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Lance Burton Celebrates Ten Years Already?

lance_burton_in_his_new_show
Lance Burton is not only The Man, he is The Man with three
years left on his 13 year contract with the beautiful Monte Carlo Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas. 

Our simple math suggests that means he's been working at the
Monte Carlo for
ten years. 

That's a long time for anyone to hold a job much less
someone who is holding a job plus decks of cards in preparation for flawless
Split-Fans.

The Las Vegas Review Journal's Mike Weatherford believes Mr.
Burton "seems more and more the classic magician." 

Mr. Burton's new act shows he's not waning or wilting but
growing in depth and quality.  The new
opening includes an "homage to past greats."

The master magician's mom was in town to share in the celebration
of her son's decade of wonderful magic at the Monte Carlo.  

"He never changed his
mind" about being a magician, she says. The tuxedo looks just right on him
now, after wearing one since childhood. "I'm one of the old guys
now," says 46-year-old magician Lance Burton.

"He always, even as a kid,
was pretty set in his ways," says Mac King, a Harrah's Las
Vegas comedy-magician and Burton's
friend since they were teens in Louisville,
Ky.

It often has been told that Burton first decided to
become a magician at age 5, when he attended a party at the Frito-Lay plant
where his mom worked and a magician pulled a coin from behind his ear.

"He never changed his mind
since he was 5 years old," his mother, Hilma, confirms. "Most kids,
one week they want to do something, another week they want to do something
else. But he never changed his mind." 

The party also celebrated Harry Collins' considerable
influence on the young Mr. Burton.  Mac
King told reporters it was Mr. Collins "who taught Burton, 'If you're going to be a magician,
you should look like a magician. Lance really wanted to be the classical
magician, with the iconic look.'"

Mr. Burton's image contrasted with Criss Angel's "black
T-shirt Motley Crewe hair and tilted ball
cap" as worn while the younger magician worked the after-party.

Mr. Angel told reporters, "He represents the
traditional magician better than anybody does. I represent more the magician of
today. Both are relevant approaches. Because he comes from different worlds, we
work well together."

Read the entire article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  Mr. Weatherford did a great job giving a feel
for the humble, quiet nature of this incredible man and magician. 

Congratulations to Mr. Burton!  We have seen his show many times and walk
away inspired and entranced.  There are
few able to keep us coming back to see a show that still excites as much as our
first time.

Continue reading Lance Burton Celebrates Ten Years Already?

June 30th, 2006 | Category: Magic News | Leave a comment

Elliot Zimet – No Cosmetics Required

elliot-zimet
We think it was now-obscure philosopher, Moki
Vanderwallenjag who observed, "When I want, I can easily need."  This quote is typical of Prof.
Vanderwallenjag and probably why there is only a single plaque to celebrate his
contribution to Harvard's then-burgeoning College of Philosophy. 

But in surfing the net to find the very best in Magic news
for our readers, we found evidence of Prof. V's theory.  As deadline approaches, our "wants"
convert to "needs."  We no
longer would enjoy finding a clever story to fill the gaping hole that
currently exists on page one of our five web sites and occasionally daily
newsletter. 

We also find truth in Prof. V's saying, "Man will
adjust his desires to the available stock but not because he does not want
more, but because he is willing to trade satisfaction for convenience."

Actually, we were looking for a much better quote to start
this article, but Prof. V's nugget will suffice. 

We're running out of time.

And then we found the following news-ette we need/want to
share with you.

There is a web site specializing in reality television
shows.  This site is ironically named, Reality TV Calendar.  (Actually, it isn't the least bit ironic
that a site specializing in reality television shows would be called Reality TV Calendar but the word we
wanted to use didn't look right and we don't have spell-check on the
cutting-edge but still sparsely supported PDA we use.  We'd rather use the wrong word than the right
word misspelled.  Now we can't remember
if "misspelled" is spelled with two "s" or just one).

The appropriately named site is covering the television
show, America's Got Talent.  Last night's episode featured many acts but
the one most fitting for an editor, publisher on deadline and formerly
over-the-counter cold and allergy drugs was the hip-hop magic styling of Elliot
Zimet. 

The writer points out one important difference between Mr.
Zimet and all other magicians ever seen: he does not look like a magician.

 

Immediately taking the stage is
Elliot Zimet and just looking at him, I'd guess he'd be singing or doing
comedy. He takes his mic, but it doesn't seem to be working.

He takes it off the stand anyway
and throws it out where it magically becomes a dove! Wow, how'd he do that?

So I guess I'm wrong and he'll be
doing a magic act.

He does some cool tricks where he
turns a cell phone into sunglasses and makes more doves appear through various
means.

It's all set to a cool, hiphop
beat and he just goes from trick to trick to trick.

After pulling out a couple veils,
he even makes a parrot appear! With his act done, the audience gives him a
standing ovation.

The judges love him and put him
through to the next round.

Wow!

We've lost seven talent shows going back to 1972.  The best finish was third at the South
Florida Fair in 1974 but even then there were only five acts.  Magicians, we like to think, are unfairly
discriminated against by talent show judges. 
So for Mr. Zimet to make it to the next round means he must be better
than any magician we've seen in any talent competition.

