where I could have told a joke myself, but I don't have that Mike Close expertise
at telling stories, and so declined. If you'd like to read the joke I had in mind, turn to "Stirring
the Tana Leaves.")
THE ASCANIO CARD SESSION -- Past DMS sessions have featured such legends as Slydini
and Ed Marlo, and those who witnessed them carry special memories indeed. This year the
legend was Arturo de Ascanio, and his performance was a revelation. I had heard he could do
wonders with two cards held as one, but had no idea he had worked out so many techniques.
This was truly beautiful magic. Ascanio speaks little English, and he was admirably translated
on all occasions by a young man named Alberto Inglesias. The good news for the rest of you, by
the way, is that the best of Ascanio's performance and explanations is available on a new video
from Joe Stevens. NEW YORK NEW YORK -- No city on the planet is in as much flux as Las Vegas. The new
hotel New York New York, diagonally across the street from the Tropicana, is worth a visit. It
features Geno Munari's Houdini's Magic Shop, where I bumped into Mac King, Mike Caveney,
and Tina Lenert on this Monday evening as I was in search of pizza. I found that as well, along
with some fine cannoli, as I wound through the various New York-ish restaurants, the rumble of
the roller coaster overhead perfectly simulating the rumble of a subway. As someone aptly said,
"This is just like Disney World."
THE LATE NIGHT SESSIONS -- There is a quiet area at the far end of the Tropicana's island
corridor that is perfectly suited to sitting around and showing each other card tricks. I don't
remember which items I saw on which nights, but several items that stood out were Steve
Silverman's handlings of the Hofzinser fan force and an instantaneous reverse, a Jon
Racherbaumer pile trick, a beautiful discovery by Ramon Rioboo, and a hilarious in-joke version
of the slow motion aces as shown to Mike Close by Bob Kohler. My greatest regret is that I
didn't have more time, and endless stamina, to sit in on all these sessions. PAUL GERTNER -- Although I've been in magic forever, this was my first opportunity to see
Paul Gertner work live, and it was a major treat. It's easy to see why he does so well in the
corporate world. He flat out looks successful, and his magic is flawlessly executed. Of the
many items in Steel and Silver and in his videos, Paul performed such pieces as "Paul's
Opener," "Unshuffled," "That's Ridiculous," "Photocopy," "Triple Die-lemma," and "The Steel
Cups and Balls." He also conducted an in-depth discussion of the classic force. Paul is of
course one of the earliest winners of the DMS contests.
LENNART GREEN -- What can I say about Lennart Green? If you've never seen his card
handling, you will be completely baffled by his methods. He treated us to a flurry of
impossibilities exploiting his Green angle separation, his lateral palm techniques, and so on.
Because his stuff is available in print only in disparate small booklets, you're probably better off
at the moment investing in his video, Green Magic Volume 1, available from Joe Stevens.
WORLD CHALLENGE STAGE COMPETITION SHOW -- I've long held that, Las Vegas itself
notwithstanding, what separates the Desert Magic Seminar from lesser conventions is its annual
high stakes contest, with the acts pre-screened to weed out even a hint of mediocrity. What you
get then is a contest of the best vs. the best, often featuring remarkably innovative programs.
