LOOK TWICE: AFTER SEVEN YEARS ON THE STRIP, CRISS ANGEL ISN’T DONE MAKING MAGIC..
JOHN KATSILOMETES for Las Vegas Weekly..
There was a time when professional magicians donned the tux and tails, tapped a top hat with a wand and professed to make a rabbit appear from its empty interior. Voila! But tonight is not such a time. And Criss Angel is not such a magician.
The star of the Luxor’s stuffed-with-illusions show Believe struts to the middle of the stage, wearing a black leather jacket, thick strands of silver dangling from his neck. His black hair is streaked crimson, as if his skull is bleeding.
Ten minutes or so have passed since the start of the show, as Angel’s support cast—led by his comically brilliant mini-me Maestro, portrayed by Mateo Amieva—have happily entertained the crowd. It’s a Sunday evening, and the place is about packed. Fans cheer when Angel strides prodigiously to center stage. He scans the dark and shouts, “I can’t hear you!”
Whoa. Okay, then. The crowd matches his energy with a dutiful roar. It’s as if Angel has put them on notice: This might be a stage show, but it’s also a participation sport. Read more…
http://lasvegasweekly.com/ae/2015/sep/24/criss-angel-not-done-making-magic-believe-luxor/
How do magicians work their way up the Las Vegas ladder?
By Mike Weatherford – Las Vegas Review-Journal
Magicians like to turn things inside out, and two of them are doing just that to the conventional rules of working one’s way up the Las Vegas ladder.
Mike Hammer demonstrates that you don’t have to move to move up. And Dirk Arthur proves he belongs on a big stage — even if belonging there isn’t the same as earning the right to be there.
Both of them remind us that if you think magicians are interchangeable, you haven’t been in Las Vegas very long.
Arthur and his exotic tigers and leopards ended up, almost by default, on the stage where Elvis Presley once sang. In recent years only two small venues were available to his traditional and increasingly old-fashioned illusions show — O’Sheas and then the old “La Cage” showroom at the Riviera — and both of them cut his tenure short by closing their doors.
But he found the Westgate also in need, after an ambitious plan for Elvis-themed shows went south. New management was suddenly in the mood to lease the showroom operation to the producers of Arthur’s show at the Riviera.
When he reopened in late August, a lot of people were right to ask how Arthur can fill a big theater when he couldn’t fill a small one. It’s still not a terrible question, but two things at least explain the logic. Read more..
Penn and Teller Are Revealing How Their Magic Tricks Are Done — And It’s O.K.
As one of the few humans on Earth who un-ironically calls himself a “TV magic obsessive,” let me tell you, there’s never been a magic show on television like Penn & Teller: Fool Us.
I approach the show from several perspectives. As a layperson, it’s entertaining as hell with a clear-cut premise. Fool Us is a magic competition on the CW Television Network in which performers try to fool Penn Jillette and Teller as to how their trick was done. If they succeed, the aspiring magicians win an opening-act slot in the duo’s longtime Las Vegas show. The show has been a surprise ratings hit in its Monday primetime slot, averaging 2 million viewers (it’s been renewed for a third season).
I also watch the show as a guy interested in magic since age six. I’m comfortable saying Fool Us has advanced the art form within popular culture better than any televised magic show in recent memory. The variety of magic subgenres given the spotlight is encouraging for those of us who don’t perform with live tigers: there’ve been acts of coin and card magic, mind-reading, escapology, quick change (where costumes transform in a flash)—even a man who solves Rubik’s cubes, magically. Read the interview..