I saw Lance Burton's magic show at the Monte Carlo this week. I can't remember the last time I saw his show. I know it was at least 5 years ago. Most all of the show was new yet many parts were very familiar.

The show is still family friendly. The show still has interaction with the crowd. He still does a few tricks with the same old Corvettes. FYI, one Vette is real, the other is a scaled down stunt prop. He still starts with doves. He still has a dry voice and a great sense of humor.

Since I have dabbled with close up magic in my life, I find most TV magic boring. I was very surprised that more often than not, I could not see how the trick was done. Even at my prime seating position on the 4th row, I would watch for the "trick" and not see it happen.

The house was only about 25% full on this Wednesday night. That's kinda sad as this is first class show. He does several big box tricks, a lot of sleight of hand, and a little close up. If you haven't seen him in a while or not at all, check the ticket outlets and see if you can get a good price to see him. The show lasted a full 90 minutes.

I've seen his show 2 or 3 times over the years. I think it's a great show.

One trick that I loved involved a teepee and people dressed like American Indians. You see Lance at the entrance of the teepee and one by one, he covers them with a blanket and they start dancing toward the stage. Eventually there are about 8 covered people at the front of the stage. They start taking off the blankets and you realize one of them is Lance. On the 2nd viewing, I figured out how they did that one.

The other trick I remember is he has a suitcase which is place on a platform and he opens it and one by one these pretty girls emerge from it. When they're all out, he just closes the suitcase and picks it up. I still couldn't figure out how they did that one.

I especially loved all the stuff he did with the kids. He seems to have a lot of fun with them.

I saw Lance Burton when he first started in LV at the old Hacienda. He was great with the kids back then too!

I know most of the magician's secrets from years of experience but back when Lance was just starting to build an act and a name in LV, the pre-opening of his act had a glowing ball race throughout the room directly over the heads of the audience. It flew all over the room very swiftly.

Never was able to figure that one out.

Mike the basics of those two tricks are still there. I think the teepee only had 3 or 4 people coming out. And he does do the suitcase thing. will, he does have a couple of ribbons that fly around. The last time I remember seeing him was at the Hacienda, but I think that I saw him once at the Monte Carlo when I drinking too much.

Maybe if I saw his show 2 or 3 times in a narrow time frame, I would have it all figured out. Perhaps one of his best traits is "misdirection". I knew that there would be a few girls coming out of the teepee. I never suspected one would be Lance. Had I known that, I would have probably seen it happen. There were other tricks where I followed the "trick" but missed the punchline.

Anyway, it's a really good show, and if you haven't seen him in a while, he should be on your to do list.