Steve Dacri was a friend of Inside Magic and always quick to respond to our often bothersome emails about what was happening in Vegas.
From Norm Clarke’s column:
His quick wit helped him reach the big stage during his career. There were late-night show appearances with Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas. After almost four decades at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, Las Vegas became his home in 2003 with his wife, Jan.
Steve Dacri was always encouraging and positive. He had every right to be condescending or haughty but those traits did not seem to be in his nature. He was kind. He was nice. It is a shame those two words sound so trite — perhaps because they are used so carelessly.
We will miss Steve. Magic is less without him and his smile.
Read Norm Clarke’s column in today’s Las Vegas Review Journal:
We do not always agree with Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist / critic Mike Weatherford but we do respect his knowledge of magic and magicians.
We assume he enjoys our craft and has acquired his eye for good magic and talented magicians from years of seeing less than stellar performers in and around Las Vegas.
We were particularly interested to read his review of Dirk Arthur’s new show at O’Sheas on the Strip.
Mr. Arthur had a five year deal at the Tropicana at the other end of Las Vegas Boulevard. Mr. Weatherford attributes his move to the significantly smaller venue to “uncertainties” at the sad hotel and casino that is today’s Tropicana.
Mr. Weatherford describes the new venue as befitting a stand-up comic and certainly not a full illusion show.
But against the odds, Mr. Arthur succeeds in his smaller venue; thanks in part to the intimacy it provides and a Bengal tiger.
“When the Bengal tiger rears up on its hind legs, taller than the magician, your heart thumps and you hope Arthur could keep his grip on that cable leash if the tiger decided to come check us out.”
The theater, the proximity of the audience to the illusions and the tiger combine to give “a new point of view to an act that had become all too familiar. Everyone has basically a front-row seat, and the illusions hold up to scrutiny. Think it’s done with mirrors? Go ahead and try to spot them.
Mr. Weatherford notes there is a workmanlike quality to the performance, or as he puts it, “a lack of grandeur.” The illusions are presented without glitz, glamour, choreography or engaging patter but it still works.
We are happy to read Mr. Weatherford’s reassessment of Mr. Arthur. Many of the Las Vegas print and media critics panned his past shows. “The biggest knock on him is that he can’t tell a joke and doesn’t bring much personality of his own to the table; that he lets the tigers and contraptions do the talking.”
Mark Panner is a contributor to Inside Magic. Actually, he sends us articles just about every day. This one looked interesting and we should edit it first but we are running out of time. So here it is with all that Mark Panner specialness readers either love or hate. To read one of his classics, check out his review of Bob Sheets here. – Editor —
We were on the back lot sipping coffee with some of our closest friends in the world who just happen to be in Hollywood and just happen to be filming at Warner Brothers Studios.
These are true, blue non-fake friends who care about us as no one else could or would care about us.
How good of friends are these? Let’s put it this way, there are very few people in this world who would donate a spleen; even for a friend. One of our friends gave us a spleen yesterday.
Granted, we didn’t need the spleen but it is the thought that counts. He even showed us the freshly stitched wound evidencing a recent removal of the organ.
In fact, we could feel that it was about body temperature even though it was thoroughly wrapped in white paper — like from the butcher but probably more sanitary and durable.
We know that for a fact because they told us just that very thing yesterday whilst sipping coffee and waiting for the set to call them for the next shot. They’re in a movie about zombies who do surgery and that way they only need to eat their victim a little bit at a time. Until they hit the vital innards, the victim can go about their daily chores.
It is a good idea but not very realistic. Once you are bit by a zombie, you become a zombie. Everyone knows that. Our friends said that the movie explains away that objection. Because the zombie doctors take out the organs they want to eat, the organs aren’t attached to the victim at the time of biting.
We’ll have to think about that.
Anyway, we were talking there on the back lot at Warner and we learned the studio intends to come out with a new flick (movie talk for “film” and likely derived from the flicker of light seen in older movie projectors) called “The Rabbit” starring Chris Tucker.
We like Chris Tucker although we have never met him or received any organs from him in any type of packaging. He talks funny and he does goofy things with his hands and fingers that makes us laugh.
We love Vegas. We love the sights, sounds, smells and crowds. However, we are over the age of majority and therefore have access to all that Vegas offers.
Of course, having “access” to a club or location is not the same thing as “being permitted entry.” As the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals opined in our recent case, Tim Quinlan d/b/a Inside Magic v. Club Zing, 231 F.3d 1014, 1016 (10th Cir. 2010), “Petitioner (that’s us!) is reminded that just because this night club cannot deny access on the basis of age, sex, race, or creed; it is well within their discretion to exclude Petitioner and his type.”
Elsewhere in the opinion, “his type” was defined as:
stuporous by breeding or choice, dressed in a manner evidencing the lack of mirrors in his home, excessively needy and seeking constantly the affirmation of the front-door staff (‘Do you think I am pretty?’), and apparently impecunious to the point of paying for apparently unnecessary additional drinks with “Inside Magic Bucks” or postage stamps.”
We digress. Our point was only there is a dearth of things to do with kids in Las Vegas. Once touted as a Family-Friendly City, it quickly returned to its wild natural state fit for a family, the Manson Family.
Aaron Radatz has what we call in the business, skills. He is more than a nice guy with abounding energy and ideas, he has the ability to perform effects that seem virtually identical to real magic. That is not just our opinion – Time Magazine called Aaron Radatz “the magical entertainer to see” and Mystic Hollow’s home team, the Detroit Tigers, raved, “You will have to see it to believe it.”
He has toured nearly all of the states in our union (45 out of 50), and brought the closest thing to real magic to 37 countries on six of the earth’s seven continents.
According to Variety, Steve Carell of The Office, Bruce Almighty, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin fame, is bidding for the ‘Burt Wonderstone’ role in a new magic-themed film.
The plot seems interesting: Burt Wonderstone is the typical Las Vegas magician working through some issues on his way back to the top. Chief among those nagging concerns is his accidental killing of his partner.
Mr. Carell has cache and clout in Hollywood. The script sat on shelves in New Line Cinema’s offices for four or five years looking for that special something to attract investors.
The film does not yet have a director, producer, key grip, best man, clapper-loader, caterer, or unit accountant but it has Steve Carrell. Apparently the rest will follow in his footsteps. Everyone likes a winner and Mr. Carrell’s film and television track record looks solid, bankable.
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