March 15, 2009 Courtesy Lance Burton Lance Burton, the headlining magician at Monte Carlo hotel in Las Vegas, represents the classical, tuxedo wearing magician. It was his boyhood dream to perform in Las Vegas. He first arrived here in 1981 and performed in the “Folies Bergere” at the ropicana.T BY ALEZA FREEMAN and bond among those in the magic community. “The audience Vegas.com “I think all magicians were the dorky kid in school,” he says. “That’s has the need to be e makes people scream what’s great about magic. You can and throw their drinks in learn it on your own by reading books taken away from the air. Sometimes they and practicing, and then take those fall out of their seats. things into the world and perform everyday problems And sometimes they stare at him for your friends at school. It’s an and concerns, and Hwith sort of a glazed, unemotional icebreaker. And suddenly the kid look. Then suddenly, the wheels start who was the geeky kid now has an turning, and their jaw goes slack and identity.” that’s my job.” drops open. Viva Magic Vegas! — Magician David Copperfield Those are the moments he lives Lance Burton finally made it to Las for, when he gets to create and see Vegas in 1981, when he helped veteran those reactions. They help recapture of Vegas magic Johnny Thompson Siegfried & Roy opened the door the feeling he had as a kid, the first Courtesy Penn & Teller drive a U-Haul full of illusions over for magicians like Penn & Teller, time a magician pull a silver dollar Magicians Penn Jillette and Teller, of Penn & Teller, perform at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas. from Los Angeles. Lance Burton and Copperfield, says out from behind his own ear. “I happened to be driving the truck Thompson, who has performed in “I get to relive that moment when we arrived in Las Vegas,” says Vegas and around the world along vicariously through the audience,” The origin of the magician Burton. “I was driving down the Strip with his wife, Pam, since 1974, as the says Lance Burton, the headlining Just as Las Vegas is ever evolving, wearing the same clothes the theater and I kept looking at all the marquees Great Tomsoni & Company. magician at Monte Carlo hotel in Las so is the magician’s role. In fact, the goers were wearing. and lights and I was so enamored with “Siegfried & Roy proved magi- Vegas. “I think I was 5 years old. I perception of magicians has drastically “He came up with the notion that the visual aspect, I actually drove the cians could maintain a show in a didn’t really realize it was a trick. I changed throughout history. if you dressed like a normal person truck off the road. Johnny said, ‘Kid, showroom,” says Thompson, who is thought it was real magic.” For instance, magicians weren’t in normal theater-going attire that you better let me drive.” also a magic consultant for Penn & Like most magicians, Burton was always considered entertainers. During there would be all sorts of interesting Burton has been performing here Teller, Lance Burton and Criss Angel, “crazy about magic” as a kid, and the 16th century, many were tried and qualities that would bring to a show. ever since, although the long-running among others began to learn the art form not long hanged as witches. So he wore a tuxedo and tails,” says French revue show which gave Copperfield agrees that he and other after his silver dollar encounter in In 1584, Reginald Scot wrote “The Teller. “What’s weird about that is that him his start, “Folies Bergere” at magicians owe a debt of gratitude to Louisville, Ky. When he was 12, he Discoverie of Witchcraft” in which as fashions changed, magicians kept the Tropicana, is set to close this Siegfried & Roy. watched an episode of “The Merv he revealed the methodology behind wearing that uniform and it turned into month. “I was a kid at the time,” he says, Griffin Show,” taped in Las Vegas some common illusions. the equivalent of a Merlin outfit.” “This was done primarily to prove That’s why Penn Jillette and Teller, The magician, as Las Vegas knows “so I was very lucky that they paved with magicians Siegfried & Roy. that these people were not super- who are celebrating 35 years as a it today, didn’t start out as the star of the way.” From that point forward, he was natural and they were killing people team this month, decided to wear the show with his name in lights and Teller and magic partner Penn determined to end up with his own for reasons that were unfounded,” gray suits. his face on a marquee above the Las Jillette, meanwhile, have their own show on a Vegas stage. says veteran of Vegas magic Johnny “You can never go wrong with a Vegas Strip. His role actually evolved theories on why Las Vegas is popular “I kind of got it in my head if you Thompson. “They called us alchemists nicely tailored business suit. It’s the from review shows like “Folies,” where among magicians. wanted to be a professional magician and wizards and seers. Of course, most invisible item you can pick,” magicians were relegated to a small “Penn’s theory on this is that there was this place called Las Vegas as more people got wise to what Teller explains. “It doesn’t feel like part of the overall act. currently Las Vegas is one of the few out West somewhere,” says Burton. “I was happening, we ended up being a costume. It just feels like clothes. The first magician to perform in places in the United States you can wasn’t even sure where it was, but that entertainers and street performers.” We’re not relying on our costume to Las Vegas was Jack Kodell, who did come and see real live performance,” was the place I wanted to go.” Until the 19th century, magicians impress you or make you think we’re an act with parakeets called “Fantasy says Teller. “A lot of the people who Over the past few decades, Las primarily wore pointy wizard hats and different. You will have to find those in Birds” in a show at the El Rancho come to Las Vegas are seeing their Vegas has grown into a full blown cloaks, and carried themselves in a differences for yourself. It’s as near as Vegas in 1947, says magician and very first professional, live show. And mecca for magic. There are a couple Merlin-like way, says Teller, of the you can get, without going X-rated, to author Max Maven. magic is the perfect live form.” hundred magicians living here, and a magic duo Penn & Teller. walking out on stage naked.” “The second may well have been Also notable, says Teller, are the couple dozen working regularly. Enter Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin Which, of course, they have also (the magician who Harry Houdini done … Jay Marshall, who was part of the great many foreign visitors. “You can’t turn around on a street based his name upon). He started You’ve just gotta love evolution! third show booked at the Desert “They may prefer to see a show corner in Vegas without bumping into Inn after its opening in April 1950,” that speaks a kind of an international a magician,” says Teller, the quiet half says Maven. “Jay returned to the D.I. language,” says Teller. “Typically, of the magic duo Penn & Teller, who and purport to tell you the truth while that journey. the following year to open for Frank if you’re talking about, ‘I show the headline at the Rio hotel. “A certain telling you lies,” says Teller. “It’s the “The audience has the need to be Sinatra during the latter’s first Las box empty and then out jumps three kind of momentum seems to have most honest form of lying you could taken away from everyday problems Vegas run.” women and a tiger,’ well, that’s grown up here to where this is the possibly want.” and concerns, and that’s my job,” The third, he says, was Marvyn Roy, something you can comprehend place where magicians come.” Of course, when it comes to magic, he says. also known as Mr. Electric, whose without too much English.” Even world famous magician things aren’t always as they appear. Even with magic shows dotting the show “Artistry of Light” was at the Ultimately, it really isn’t all that David Copperfield, a headliner at Really there’s much more to a magic Las Vegas Strip, there’s really no such Last Frontier in 1951. surprising that a fantasy land like MGM Grand, had an early link to show than lies and deception. thing as a typical Vegas magic act. Copperfield houses a private Las Vegas has become the magic Las Vegas. Teller continues: “Magic is the Copperfield is the iconic magician. collection of artifacts from magic capital of the world. Magic is, after “When I was 12 years old my one area in which you can enjoy Lance Burton is the classic, tuxedo history in his International Museum all, an entertainment medium filled parents took me to Caesars Palace. making mistakes in that process of magician. Penn & Teller are the and Library of the Conjuring Arts with fantasy. I saw some of the greats at the time distinguishing reality from make- intellectual and political bad boys.