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On October 22nd, 2010 I found myself at a magic show at the Flamingo (or, as I call it, the Flaming O) in Las Vegas.
How cliché is that? Well, no more cliché than the tired magic show itself.
The magician on stage was a youngish man named Nathan Burton. Ring a bell? Of course not. Dude was featured on America Judges Talent or some such monstrosity and won himself his very own show on the Vegas strip. He seemed to have won himself an audience too; as far as I could tell they were giving away tickets left, right and centre just to try and get the small theatre half-full for Burton’s daily afternoon performances.
The only reason I was in attendance is because they handed out free tickets to the Nathan Burton show to the entire crowd at The Price Is Right Live! the day before (where m’lady had made it all the way up to contestant’s row and came out of the experience with an XL t-shirt).
And though we were watching a man standing just across the street from achieving his childhood dream (he spent a good chunk of the show discussing his lifelong goal of hosting his own magic show at Caesars Palace, kitty-corner – and several steps up in stature – away from the Flaming O. He even threw a picture up on the bigscreen of himself as a hopeful ten-year-old posing in front of the iconic casino with his top hat and wand, which I found sad and ironic in equal measure).
And you know what? The show was never exciting, completely unfulfilling, and certainly not very magical. Really, Nathan Burton had more in common with the touring street performers that can be found in every tourist destination in the world than he did with the true masters of his art like David Copperfield or Penn & Teller; that is, he engaged in lots of jokes and audience participation as a long, drawn-out preamble to one or two old tricks disguised as new ones. Like, how many ways can you dress up sawing a lady in half?
All that said, it was a free and easy way to spend a couple of midday hours in what can be a very expensive city for idle time. Vegas certainly doesn’t need magic to make all your money disappear.
Todd Man Out 