Signed for Life

Siegfried and Roy perform their show Monday with a white tiger.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Siegfried and Roy cut a cake Jan. 18, 1996, to celebrate their 15,000th live performance.

Kiaron Clark, a Londoner who is suffering from a brain tumor, meets the magicians after a recent show.

A young Siegfried strikes a pose wearing lederhosen in an undated photo.

Two-year-old Roy maintains his composure for a portrait.

Siegfried and Roy pose with Liberace in an undated photo.

Pair during the early years of their career when they combined Siegfried's illusions with Roy's animals, including the cheetah Chico.

It's Monday, a federal holiday, which turns out to be a day of celebration at The Mirage.

Roy -- the only Roy who doesn't need a last name in Las Vegas -- throws his arms skyward and makes a "Hallelujah!" gesture when he's reminded that, unlike most of his 11 years as the hotel's star attraction, there will be only one show tonight.

Roy flashes a big smile to Siegfried and Roy's manager, Bernie Yuman.

"How did I ever pull that one off?"

The question could just as easily be, how could he not?

Or, how could The Mirage -- even after a change in ownership -- not offer the German illusionists a contract extension that will be touted as "a lifetime contract" when it's formally announced on Monday?

The hotel itself was eclipsed by the 1998 opening of Bellagio, but Siegfried and Roy's fame only seems to grow. Monday's announcement comes on the heels of the duo and their white tigers turning up in the hallowed Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Vegas dudes crashing the swimsuit issue? Chalk up another one for "The Masters of the Impossible."

As Siegfried (Fischbacher) puts it: "You mention Siegfried and Roy, it's Las Vegas. You mention Las Vegas, it's Siegfried and Roy."

Talk-show hosts and sitcom gag writers can rest easy. They won't have to imagine Las Vegas without Siegfried and Roy -- at least not for another four years in a contract more accurately described as "open-ended."

Nor will MGM Mirage have to imagine an empty Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy attraction, the exotic animal and dolphin minizoo that puts about 5,000 people through its turnstiles each day with a $10 adult admission.

Roy (Horn) points out that the very design of The Mirage was inspired in part by the duo's Vegas Drive "Jungle Palace," a house that kept annexing its neighbors until it became a fully contained environment.

"This is our home. It was put together with us in mind," Roy says. The design scheme "holds true throughout the entire hotel, from the setting we are in right now (the waterfalls and tropical foliage surrounding Kokomo's restaurant) to the Secret Garden. We are The Mirage."

But The Mirage also had a little something to do with one Steve Wynn, who in May 1987 announced the Frontier's "Beyond Belief" illusionists would be part of his new hotel venture with a $57.5 million contract.

"Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage" opened on Feb. 1, 1990. It had long paid off its custom showroom and hardware, which was reported to have cost nearly $30 million, by the time MGM Grand took over Mirage Resorts last March.

When their last contract extension with the hotel expired last December, the two were free to travel -- Roy always said he would go to India -- or follow Wynn across the street to his new Desert Inn project.

"We have enormous respect for Mr. Wynn. I think this new property will set the stage for another Las Vegas boom," Yuman says. "But at the same time, we never really thought about moving anywhere else. ... This is the perfect fit."

Bobby Baldwin, Wynn's former right-hand man who remained as president and CEO of Mirage Resorts (now an MGM Mirage subsidiary), told them, "We want you here," Yuman recalls. "And we said, `How long?' And he said, `For as long as you want.' "

A recent dinner with MGM Mirage's majority owner, Kirk Kerkorian, backed up the good faith of the contract, which actually kicked in Dec. 28. The duo worked for Kerkorian in the original MGM Grand's "Hallelujah Hollywood" from 1974 to 1978.

As Siegfried puts it: "At my age you don't change anymore. I'm like the Grand Canyon. You don't change the Grand Canyon anymore. It's there."

At his age -- 61 -- people might also ask, "How long can the show go on?" Monday's announcement was postponed from last month because Siegfried had the flu and missed 25 shows.

Siegfried too sick to announce his lifetime contract? Alert the late-night gag writers.

But Siegfried is serious when he says: "I'm old now but I think I never worked better. My show was never better than right now."

"In your young years you think about success," he explains. "Now you're settled, you know this is it. And that's what the people come for. Now I can relax and enjoy."

The new contract does include a more enjoyable schedule of eight shows per week, 44 weeks a year -- about two weeks less than in the past.

The show opened on a 12-per-week, two-per-night schedule, and eventually cut down to 10 each week -- but spread out over more weeks, without a net reduction in the annual number of shows.

Because they signed a management deal with a younger magician, Darren Romeo, there's been speculation that Romeo might join the show as a co-star -- perhaps spelling the aging headliners for some of the more physical illusions.

"No way," Yuman says. The confusion comes from the fact that Siegfried and Roy plan to produce a show starring Romeo, but it would have to open at another property.

"They won't stay too long. ... They won't compromise the integrity of the Siegfried and Roy spectacle," Yuman adds. "They will stay a reasonable amount of time and then go into other areas of business."

Fair enough. But why did they re-up instead of going to India or Hollywood?

Good question. "What made me do that?" Siegfried turns to ask Roy, who is 56.

The answer seems to emerge in other questions, and can probably be summed up in the phrase "work ethic."

"In my younger years I always wanted to be free," Siegfried muses, but "discipline and responsibility made a human out of me."

Magic has driven him since he was 10 years old.

"Absolutely nothing else existed in the world," he notes. "I don't know if this is right, all my life, to just think about one thing."

For his part, Roy shrugs off a story Yuman tells about him working on a bad knee for a month when "Beyond Belief" launched at the Frontier.

"The pain and drama and all that comes with the territory. That's irrelevant," he says. Audiences "come to forget their problems. They don't need to hear about ours."

Before each show, Siegfried and Roy each have their own ritual. Roy communes with his animals. Siegfried goes into the light booth to survey the audience.

"They all come to see Siegfried from Rosenheim?" It fires him up "to be 100 percent there," he says.

His unplanned flu vacation also brought on a guilt trip about the cast and crew of the show.

"It's tough because you have a responsibility," he says. "There are 150 people out of work when you're sick. You feel terrible about it.

"But now, it's good. We have started already with our new contract. It's today, Monday, we have only one show, and this is a wonderful feeling."