Some Acts Hit Jackpot, Others Vanish in Mecca of Magic

Except for a love of magic, they have little in common--the brassy young man in leather pants from Los Angeles who likes to float cigarettes, and the polite kid in jeans from rural Missouri who cuts his wife--and the table she’s on--in half.

Each has come to town on the same pilgrimage: to land a showroom on the Strip, sharing the city’s bright lights with its resident lords of magic, Siegfried and Roy.

Simon Winthrop, 29, moved here in January from West Hollywood, carrying all of his tricks--and a packet of glowing referrals--in a briefcase. He’s living off the money he’s made performing at private celebrity parties.

Morgan Strebler, 24, arrived last year from Sikeston, Mo., and began assembling $250,000 in apparatus--financed by his father. Strebler’s last big stunt before heading west was catching a speeding bullet in his teeth.

Each thinks he’s perfected a spectacular act, the likes of which Vegas has never seen. But so do the hundreds of other magicians in town who also want their names on Strip marquees.

Just as Hollywood creates stars, New York produces writers, and Paris nourishes artists, Las Vegas feeds magicians. The town is the world’s mecca of magic, drawing hundreds of conjurers and illusionists from across the country to seek fame, fortune and--above all--a showroom of their own.

They would be in good company. The late Harry Blackstone Jr. and Doug Henning played here. On Feb. 26, Siegfried and Roy announced that they had signed one last multiyear contract at the Mirage before retiring from live performances. Like them, Lance Burton--with a 13-year contract at the Monte Carlo--and Steve Wyrick--with an eight-year contract at the Sahara--each has his own showroom.

Las Vegas is the world’s magic capital in other ways as well. Penn and Teller live here; David Copperfield’s personal magic warehouse and museum are here, and both acts play here regularly. The industry’s leading trade publication, Magic magazine, is published here. The world’s only school for master magicians is conducted here. People who construct $100,000 illusions develop their crafts here.

How did magic flourish as a major form of entertainment here and nowhere else? Explanations vary.

“Las Vegas is, in its own way, an illusion where people come to escape,” said Alan Feldman, vice president of MGM Mirage. “Visitors come here with a mind-set to be wowed.”

And there are practical considerations. In many cases, Feldman said, “These are jaw-dropping spectacles that can’t go on tour, because they have to be presented in theaters designed just for that purpose.”

The emergence of magic in Las Vegas dates back decades, when magicians were employed in big production shows to entertain for 10 or 15 minutes during big scene changes. Siegfried and Roy and Burton spent years paying their dues locally that way before becoming headliners, with television further catapulting their stardom.

Also, entertainment executives have long considered magic attractive because it has a timeless and universal appeal, crossing economic, cultural, language and age boundaries in a town that thrives on international tourism.

And as Penn & Teller’s comic bully Penn Gillette sees it, “Las Vegas is all about live performance,” and of all the arts, magic--along with sex, he adds--is best experienced in person.

Magic flourished in the 1990s as magicians explored different themes and America discovered that it could embrace more than one king of magic. For spectacle, lasers and white tigers, there are showmen Siegfried and Roy. For classic magic in top hat and tails, the elegant Burton. For comedy magic, Mac King.

There’s even sex appeal, with the belly-dancing First Lady of Magic and, down the Strip, the Showgirls of Magic--who perform topless in their late-night cabaret show. This is, after all, Vegas.

As magic established itself as part of the local entertainment smorgasbord, magicians were drawn here because no other city offers more jobs for them--in Strip and off-Strip showrooms, lounges and restaurants, and for all the convention and trade show events that are staged here.

Others, who have journeyed here but have been unable to land lasting big gigs, keep Las Vegas as a base and book engagements in other cities, join tours, perform in television specials or work on cruise ships.

Among other advantages: They can be billed, honestly enough, as “Direct from Las Vegas!”