We wanted to check out this new face and force and so we powered
up the PDA – waited the seven minutes it takes to get to the web – and found he
is still building his own web site but is listed on a site titled TTE: TripleThreatEntertainment. 

Here are his creds:

  • Ringling
    Bros. Commercial
  • Ringling
    Bros. Circus Tour
  • X-Box
    Commercial
  • Columbia Records Showcase
  • Sean
    "P.Diddy" Combs 4th of July Party
  • NSYNC
    & Nelly Post Grammy Party
  • Caroline's
    Comedy Club
  • David
    Copperfield Birthday Party
  • Today
    Show

As we say at the cosmetic counter we loiter near, "not
too shabby."  The good news is he
does stuff like us – parties.  Of course,
his clients are P-Diddy, NSYNC & Nelly, and David Copperfield.  We performed our last three shows for Pete's
Daddy, USTINK & Wooly, and David Copperfield look-alike, Sherman Adams. 

If our PDA had any power or normal applications, we could
look at his demo reel but it doesn't and we can't. 

As soon as we get back to the Radio Shack (we're currently
writing this from a space equidistant between the Clinique and Shesheido
counters) we'll download the film-clip.  You
can pull down the clip here.

But you don't have to wait. 
Visit the TTE web site now and check it out.

We have to leave now – someone is getting an attitude
because they wear a white lab coat and far too much make-up. 

Continue reading Elliot Zimet – No Cosmetics Required

June 29th, 2006 | Category: Magic News | Leave a comment

Spiderman 3


Continue reading Spiderman 3

June 29th, 2006 | Category: Magic Stories | Leave a comment

Messiah

Did anyone see Derren Brown’s ‘Messiah’ TV special on UKTV the other night? I thought it was fascinating with extremely deceptive magic. I’m interested to hear what you thought about it.

Continue reading Messiah

June 29th, 2006 | Category: Magic Stories | Leave a comment

Movies Update

Although I haven’t written much lately, we’ve still been making our regular trips to the movies, it’s just that there hasn’t been much to write here about.

‘Omen 666′ was even worse than the oririginal, ‘Stick It’ was good with some amazing gymnastic scenes, ‘Fast & The Furious 3′ was ‘Stick It’ with some amazing driving scenes, I didn’t mind ‘X Men 3′ though Sue-Anne thought it wasn’t as good as the first two, and ‘The Break Up’ was supposed to be a comedy but it was just depressing!

So today we saw ‘Superman Returns’ and it is truly a great movie. Entertaining, engaging, exciting with elements of drama, comedy, romance and thrills. Stand out performances from Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey, and Brandon Routh does a good job as the man of steel. (Though, according to ‘Smallville’ he and Lex are supposed to be the same age… which means he’s a little too young for this movie). Trivia aside though, it is definitely worth seeing and work on a sequel with director/producer Bryan Singer is well under way.

Bryan Singer also gets a credit for co-writing the story, however when I was watching it, I couldn’t help think that I’d seen certain elements before. A quick internet search reveals that others have also seen a connection between this Superman story and the Gospel. Bryan Singer certainly didn’t deny this is a recent interview when he said the notion of Superman as a messianic figure is simply another case of contemporary storytelling borrowing from ancient motifs."These allegories are part of how you’re raised. They find their way into your work," he said. "They become ingrained in your storytelling, in the same way that the origin story of Superman is very much the story of Moses."

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman were, like Singer, Jewish. You can certainly see similarities between the Moses origin and that of Superman – both were set adrift by their parents to be raised by someone else.

But Singer says that his Christian neighbours had a big influence on the community he grew up in. Maybe this accounts for the numerous Christian motifs in the film. (Possible spoilers coming up so read no further if you haven’t seen the film yet)

  • The repeated quote "from the father comes the son, and the son the father."
  • The fact that El (as in Jor-El and Kal-El) is apparently the Hebrew word for God. Superman is sent by his father because humans "lack the light to show the way".
  • The constant theme of ‘Does the world need a saviour’ and Superman saying "You wrote that the world doesn’t need a saviour, but every day I hear people crying out for one."
  • Superman takes a beating while the fallen woman looks on and sheds a tear in a scene reminiscent of a PG version of ‘The Passion of the Christ’.
  • Superman is stabbed in the side with a shard of Kryponite just as Jesus was stabbed in the side by a Roman sword while on the cross.
  • Both Superman and Jesus sacrifice themselves to save humanity.
  • After his sacrifice Superman assumes a cross position echoing the crucifixion.
  • The empty hospital bed in Superman is reminiscent of the empty tomb of Jesus.

Of course Superman isn’t Jesus and the stories are quite different, but it is fascinating that so many allegories have found their way into Singer’s work. Perhaps these familiar elements, along with many more, are part of the reason that the story resonates so well with so many people. After all, the true art of storytelling is connecting with your audience.

Continue reading Movies Update

June 29th, 2006 | Category: Magic Stories | Leave a comment
 
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