Friday, December 12, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Believe in Magic

Genre going strong in Las Vegas, but some wonder how much longer it will last

Magician Steve Wyrick is back onstage at the Aladdin. The Sahara's "World's Greatest Magic Show" didn't open with great crowds. Siegfried & Roy protege Darren Romeo's success was short-lived.

Siegfried and Roy's favorite story used to be about how, when they were new to town in 1967, Tropicana boss K.J. Houssels sized them up and announced, "Boys, I have to tell you, magic don't work in this town."

The punch line was evident in the '90s, when the Las Vegas icons were doing turn-away business at The Mirage.

But now, with the duo forced into retirement and no heir apparent on the horizon, it may be time to wonder: Is it only a matter of time before a casino boss can again deliver that line with a straight face?

It's at least fair to argue that Las Vegas has seen the peak of a great era of magic on the Strip, one that exploded in the drive to embrace families and now is proportionately fading in the naughty-again era of "Whatever happens here, stays here."

It may seem silly to ask if the magic has gone out of the relationship just as another magic show opens on the Strip. Yet the fate of Steve Wyrick -- who relaunched at the Aladdin Thursday after a less-than-amicable split with the Sahara -- will help provide the answer.

Tricky times

Granted, there's little threat to Las Vegas' status as Magic Capital of the World; no other destination can boast of nine full-time shows, 10 if you count the free "Two Girls and a Guy" at Fitzgeralds.

Look beyond the show listings, however, and there is ample evidence the magical era may be at an ebb.

Siegfried & Roy's abrupt closing -- hastened by Roy Horn's devastating Oct. 3 tiger bite -- came after last year's closing of the Caesars Magical Empire attraction at Caesars Palace.

The pack also was thinned by the failure of Siegfried & Roy protégé Darren Romeo and an open-ended maternity leave for "Melinda -- The First Lady of Magic," both last year.

Melinda was followed by a quick failure, "Gleason Magic ... Embrace the Mystery," before Melinda's producer-brother David Saxe returned with "V -- The Ultimate Variety Show." Saxe has enjoyed an easier success with the latter, where magic is only one element of the formula.

Two new magic shows didn't exactly open like gangbusters. Dirk Arthur's "The New Art of Magic" at the Plaza and the Sahara's "World's Greatest Magic Show" both launched to puny houses, though "Greatest" producer Dick Feeney says his revue is building momentum.

"We're definitely over the hump," Feeney says. "(Thanksgiving weekend) we had some big numbers and made some money." Magic shows offer a comfort margin for promoters who charter tour groups, he adds. "It's a safe bet. They want to avoid conflicts or complaints."

The closing of "Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage" also makes potential ticket-buyers of the people who filled about 1,400 seats each night, he notes.

But even the big illusionists are doing fewer shows. Part of the Siegfried & Roy ballyhoo was the accepted claim that they sold every ticket to every one of their 5,750 performances.

But Siegfried & Roy had scaled down to six performances per week, and warm bodies should not be confused with paying customers, say sources close to the situation. Cancellation lines had mostly vanished and unsold seats routinely went to hotel employees or pit bosses.

Lance Burton, who now moves into the position of the city's top year-round magic show, also has scaled back his number of performances to seven from 10 earlier this year. "He was becoming very, very tired," says Burton's manager, Peter Reveen. "I could see it in his face."

Burton does add shows during peak periods for the family trade, such as the recent Thanksgiving weekend. Rick Thomas, the Tropicana's afternoon star, adopts a similar strategy.

So does nonresident star David Copperfield; he plans 34 shows in 10 days when he returns to the MGM Grand Dec. 23-Jan. 1.

Both Arthur and "World's Greatest" have holiday-season promotions in which children are free. Collectively, these signs suggest that either the "return to Sin City" buzz is overstated or magic shows still have their place on the Strip as a safe haven for families, but maybe not year-round.

Vegas magic

Some magic enthusiasts say the trends may be less a sign that magic is on the wane than on a needed path of reinvention.