This afternoon's contest -- we're back in the Tiffany Theatre -- reminded me of some of my
favorites of years past, with some highly original magic. James Dimmare represented the U.S.,
with his high-energy act of doves and dance, finishing with his original shrinking dove cage to
vanishing dove cage. Yuka represented Japan with a charming act involving fans, the highlight
for me being a levitating fan interlude. From China, the act of Qin Ming Xiao featured strong
magic from both a female and male magician (both in some really crazy shoes), including a
comedic spirit cabinet effect with a spectator. The next four acts impressed me as the most
original, and it was most difficult to pick a "best" among them. Vicj (pronounced "vickie,"
more or less) represented Italy with a comedy act that featured some great self-levitations. In
one version, he held up a cloth behind which he floated first vertically, and later horizontally
with his female assistant also floating -- a sort of poor man's Lance Burton levitation. In another
segment, he came out as an Arab in robe and fez; first the tassle on his fez became erect as he
played on a recorder (or some damn instrument!), and then he floated up himself as he continued
to play. Enric Magoo represented Spain with a wildly comedic Frankenstein act, playing the
monster sort of as the out-of-control Peter Boyle character from Young Frankenstein. The
highlight was a lip synch to "Summer Love" from Grease, with Magoo taking the John Travolta
part and a talking, floating skull taking the Olivia Newton-John part, three smaller skulls singing
the backup chorus part. (I mentioned this act to my son, who has visited Spain a couple of times
in recent years. He says the Spanish are absolutely wild over the movie Grease.) Juji Yusuda
from North Korea presented a lightning costume change act with two lovely young girls,
catching me off guard many times. Finally (in my accounting that is; none of the acts actually
appeared in this order), two engaging young guys from Germany, Junge and Junge, presented a
shoeshine act, in which one was getting a shine while the other attempted to perpetrate various
crimes against him (I told you these acts were original). The background music was from West
Side Story. The audience reacted most favorably to the concluding illusion, a twister box on the
shinee's head, a so-so effect until the box was shown empty and the head could seemingly be
nowhere.
So how did I vote? I should mention that my vote has coincided with the winner on only one
occasion that I can recall in past DMS contests. It's a people's choice award, and one can hardly
expect "the people" to share my refined taste in magical entertainment. For me it came down to
a tossup between Vicj (I've long had an interest in self-levitations) and Magoo (ditto anything
involving horror movies). The final decision turned on the fact that Vicj had the most beautiful
female assistant of any of the seven acts, and Magoo had Olivia Newton-John's singing; I went
with Olivia. Dave Knapp of GeMiNi fame was seated at my table and also voted for Magoo.
Perhaps it was the "scientific" aspects of a Frankenstein act that appealed to two physicists.
The various acts, by the way, were introduced by Siegfried, Peter Biro, Mac King (who
perpetrated a great gag on Tom Mullica re the previous day's oral sex joke), Fielding West,
Karrell Fox, Obie O'Brien, and Mark Wilson. Jay Marshall may have been in there somewhere
also -- I was taking notes in the dark.
THE BOB READ SHOW -- For many years I've read of how funny Bob Read is, and I admit to
skepticism. I assumed the writers probably went drinking with Read and were merely being
kind to him in print. Not so. Bob Read easily provided some of the funniest moments of the
convention. Very difficult to describe. He taught us how to produce a bottle, then fooled us all
by producing it repeatedly throughout the act/lecture. He did impressions of Vernon, Lennart
Green, Slydini, and Tamariz doing the coins through the table. He got guys up from the
audience to sing "Gonna Buy a Paper Doll . . ." He taught us why one fake nose and one dog
carrier (a screwball device with a handle, a collar, and a corkscrew) was funny and another was
not. He did the knife through coat and a card trick in which he stripped. He showed us the
Invisible Man doing karate and he stacked four ice cubes a la four dice. And all the while he
kept up a hilarious banter with the audience.
ROGER KLAUSE AND OBIE O'BRIEN OPEN BULL SESSION -- This early morning session
allowed anyone to perform for 5 minutes, and most of them shouldn't have. (I miss the past acts
such as the guy who threw a live mouse into a blender, or Crazy Paul who ate a Coke can.)
Despite a few nice moments by Ramon Rioboo and Jim Krenz, the reason we all patiently sat
through these otherwise dismal 16 acts was to see Anton Lopez, from Galicia, Spain, the fellow I
mentioned earlier with the your-face-on-the-ambitious-card effect. After all this, he almost
didn't perform, as he and Roger and Obie and the translator suddenly conferred over the
problem that Anton suffered a severe toothache, and were there any doctors or, better yet, drugs
available ("Michael Weber has a full array," Roger quipped). After some long embarrassing
moments, it gradually dawned that it was all a gag leading into a restored tooth effect that
proved to be quite funny. Anton then created a sensation with a girl from the audience and a live
frog ("a prince") that found her queen of hearts, then changed into a larger tree frog that climbed
up his jacket, and then concluded, how else, with the girl's face appearing on the card where the
queen's should be. A highly entertaining and original act.
