Friday, October 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

'Gleason Magic' offers more of the same

Married couple's illusionist show stays the course of myriad Vegas trick-themed acts

Las Vegas magic shows are a little like playing Whack-a-Mole. As soon as one gets stamped out, another one pops up to take its place.

This would be no problem if every magician in Las Vegas did an entirely different set of illusions, or had a radically different approach.

Alas, they don't.

"Gleason Magic ... Embrace the Mystery" takes over the time slot and ticket prices of "Melinda -- First Lady of Magic" at the Showroom at The Venetian, but also had the good timing to arrive the same week that Darren Romeo, "The Voice of Magic," pulled the plug on his afternoon show at The Mirage.

There are so many magic shows that they're getting to be a little like TV detectives of the '70s. You had the blind private eye, the fat private eye, the one in the wheelchair, etc.

"Gleason Magic" offers the novelty of married magicians. Gregory and Kristi Gleason moved here from Texas in 1993 to stage 12 shows a day at the bygone "Wizard's Secret" attraction inside the MGM Grand.

Now that they have a full-length showcase, you think this might be interesting. Possibly a clever way to confront magic's misogynistic streak and perhaps combine it with every spouse's occasional desire to stick their better half into a vertical cabinet and turn a crank until that light of your life is squeezed into a one-foot cube.

So you think Greg and Kristi might work up a little Sonny and Cher banter, or Nick and Nora if they chose to go the classy route. Heck, we'd settle for "McMillan and Wife."

But what do we get? The same old stuff we always get.

Greg is the master magician; Kristi is the lovely assistant that gets crammed into the boxes. And for most of the show, the only reason we know they're married is because they tell us. They each talk (Kristi, only a little), but never to one another.

At midpoint, they begin to explore the possibilities. Greg sets up a first-date scenario in which he woos Kristi with a magical rose bush. She then explains that for a second date, "He wanted to put me in a box and shove five spears through it. I said, `What time are you coming to pick me up?' "

"Tell us more, tell us more," we say as the three female dancers emerge in black halters. But this is a 6 p.m. show targeted to a family market, and the kinky notion is dropped soon after it's introduced.

The Gleasons do manage to pack an amazing amount of gear into the limited confines of The Venetian stage. Most of the illusions are attractively costumed and the music runs on the classy side. In one red-hued sequence, Greg levitates Kristi by her feather boa to the strains of the old standard, "You Took Advantage of Me."

Greg also mixes things up by doing a card trick in the audience and escaping from a straitjacket while dangling upside down 35 feet above the showroom floor, making smart use of the venue's deeply vertical design.

But for all his attempts to be mysterious and dangerous, Greg comes off as blandly nice. He may be the guy you want to marry back home, but not the one to spend a wild weekend in Vegas with.

Basically, customer satisfaction -- and the show's business prospects -- depend on people choosing the Gleasons over any other magic show, or seeing it before they see one with more personality.

If you haven't seen Lance Burton go inside the metallic robot monster, you'll like it here. If you don't see the exploding motorcycle with Steve Wyrick's more spacious, theatrical staging, you can see the compact version here.

But with adult tickets starting at $55 (although it's 2-for-1 for locals for the rest of this month) the show doesn't offer the value of Rick Thomas' afternoon show or Dirk Arthur's evening one. If money woes start many couples bickering, maybe the Gleasons will liven things up by doing it onstage.