‘WELL, YOU JUST HAVE TO LAUGH’ : Magician Stan Allen and His Rabbit, Stew, Would Rather Be Funny Than Spooky

When the going gets tough, Stan Allen gets . . . his bunny.

Aided by his trusty stuffed rabbit Stew, Allen will be one of four entertainers featured in “Stars of Magic,” a family revue combining magic, comedy and mime Saturday at Yorba Linda’s Forum Theatre.

Producer Dale Salwak, who has been staging and appearing in “Stars of Magic” shows up and down the West Coast for 18 years, bills it as “the ultimate escape from everyday difficulties. It’s amazing, looking at the history of economic depressions over the past 100 years: Any time the economy suffers, the entertainment business booms.

“Plus, I think families are becoming more disenchanted with television and are looking for good, clean live entertainment. They want shows that are going to leave them feeling good.”

That’s fine with Allen, who has spent nearly 30 years in clubs (including Newport Beach’s Laff Stop), on cruise ships, in Vegas and on television developing an act that relies more on comedy than traditional magic.

“I don’t go for the wacka-wacka stuff,” he says. “I’ve always felt that if comedy is held back just a little, you force the audience to come to you. It’s just like it is with kids: If someone comes into a house and goes nuts all over a child, he retreats, but if you come in and just take it easy with him, he’ll usually climb right up into your lap.

“I remember working in comedy clubs where the guy on before me was some upstart who had the audience in stitches. Then the emcee comes out and says, ‘Now this guy is going to do a little magic,’ and the audience goes, ‘Uh-oh, time for a bathroom break.’ I have to be good enough to hold these guys for 18 minutes. Then I let them go to the bathroom.”

Although he won’t go into much detail about his act (“magic has to be a surprise”), Allen says he uses plenty of audience participation to keep the mood light.

“The neat thing about magic is that it has a certain comic element to it anyway,” he adds. “Say you’re on stage with me doing a trick and I borrow a $100 bill and burn it up. Later on, when we find it all in one piece inside this tiny envelope, well, you just have to laugh.”

And then there’s Stew. A hand puppet customized by the Steiff toy-making company in Germany, Stew came home with Allen after one of his stints on the Princess cruise line.

“Recognizing his entertainment potential immediately, I shelved him for a year and a half,” Allen quips. But one night, performing at Hollywood’s Magic Castle, Allen gave Stew his first taste of the spotlight, and now he features the puppet in more than half his act.

A highlight is the duo’s card trick, during which the rabbit becomes so distracted with a lady from the audience (“It’s either love or lust, I’m not sure where the rabbits draw the line”) that he has to be hypnotized.

Appearing with Allen and Salwak in “Stars of Magic” are mime/magician Tina Linnart, a founding member of the L.A. Mime Company; and Mike Caveney, a comic illusionist who, according to his bio, is renowned for “producing unlikely objects from unlikely places.” The 90-minute show is performed without an intermission and is suitable for audience members 5 years old and up.

What: “Stars of Magic.”

When: Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8 p.m.

Where: The Forum Theatre, 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda.

Whereabouts: Take the Riverside Freeway to Imperial Highway, exit and turn left. Turn right onto Yorba Linda Boulevard, then left onto Fairmont.

Wherewithal: Tickets are $8.50 for children and adults.

Where to call: (714) 779-8591