SEMINAR AWARDS STAGE SHOW -- The irrepressible Billy McComb opened this show,
back in the spacious Tiffany Theatre again, and later received an award for his service, as did
20-year backstage hand Steve Schooler. These highly deserved awards aside, the real treat of
the afternoon was the performance by France's Omar Pasha with his black art act. The entire act
was framed by an array of red light bulbs, and the black art worked to perfection. I was sitting
quite close to the stage and could see nothing suspicious. A black art act is a tough thing to develop: if you
could do real magic, what would you do? Omar Pasha's answer to this question earned him the
first standing ovation of the convention.
Prior to the announcement of the World Challenge Stage Competition winner, it was announced
that Ken Fletcher of Magic Masters would put up $1000 for an Originality Award. In this very
tightly contested area, the award went to Junge and Junge. With these talented guys being from
Germany, Siegfried and Roy got into the spirit and bumped the award up another $5000, so I
think these guy walked away with more loot than the overall winner.
The overall winner was "announced" by a reprise of the act itself, and the winner turned out to
be James Dimmare, to an enthusiastic response. Having voted for someone else, what did I
think of this? I thought James had three things going for him:
1. He was the only magician "representing the U.S." I'm enough of a cynic to think that exactly
the same contest held in North Korea or Spain would have produced different results. This of
course is not James's fault and takes nothing away from his fine act. (The only way I could think
of to eliminate this bias would be to have two or three acts from the U.S., to spread out the
home town vote a little.)
2. He performed a dove act in a tuxedo. When Lance Burton won at FISM at a young age, he
more or less defined what a winning act should look like, and James fits that mold. (Drawing
comparisons to Lance can also work against you, of course. James suffered minor technical
mishaps in both appearances -- he dropped birds. As one astute young lady said, "I've seen
Lance perform flawlessly, night after night.") Comedy acts such as Vicj's and Magoo's have an
especially difficult time winning in a general magic category. Ah, but how would a lay audience
vote?
3. He had the good fortune to perform last. Voters have a short memory and tend to vote for the
last act they like. In past DMS's, the contests have transpired on two days, to the disadvantage
of performers working the first day. Cutting the field to seven allowed a fairer contest by
keeping all the acts fresh in the voters' minds.
In the final analysis, these were seven fine acts, and the concept of "best" is both a highly
subjective and virtually irrelevant concept. James Dimmare worked hard, has a great act,
and deserves all the
success that will come to him.
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL GAME -- What the hell is this doing in here? I was
staying with a townie friend on this trip who coaches a middle school boys basketball team, and
so I sneaked off from the DMS to catch an afternoon game. Cashman, for whom I was cheering,
readily defeated Sawyer. If you're looking for a magic tie-in, Cashman is the middle school that
Melinda attended, a few years prior to her blossoming into arguably the best-looking performer
to ever call herself a magician.
KARRELL FOX'S TEACH-IN SESSION -- You would think that after all the lectures, sessions,
and so on, that magicians would be in no mood to sit still for another teach-in session. Not so!
This annual mini-lecture series hosted by Karrell Fox has evolved into one of the hottest features
of the seminar. The format is that a top pro comes out and teaches a trick, fast!, in less than 5
minutes tops. This year produced the strongest lineup of the convention, with Mike Rogers, Pete
Biro, Jon Racherbaumer, Mike Close, Simon Lovell, Tom Mullica, Michael Weber, Mac King,
and Paul Gertner. Everyone was great, and I think it will be Michael Weber's rubber band stunt
that will get the most play in the bars of America.
