Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Mac King spins magic out of Maxim debacle; ex-mobster DiDonato releases documentary

Mac King

Steve Spatafore

Mac King, Penn Jillette and Rita Rudner convene at King’s home.

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Mac King and longtime friend Lance Burton.

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Mac King and his wife, Jennifer, and cake.

I knew Mac King was an accomplished sleight-of-hand artist the first time I saw him perform.

He made an entire hotel vanish.

Well, in a manner. In October 1999, King was announced as the new afternoon headliner at the Maxim and put on a show to commemorate his new gig. That afternoon the little Maxim Showroom was crammed with the curious, including the recently announced Lance Burton, headliner at the Monte Carlo who I learned that day was a good friend of King's from their childhood days in Hopkinsville, Ky. King performed a trick where he appeared to drink a goldfish in a small glass of water and made the little creature reappear in his mouth and spat it back into the glass.

It was yucky fun, sure to capture the fancy of magic fans of any age, and it seemed King was a winner in this weird little haunt.

Then the Maxim shuttered. Amid a funding shortfall of $300,000 that could not be raised by then-owner Ed Nigro that would have kept the property afloat, the casino itself closed in December 1999. The hotel hung around for a couple of years before it, too, flat-lined. The property was famous, or infamous, as a helicopter launching pad where Maxim employees scrambled across Flamingo Road to assist emergency personnel during the 1980 MGM Grand fire. It was also known as the place you could find Evel Knievel, if the need ever surfaced, hanging out at the Cloud Nine bar. It is now the site of Westin Casaurina, but not the site of Mac King.

"Two months, that was my run," King remembered Sunday afternoon during backyard party that seemed like a neighborhood shindig if your neighbors are Penn Jillette, Rita Rudner and even Burton. "When that happened, I was extremely nervous."

King had no Plan B, but did have two months to pitch his show from the lame-duck property. The arrangement proved advantageous, as King didn't have to haul his trunk of tricks into the offices of entertainment directors around the city. He let the game come to him and so impressed Harrah's officials that they offered him an afternoon spot at the hotel where he still performs — that being Harrah's.

Sunday's party ostensibly was to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of King's professional residency at Harrah's, but it mostly was just a party to hang with one of the city's genuinely good guys and a fine entertainer. He's still the star of one of the best per-dollar-value shows in town, performing at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. daily (dark Sundays and Mondays). He has a new "Suitcase O' Magic" trick kit for kids out, and a new book titled "Mac King's Campfire Magic," which is 50 tricks to perform while camping (the illustration on the cover shows King with a couple of kids and a monkey, and that can mean only one thing: party).

King long has made the afternoon show the center of his little entertainment galaxy. "I'm happy just where I am," he says. "I do my show during the day and I have time to do all my other projects, and this." At that, he motioned to the dozens of guests in his back yard.

A lap wrap around the event:

• Rudner and her manager/husband, Martin Bergman are just wrapping a film called "Thanks," in which she co-stars as the new wife of a monied Hank Beekman (played by Paul Dooley). The family either dislikes or ignores Rudner, and the key event is Thanksgiving dinner. ... Rudner's Facebook page is funny. Today's status update: "New York just defused the biggest bomb in Times Square since the musical version of The Goodbye Girl." ... After spending quite a while covering the city, I've not until recently had a chance to get to know Lon Bronson, who is impossibly hep. He's hoping to convince Station Casinos to bump his orchestra's free monthly Thursday night performances at GV Ranch's Ovation Showroom to twice-monthly. Even he is surprised at the city's appetite for big-band music. He's also a big fan of Matt Goss' show at Caesars Palace, but man, Monti Rock III sure isn't. ... Two men who are fun to watch with their children: Vinnie Favorito and Penn Jillette. You know who runs the show when the kids are around. ... Favorito is one of these guys who wakes up funny. ... "On time and under budget," is how Smith Center for the Performing Arts exec Myron Martin continues to describe the center's progress. March 2012 is the stated opening time, thus far, but I've heard it's possible it will be open even a month earlier. ... Mayor Oscar Goodman has proclaimed today "Mac King Day" in Las Vegas, for those keeping score at home. ... Poolside: Domenick Allen and Leigh Zimmerman. Allen (onetime of Foreigner), Clint Holmes, Susan Anton and Martin Nievera are performing their rangy production "Vocal Soup" June 12 and 13 at The Orleans Showroom. The show previously was at Suncoast and is growing, if you judge growth by venue seating capacity. ... Jeff McBride is back in Vegas with his "Wonderground" illusion showcase, at the Olive on 3850 East Sunset Road. The next show is 8 p.m. May 20. The parlour show, the walk-around showcase of close-up tricks and illusions and weirdness, starts at 10:30.

Surviving The Mob opening

DiDonato releases DiDocumentary

Also Sunday, former Gambino crime family member Andrew DiDonato held a DVD release party at Daddy Mac's Restaurant on 2920 North Green Valley Parkway (north of Sunset Road) for his the new documentary "Surviving The Mob." 2 Reel Production Company of Henderson produced the film, which is DiDonato's two-hour retelling of his life as a professional criminal who reported to mob overlord Nicky Corozzo. As DiDonato recounts, he was contracted by Corozzo to kill crime boss John Gotti Jr. in 1996, but was arrested (as were Corozzo and Gotti Jr.) on unrelated charges before DiDonato could carry out the act. DiDonato served his sentence and turned government witness in 1997, helping federal law-enforcement agencies put many of his former associates behind bars. His most famous testimony was against Gotti Jr. in his 2005 trial, in which the then-Gambino boss was being tried on kidnapping and racketeering charges. Known as "Teflon Jr.," after his late father's "Teflon Don" moniker, Gotti Jr. was set free after the jury deliberating his case deadlocked.

The 44-year-old DiDonato is trekking back and forth from Vegas to Los Angeles these days, trying to get his mind around life as a normal guy. "Of all the things I did and all the situations I was in, and none of it I am proud of, the scariest day of my life was when I entered society as civilian," he said Sunday.

As for risking his own safety by putting himself in the public eye and marketing his life story, the onetime member of the federal Witness Protection Program said, "They've wanted me dead for years, and there are no levels of dead. If I allow them to prevent me from living my life, then they've won."

Las Vegas mob author Dennis Griffin (whose works include, "The Battle for Las Vegas" and "The Mob Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness") is working on a book version of DiDonato's doc. Huntington Press of Las Vegas, Anthony Curtis' publishing company, is publishing the book and it should be out by summer. We will have more with DiDonato, a fascinating individual, in the coming days.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

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