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Penn & Teller write: “Excited to announce @carbonaro taking over our theater @riovegas May 26-July 10 while we tour Australia. He’s a good friend and a great magician. Tickets for his run of shows go on sale today at https://www.ticketmaster.com/michael-carbonaro-tickets/artist/2183135.”

You can catch the fabulous magician Mondre in residence at Late Night MAGIC, the after-dark magic show for adults at Alexis Park Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. MonDre has a unique style, evident in his performance and the jazz that accompanies it. He’s one of the best professional magicians working today.

Publicity: “Late Night MAGIC features a rotating cast of four unique magicians who are edgy, dark, mysterious, and sexy acts intended for mature audiences only. These magicians have been seen on stage at major Las Vegas strip hotels and The Magic Castle in Hollywood, CA, as well as on national and international TV shows like America’s Got Talent, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Ghost Adventures. The brainchild of Michael Mayfield and Douglas Leferovich, Late Night MAGIC, is the answer to MAGIC shows too frequently focusing on being “family-friendly” when so much of MAGIC’s history and mystery is dark, edgy, and often sexy.”

Watch MonDre demonstrate his mastery here.

 

By Richard Kaufman

Taking place in Las Vegas from August 4th through 7th, MAGIC Live is the largest magic convention in the United States, attracting 1400 attendees from around the world.

For those of you who’ve hesitated, you’re in luck: it’s not sold out!

Widely acclaimed, and always trying something different, convention organizer Stan Allen (that’s him, and me, at the top), spends many months devising unusual ways to use the talent he hires.

Unlike most other conventions, he never tells you who’s going to be performing. So far that has worked out well for everyone.

You can learn more and register here.

 

 

“Vegas at 11am is one of the most depressing sights known to mankind,” says Piff the Magic Dragon as he surveys the paltry foot traffic outside of the Flamingo Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. 

Thus begins a hilarious episode of Vegas 24 in which host Roberto Raad tries in vain to summon a sliver of enthusiasm from the famously cantankerous supernatural lizard.

I’ve honestly ran out of things to write about Piff – who has mysteriously never been seen in the same room as professional magician, John van der Put. He’s been doing amazing things in the magic scene since 2008, but really hit his stride when he appeared on the first season of Penn & Teller: Fool Us in 2011. He’s since appeared on America’s Got Talent three times, reaching the top ten in two of his appearances. While it’s clear Mr. Piffles is the power behind the throne, Piff’s tricks are great, his wit is lightning fast, and his English is great for an ancient mythical beast. 

Masters of Illusion made the transition to a regular show at Bally’s Las Vegas in winter 2017. Last Wednesday, the cast and crew celebrated their 100th performance at the venue. They marked the milestone in the best, and tastiest, way known to humanity: cake.

For those of us who don’t have a Vegas trip on the books, Masters of Illusion is also in the midst of a national tour, with Chipper Lowell, Jarrett & Raja, Michael Turco, and Naathan Phan on the performer roster. Tickets and show dates are available on the tour website. Or you can enjoy the televised version, with old episodes from the CW’s take on the franchise always available in the United States at CWTV.com or on the CW app. 

Mac King has been doing shows at the same hotel and casino for 18 years. I honestly can’t explain how impressive that is to me. I don’t think I’ve held a job for 18 weeks, never mind literally the minimum length of time it takes a person to go from being born to legally buying cigarettes. For 18 years, King has been performing The Mac King Comedy Magic Show on afternoons, Tuesday to Saturday, at Harrah’s Las Vegas.

Not only is King a magic machine, as we noted when we ran a feature on him late last year, he’s apparently some kind of plaid-clad terminator when it comes to raw professionalism. During one show at The Comedy Club, North Carolina, King accidentally cut off the tip of his own thumb during his signature “Cut and Restored” rope trick. He tried to stop the bleeding with tape, as one does during a medical emergency, but quickly realized all the claret he was spraying everywhere was making card tricks difficult. King briefly stopped the show to ask for help with, you know, his severed freakin’ thumb tip, until a nurse in the audience managed to stop the bleeding and sanitize the wound with vodka. Satisfied that he was no longer bleeding quite as much, King went on to finish the show, perform another show, then go to the hospital.

King didn’t mention the thumb incident in his recent, lengthy Q&A with showtickets.com, but he did talk about his beginnings in the industry, the acts that inspired him, his ongoing friendship with Penn & Teller, how to work with Guinea Pigs and Goldfish, and the secret to his success, frugality.

“I’m cheap! Seriously, I do think a big factor is the price point. Because what I’m selling is really me and my personality, I’ve been able to keep the price low compared to other shows. Over the years I’ve been able to add a bit more production value – music, live animals and a couple of bigger-scale tricks – but it’s still basically a one-man show, so I’ve been able to keep my costs low and still fill the stage with magic.”