SEMINAR FAREWELL MIXER -- The final parties of the evening gave me a last chance to flit
from table to table, to meet new people, to say good-bye to friends, and to see what kind of
magic was going on. At one table I had the pleasure of meeting Vicj, from Italy. He is an
optician by trade and performs his act at various European conventions. He developed his self-levitations from the old U.F. Grant manuscript. (I believe that I grasped that his beautiful
assistant is his daughter, and she has been over here for two years.) Vicj was sitting with the
dealer Domenico Dante, who had encouraged Joe Stevens to invite him to this convention, and
it's great for us that he did. At another table, Lennart Green was having fun fooling and
entertaining Richard Kaufman and Stephen Minch. As I arrived, he was performing an
impossible royal flush deal from a seemingly shuffled deck, relying, as it turned out, on a
superhuman sense of touch and the ability to deal sixths, fifths, etc. Jesus. I'd have liked to
have lingered with this group for the rest of the evening, as some significant magic was
occurring, but the Lance Burton show was coming up, and I hadn't yet seen his new theater. If
they ever get this cloning thing down, a la Michael Keaton's Multiplicity, I'll have a lot better
time at magic conventions.
They say that if you are unlucky at cards, you will be lucky at love. Not so. The machines,
unlike last year, were anything but kind to me. It is now much later, at 2:30 in the morning, and
I'm still at the Monte Carlo, strolling through the endless casino with Karrell Fox. A pretty lady
approaches us and asks, "Didn't you used to be Milky the Clown, on television?" Karrell
happily owns up to this accusation. "For 15 years, back in Detroit." The lady is a blackjack
dealer, and some of her players have tipped her off as to Karrell's identity. "Do you still have
any tricks up your sleeve?" she asks. Karrell politely demurs. And so I think: here it is in the
middle of the night, in Las Vegas, and a pretty young woman has approached us, and it's Karrell
Fox who is getting hit on, not me. Ah, fate. I usually thank a bunch of folks at the end of this, but with this being the 20th edition of the
Desert Magic Seminar, it's fitting for the entire thanks this year to go to Joe Stevens. I observed
Joe more closely than usual this year and noticed how much work he has to do. It then occurred
to me that Joe Stevens has not, in the past 20 years, had the luxury of simply attending a Desert
Magic Seminar. Although his position has allowed him to hobnob with the seminar's elite
guests and co-sponsors, time does not allow him to hang out at the card sessions, where some of
the real miracles occur, or to just visit after hours with the teenagers who have started coming to
these affairs. Their energy is infectious. Of course, each of us experiences a different
convention, and so instead of one Desert Magic Seminar each year there are really about a
thousand. For my part, I thank Joe for the ones I've attended, and I wish him and all the rest of
us many more.For many, the month of March is time to cross your fingers and hope that your favorite college
basketball team is one of the 64 teams invited to The Big Dance, the single-elimination tourney
from which only one team will emerge as champion of NCAA college hoops. It's called March
Madness, and there is nothing quite like it in sport.
SPELLBOUND -- A friend and I caught the early Friday evening performance of Spellbound at
Harrah's, now featuring Joaquin Ayala. The theater is lovely, and the "Las Vegas seating"
(small tables rather than theater seats) was comfortable. Ayala puts on a highly energized and
baffling illusion show, with stunning stage decor, that visiting magicians should consider as
must-see. He is strikingly good-looking as is his mysterious assistant Lilia. The illusions
feature danger and fire, and I especially enjoyed his rendition of "Impaled," with the spike rising
from a stack of skulls and ablaze even as it penetrated Lilia's back. Also on the show were
juggler Michael Holly (entertaining, but cheapens his act with references to his penis), and a
mind boggling acrobatic troupe of two fellows and a girl called Human Design. All the
performers signed autographs after the show. 
Pablo and Mom
Mike Close "snowing" the crowd with "Blizzard."
