A Very Generous Birthday Present.
Noel Britten broke the rules and got me a birthday present...
The day before the start of the Magic Live Convention in Las Vegas (a Saturday) he took me to see Mac King, Ron Lucas, Lance Burton and David Copperfield in an orgy of Vegas entertainment starting at one o'clock in the afternoon and ending around midnight.
I have to confess that the only Vegas magicians I had seen prior to this great day was Siegfried and Roy (over fifteen years ago) Mac King (twice) and Penn and Tellar (last Magic Live Convention.)
Mac King was even better than expected given that he has included in the already excellent show the tent illusion which was intelligently presented and fooled the hell out of me as well as giving the "cool" kid on stage the fright of his life! The structure of the show tied in with Mac's highly likeable (nay, loveable) stage character and really strong, well thought out magic made this my favourite show of the four.
A brisk stroll down The Strip from Harrah's to the Luxor (in the heat of the day!) took us to Ron Lucas's show which, for a huge fan like me, turned out to be rather disappointing. The material was all "as known" so it wasn't that that disappointed me. It was the low energy of the whole thing coupled with quite a lot of "adult" humour which obviously got little reaction from the many kids in the audience and led to an overall impression of a rather flat production.
On to the Lance Burton Show. I only knew his FISM winning act which is still, and I suspect always will be, one of my most favourite pieces of magic ever. So his stage personna of the guy from Kentucky with it's strange, jerky bowing style and it's humility took me completely by surprise. I felt it clashed with his label "Master Magician." All his magic was really brilliantly executed but the stage sets looked rather Am Dram to me and what was that flying "car" all about at the end?
Next stop David Copperfield and in the gap before the show started I posed the question,
"Who is the current king of the box jumpers in Vegas, DC or LB?"
Within seconds of the start of the Copperfield Show I decided it was DC.
As the steel plate was lowered down by the (brilliant) stage crew and hit with hammers there was absolutely nothing "am dram" about these props...
Mr Copperfield looked pretty seedy, ogled the girls when they came up on stage and made several asides pertaining to his attractiveness to women. From my vantage point of the front row (leaning on the stage itself) I looked around and noted that the girls/women were loving it!
My lack of research into the current state of the big shows in Vegas meant it was mostly new to me and when that Packard Car appeared less than two metres from my head I was totally blown away.
A great, unforgettable day and I know you shouldn't judge one act against the other so just let me say that the next time I am in Vegas and chosing one of the above shows to go see (at my own expense) there is no doubt it will be Mac King.
The day before the start of the Magic Live Convention in Las Vegas (a Saturday) he took me to see Mac King, Ron Lucas, Lance Burton and David Copperfield in an orgy of Vegas entertainment starting at one o'clock in the afternoon and ending around midnight.
I have to confess that the only Vegas magicians I had seen prior to this great day was Siegfried and Roy (over fifteen years ago) Mac King (twice) and Penn and Tellar (last Magic Live Convention.)
Mac King was even better than expected given that he has included in the already excellent show the tent illusion which was intelligently presented and fooled the hell out of me as well as giving the "cool" kid on stage the fright of his life! The structure of the show tied in with Mac's highly likeable (nay, loveable) stage character and really strong, well thought out magic made this my favourite show of the four.
A brisk stroll down The Strip from Harrah's to the Luxor (in the heat of the day!) took us to Ron Lucas's show which, for a huge fan like me, turned out to be rather disappointing. The material was all "as known" so it wasn't that that disappointed me. It was the low energy of the whole thing coupled with quite a lot of "adult" humour which obviously got little reaction from the many kids in the audience and led to an overall impression of a rather flat production.
On to the Lance Burton Show. I only knew his FISM winning act which is still, and I suspect always will be, one of my most favourite pieces of magic ever. So his stage personna of the guy from Kentucky with it's strange, jerky bowing style and it's humility took me completely by surprise. I felt it clashed with his label "Master Magician." All his magic was really brilliantly executed but the stage sets looked rather Am Dram to me and what was that flying "car" all about at the end?
Next stop David Copperfield and in the gap before the show started I posed the question,
"Who is the current king of the box jumpers in Vegas, DC or LB?"
Within seconds of the start of the Copperfield Show I decided it was DC.
As the steel plate was lowered down by the (brilliant) stage crew and hit with hammers there was absolutely nothing "am dram" about these props...
Mr Copperfield looked pretty seedy, ogled the girls when they came up on stage and made several asides pertaining to his attractiveness to women. From my vantage point of the front row (leaning on the stage itself) I looked around and noted that the girls/women were loving it!
My lack of research into the current state of the big shows in Vegas meant it was mostly new to me and when that Packard Car appeared less than two metres from my head I was totally blown away.
A great, unforgettable day and I know you shouldn't judge one act against the other so just let me say that the next time I am in Vegas and chosing one of the above shows to go see (at my own expense) there is no doubt it will be Mac King.
posted by JJ at 10:59 PM
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