The interview is mammoth and I’m too lazy to transcribe it all here (18 weeks, remember), but it ends with some recommendations for dinner and shows if you ever find yourself in the City of lights.
Give it a read.


The Mac King Comedy Magic Show runs from 1:00pm to 3:00pm every Tuesday to Saturday at Harrah’s Las Vegas.  It’s well-reviewed, kid-friendly and tickets start at $36.95 (plus tax & fees).

 

Mentalist Santiago Michel has a very important show debuting at Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood this spring. He’s the first artist on the strip to have a residency that’s performed entirely in Spanish.

His show, Ilusión Mental, is a long time coming, both as a milestone in Michel’s career and for Hispanic magic. Born in Mexico City, Michel’s first exposure to magic was at his sixth birthday party and he’s been performing himself since age 13. He trained at the Moscow Art Theater School in Russia and has performed all over the world.

Jarret Keene, a writer for the website Vegas Seven, profiled Michel and saw a preview of Ilusión Mental. Even though Keene knows very little Spanish, he said he was able to follow the act. Michel focuses on mind reading-style mentalism that can reveal surprising personal information about guests, such as the name of the first person they kissed.

“Halfway through the show, I want the audience to remain a bit skeptical,” Michel told Keene. “I want them to wonder if there are ‘plants’ in the show.”

Bringing a Spanish-language-only show to Vegas seems like a great development. In a 2012 survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, Spanish was the primary language spoken at home for 38.3 million people in the United States. Given Las Vegas’ international reputation, having shows performed in languages other than English makes sense. And as Keene noted, speaking the language isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying the show. Magic is an international and intercultural art form, and creating wonder doesn’t necessarily need words. 

Criss Angel’s ten-year-long stint at the Luxor in Las Vegas appears to be coming to a close. As reported via press release by Broadway World Las Vegas, Criss Angel’s final performance of his show Mindfreak Live! will take place on October 28, 2018, after which Angel’s contract with Luxor will expire.

The news was first broken by Brock Radke of Las Vegas Weekly via Twitter:

It was later confirmed via press release, which included quotes from Criss Angel from his time working on the show:

“It has been an extraordinary experience working with Cirque du Soleil and Luxor these past nine years. They have been amazing partners and will always be part of my family,” said Criss Angel. “I am so proud of what we have created together and I am extremely excited about the new illusions we will be adding in our final year of MINDFREAK® LIVE!”

Mindfreak Live! originally launched as BeLIEve, which originally appeared to some rather scathing reviews. The show dropped many of its larger Cirque du Soleil elements, and eventually repurposed itself in current, vastly improved form back in 2016, with some even calling his showstopping levitation stunt “worth the price of admission.”

There’s no word on whether Criss Angel is going to return to the Vegas Strip in another venue, or if this will mark his last appearance there. He’s currently beginning a new tour in January called Criss Angel Raw, which promises “magic unplugged”. You can still get tickets for his Vegas show at Cirque du Soleil’s official website.

Whatever your opinion of Criss Angel’s magic or his persona, there’s no denying how impressive it is to keep a show running for a decade straight, especially in Vegas.

Penn & Teller have done so much for the world of magic. But never ones to rest on their laurels, the duo has also become some of the more active magicians when it comes to giving back, especially for their hometown of Las Vegas.

According to a few recent tweets from Mr. Jillette himself, people who donate blood from now through January 1 will get two tickets to see the Penn & Teller at at the Rio. Their offer is for donations at any Southern Nevada locations of United Blood Services. Appointments can be scheduled at the UBS website. Not a bad price to pay for entry to one of Vegas’ top acts. Plus you get cookies!

Piff the Magic Dragon is a hoot on stage and off. But he played it surprisingly straight in a recent interview with Las Vegas Weekly about his holiday-themed Piffmas at Piffany’s show. He shared how the original concept of his Breakfast at Piffany’s bit emerged out of boredom during an early Vegas gig.

“I was supposed to be doing two sets of 10 minutes,” he said. “I was used to doing hour-long shows, so I was bored out of my mind.”

So he starting doing a secret midnight show at the bar in Rose.Robbit.Lie., a supper club at the Cosmopolitan. It’s an interactive magic game show, where his audience gets split into teams and the teams compete against each other helping Piff out with tricks. He even turned the act into a fundraiser, auctioning off stale croissants to the highest bidder.

“We raised $15,000 in three months for Communities in Schools by auctioning off stale pastries, and the winning bidder would go into a secret-secret room and have this whole crazy croissant-dance thing that no one would ever speak of.”

Not too shabby! Check out the whole interview, including Piff’s Christmas plans, here.