Ascanio receives award from Siegfried and Roy
CAESAR'S MAGICAL EMPIRE -- For many this was the night to see Siegfried and Roy. I
caught them last year, when Caesar's wasn't yet open, so for me it was finally time to descend
into some mystical realm beneath Caesar's Palace for an evening of "Mystery, fine dining,
reality-defying illusions, and awe-inspiring surroundings." It was all of that and more. The
descent is accomplished via a room similar to the initial room of Disney's Haunted Mansion.
You then journey through a mist-filled "catacomb maze" to your dining room. The salads are
already set out (extensive magic is performed to determine who sits where and who gets what
entree). The rest of the meal follows expeditiously, but you don't really feel rushed. One
problem with this Caesar's experience is that you share your meal with strangers, and one of the
strangers in our party was a jerk. Fortunately, our ancient Roman host, a sort of Nathan Lane
character, handled this guy fabulously. Following the meal, you can loll in the seven-story tall
Sanctum Secorum, complete with its Lumineria Show and its two special bars. The Grotto Bar
features an Invisible Irma-type piano that plays requests (called Invisibella here). In addition to
the piano, there are two skeletons shackled to the wall who occasionally awake and sing along
(in a British accent). I wanted to see the Max Maven feature at the Spirit Bar, so I walked over
to it, where I found Irene Larsen sitting alone. She was soon joined by Milt and Arlene, and I
felt I was back at the Magic Castle, but with 40 million or so thrown in for additional special
effects. The miniature Maximus Maven, who scowls and performs his miracles in a glass case
behind the bar, boasts a repertoire of six different interactive miracles, and I had the fun of
witnessing three of them. But on to the shows. Earl Nelson performed in the 75-seat Secret
Pagoda Theater, extremely smooth this evening with a "Flurious" coin routine, a ring and rope
sequence, a great knots on rope effect, card cutting to four of a kind, a rising card that changes
mid-rise, and a visible ambitious card finale. Earl performed standing, with no table. In the
150-seat Sultan's Palace Theater it was Jonathan and Charlotte Pendragon, the first time I've
seen them live, with such delightful items as a bird cage vanish with flash paper Origami bird,
the Origami box, "Clearly Impossible," the Chinese linking rings, "Interlude," the Leipzig paper
tear, and their blindingly fast "Metamorphosis." Jonathan delivers many excellent lines, at once
self-deprecatory and deferential to Charlotte, and the audience left not only thrilled at the magic
but really liking this couple. 
THE LANCE BURTON SHOW -- The billboards for Lance Burton proclaim "Nightly until
2009," and Lance couldn't have asked for a nicer theater in which to spend those years.
Spacious, comfortable, elegant -- the new theater at the Monte Carlo is the perfect venue in
which to enjoy an act Lance has been perfecting his whole life. Heavily based on his Hacienda
show, the new show zips by and is over before you want it to be, with Lance flying off in a
convertible. Michael Goudeau's exceedingly funny stint as Lance's juggler has also been
tightened -- he's dropped the hilariously messy apple-eating routine -- but his act remains a
superb complement to Lance's classic magic. Because of extenuating circumstances, I became
attached to a group of magicians who had a prior arrangement to meet with Lance after the
show, and so I was privileged to get a closer look at the Lance Burton operation. We were
escorted to a pleasant living room where Lance's beautiful
executive assistant, Eta-Lyn, made certain everyone was comfortable, had refreshments if
desired, etc. (Note to Erika: there was a copy of the Lisa Menna issue of
Genii lying on the coffee table.) Lance eventually appeared, looking just a little tired (he had
recently gotten over a flu), and made it a point to speak to everyone in the large group. Michael
Goudeau also joined the party. I found time in this situation to speak to Enric Magoo, from
Spain, who graciously gave me one of his business cards. (I am in "bewildered awe," to borrow
a phrase from Four Weddings and a Funeral, of the performers who take the extraordinary
trouble to learn our language, and who can make these trips and share their experiences and
wisdom with us.) As the group broke up, Eta-Lyn sent everyone away with the new Monte
Carlo/Lance Burton full-color program.
