BY SUSAN STAPLETON for Las Vegas Magazine..

Do not be fooled by his easygoing nature, Louisville drawl and suit that looks like your grandmother’s plaid couch. Comedy magician Mac King is slick. He’s a pro. You’ll never even see how he tricks you.

King, who’s been performing on the Las Vegas Strip for 15 years, specializes in close-up magic, a skill he learned from his grandfather, who used to point him to his magic books when King asked how he did a trick. His friend Lance Burton, a magician who for a long time had his own show on the Strip, convinced King to make the move to Las Vegas. At the time, King didn’t think his style of magic would work in a big room. “It turns out Lance was right,” he said. “My show is really a close-up magic show. It all depends on me. So the tricks aren’t giant. The key is to make those smaller tricks play to the back of the room.”

Fast-forward to today, and his tricks still resonate on a bigger stage. All the while, he’s sizing up the audience, first looking for a man wearing a watch. “I’m always able to find a guy who is expressive and ready to participate,” he said. His first volunteer is a woman who’s told she’s going to participate in the Houdini Challenge Naked Rope Escape—more specifically, she’s going to get naked and he’s going to tie her up. “She’s the first person up in front of the audience. There’s so much audience participation in the show that how she reacts shows you how willing people are to come up later.” Read more:

http://lasvegasmagazine.com/entertainment/2015/apr/10/mac-king-harrahs/