But most resident magicians--as well as newcomers like Winthrop and Strebler--aspire to the elusive Strip showroom. Each hopes he has that right mix of imaginative illusions, unsurpassed technical skills, mesmerizing music and lights, and--most important--charismatic, audience-arresting personality, to stand out.

Even in self-promotion, their styles differ.

Strebler--who specializes in large-scale illusions--is following the standard strategy in producing his own promotional video, a 12-minute clip of some of his signature tricks. To produce it, he borrowed an unused stage at a Primm casino, set up his wares and shelled out $40,000.

In one trick, his wife appears to be pierced by a giant needle. In another, he seems to pass through a stainless steel plate.

He hopes that booking agents and entertainment directors--some of whom say that they have videos from 150 magicians to view--will find something special about his act as they fast-forward through his snippets.

Winthrop, who specializes in close-up sleights-of-hand best appreciated in an intimate setting, is taking a more assertive tack. He found a restaurant hurting for business, on the second floor of a mid-Strip casino. To convince its manager that he could drum up business the other day, Winthrop hawked his own show on the sidewalk, luring small handfuls of skeptical tourists upstairs, where he performed for 10 or 15 minutes. The floating cigarette, he said, blows everyone away.

The strategy worked; starting today, Winthrop is renting a room at Casino Royale, on the Strip, for a one-month tryout.

Indeed, one option for entertainers is to rent their own casino showrooms--a far cry from the days when showrooms were financial loss-leaders, filled by costly headliners hired by the hotels to lure gamblers into casinos.

But as today’s hotel executives demand profits from every department--including restaurants, guest rooms and entertainment--more of them simply rent out their showrooms, which guarantees them revenue, even if the entertainer flops.

Under these “four-wall” agreements, the hotels provide the venues but perhaps little else. The entertainers foot the cost of producing and marketing their shows--including paying bonuses to ticket agents to promote their shows over the competition--and anxiously count the gate every night.

“It reduces our risk,” said Andy Tompkins, who, when he owned the downtown Lady Luck, “four-walled” his showroom to magicians Melinda Saxe and, later, to Steve Wyrick.

Last September, Wyrick moved to the Sahara, which converted its famous Congo Room into a $7-million airplane hanger-themed stage on which he seems to walk through the spinning blades of a jet turbine.

But Saxe, “The First Lady of Magic” and a Vegas veteran, couldn’t command her own showroom and is renting hers at the Venetian. After her last performance of the night, she has to scurry off stage and make room for the next show, a French impressionist.

Still, “they come here because to work in Las Vegas is the pinnacle of a magician’s career,” said Las Vegas talent agent Sandy Dobritch. “It’s the entertainment capital of the world, where you’re seen by important people, get exposure and make money.”

So what does he tell his hopefuls? “That the competition is fierce,” he said. “You’ve got to have a lot of patience and perseverance, and talent, and a hook. What are the odds [of getting a showroom]? Very slim.”

A more typical success story is that of Garry Carson, who performed for 2 1/2 years at the MGM Grand and now works cruise ships and corporate events. He said he hopes to perform in a local showroom but is satisfied that he’s at least working.

“At trade shows, magicians tell me they wish they could live here so they could get a job,” he said, “and I tell them it’s not that easy--that I live here, and it still takes a lot of work to get in through all the doors.”

Still, there may be someone special in the wings being groomed to replace Siegfried and Roy in a few years.

“You never know when someone’s going to show up out of the blue,” said Burton, who helps other magicians hone their acts. “There may be a 14-year-old kid in Nebraska who’s practicing magic and in 10 years will pop up, out of nowhere, in Las Vegas, and make it. The kids today are far more advanced than I was at that age.”

Strebler is from Missouri, not Nebraska, but he wonders if he’ll be that next magic superstar.

“I came here to make it big and, if nothing else, to get the best experience around because of who’s already here,” he said. “I’ll take it as it comes, because I love what I do.”

Winthrop is more sure of himself. “I know there are hundreds of guys like me out here, but I’m going to get myself a room,” he said. “I want to get a standing ovation in Las Vegas.”