Mat Franco is seated at a card table, aptly enough, set up in front of the stage inside Crown Theater at the Rio. The young magician casually shuffles a freshly opened deck of playing cards while meeting with members of his production team. The group is prepping for a magic show on the Strip starring Franco, the reigning champion ofAmerica’s Got Talent.

Littering the floor are hundreds of cards—seven hundred, about—that have been fired from three cannons at the center of the stage. It’s all part of a show-stopping trick that does not actually stop the show, which is set to open for previews soon at the newly renovated Linq Theater.

The Rio’s Crown Theater, where not long ago guns of a different variety were used as props in a show starring a family of duck hunters, is today but a rehearsal space. It is also, at this moment, a giant conference room.

Franco shuffles his cards, over and over, then slaps the deck on the table. He scrawls a note onto a pad, then turns to one of his confidants, Johnny Thompson, the revered magician known as The Great Tomsoni and a consultant on the show.

“What do you think, some sleight-of-hand here?” Franco asks Thompson. The Great One thinks for a moment and offers: “I think some sleight-of-hand would work, just a little something to add to what you’re talking about.”  Read more..

http://lasvegasweekly.com/ae/2015/jul/29/kats-report-linq-strip-new-magic-show-mat-franco/

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