"When you say `magician,' people think of a guy in a top hat and tails. But when you say `Vegas magician,' an image pops into peoples' minds of sequins and white tigers, and this grand, opulent-style show," says Nicholas Night, one of the Sahara's "World's Greatest."

But the local successes of recent years feature streamlined comedy: Penn & Teller at the Rio, Mac King at Harrah's Las Vegas and the Amazing Johnathan, who is moving from the Flamingo to the Golden Nugget and can only be termed a magician by the widest stretch.

Even Burton is getting in on the act, offering a "Magic and Comedy All-Stars" format in lieu of his usual show this weekend.

The stars of the lounge-sized "Showgirls of Magic" prove it doesn't take years of training to master shopworn illusions, such as bisecting one another in cabinets or thrusting people into baskets that are then skewered with swords.

"The problem with magic is that it's the only talent you can buy," says Scott Alexander of "Two Girls and a Guy." As a magic retailer with the Denny and Lee Magic Studio, he's not entirely complaining. But still, he admits, "It's very stale."

"They all think, `I can buy all these props and I'm gonna be great,' " says Reveen, whose own magic and hypnotism career on the Strip dates back to the '70s. "You know what they forget? It's the personality that drives magic. I don't think people go see Lance just because he does great magic. He's a great entertainer to go with it."

Feeney says he made a concerted effort to avoid stock illusions for "World's Greatest," looking instead for new approaches such as Night's theatrical framing of illusions. What Night does at the Sahara through Feb. 5 is excerpted from a longer show with a story line.

"I've always positioned myself as being not a Vegas show," Night says. "It seems to me there's a formula people are afraid to break out of, a generic formula I don't think needs to be there."

There are plenty of magicians who would like to change that, he adds. "But sadly, a lot of it's not up to us."

Re-enter Wyrick

Into this climate comes Steve Wyrick, a contentious name in the usually supportive fraternity of magicians.

During the recent press night for "World's Greatest Magic," comedic host Jeff Hobson brought down the house by dragging an audience volunteer out of his seat, urging "Come on, come on. We haven't got all night. This isn't the Wyrick show."

The negative rap on Wyrick is that he couldn't win fans even with three years and a handsome production full of expensive scenery to work with at the Sahara.

And yet, Wyrick's rapid re-emergence after closing on Labor Day weekend -- a testament to his ability to make deals happen -- also could be viewed as a new bunch of sour grapes for magicians who have remained on the sidelines.

Wyrick has transformed a shabby performance space full of long tables and chairs into a sharp-looking 500-seat theater with properly raked seating and stage walls expanded into what was the outside hallway.

The magician says he has made room for most of the Sahara show, plus some new illusions, such as the appearance of a Hummer H2 and a "death crane" that extends whirring blades into the audience: "It really is going to be magic in your face."

The native Texan also sold the Aladdin on the idea of hauling audience members outside for a "street magic" segment that is televised back in the showroom -- "I got the idea from watching David Letterman," he says -- and serves to promote the next show to the crowd outside.

"I know this show is going in a more sexy direction than I've ever gone before," Wyrick says of an ad campaign that shows him in the grasp of an enraptured female admirer. "My target audience for this show is the complete opposite direction of families."

Though he claims his Sahara run wasn't a bust -- "If I hadn't been successful at the Sahara I wouldn't have stayed for three years" -- he admits the location had "geographic challenges" and says advertising dried up after the death of owner Bill Bennett last year.

Now he's fired up about an ambitious 12 shows-per-week schedule (with a third show added Dec. 24 through Jan. 1) and three billboards at McCarran International Airport. "I've never been happier as far as my relationship with a casino," he says of the Aladdin, even though ownership is due to change hands some time next year.

The fate of Wyrick's show when the hotel becomes Planet Hollywood is unknown. But the outcome will certainly help other aspiring magicians decide how an ancient art is going to work in this town's future.