Columnist Joe Delaney: Penn & Teller lead a magical roundup of stars

Joe Delaney

Friday, Jan. 5, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com.

Penn & Teller, the tall talker and the silent little feller, start a 13-day stand tonight in the Rio's Samba Theatre ... Mavericks of magic with mirth an equal component of each performance, the doughty duo could find that this is their new home in Las Vegas ... Just as Siegfried & Roy and Lance Burton have permanent homes at the Mirage and Monte Carlo, respectively, Penn & Teller are capable of longer runs in the right showroom.

The Penn & Teller creative process is to first identify the mood and the image they wish to achieve, intellectually and emotionally. Then they sit down together and create a trick or illusion that will best illustrate this. Finally they find a way to make it both entertaining and funny. By their own admission, it is a long and tedious process.

Teller does talk, but not onstage: "It probably took us 10 years of working together, learning to stay out of each other's way, so that each of us could do whatever it is that we do best. Penn does all the talking onstage and I am the action part. It is something we achieve together and it usually works."

Penn takes over: "I think that we are well known enough that we can tell the truth. We need to be very careful when mentioning magic in conjunction with our name because no adult, hip person would come to our show. We're a little less sensitive about being called comedy magicians now."

He concludes: "On the other hand, if you think magic is Siegfried & Roy or David Copperfield, what you are going to see with us is very different."

Onstage, after treating the illusionary arts with humorous irreverence, Penn & Teller might stun you with a mind-boggling trick ... Penn is correct when he states that their show is very different ... This difference in approach is what sets all of the many magic shows apart.

Siegfried & Roy took the illusionary art form from an act within a production show to headline status at the Frontier and on to superstardom at the Mirage ... Copperfield came to Caesars Palace as a $25 act and left there an $80-plus act when the hotel closed its Circus Maximus ... Copperfield is another who can sustain here for extended periods.

Burton followed a similar path to super-stardom, going from a 15-minute act in the Tropicana's "Folies Bergere" to starring in his own production show at the Hacienda before making his present long-term Monte Carlo deal ... Steve Wyrick (Sahara) moved from the Lady Luck to a $24 million custom-built theater, but his prognosis is still not favorable.

Melinda, First Lady of Magic (Venetian) is a local girl who made good, a case of survival against odds at Bourbon Street, the Landmark and Lady Luck, among others, before leaving town for a spell then returning to a less-than-favorable situation at the Venetian ... To her credit, she's doing quite well, the hard way ... She deserves better.

While a number of the illusions might be similar, the point is that each of the above shows is different in approach and presentation ... The same can be said about the "Mac King Show," afternoons (Harrah's); "Hocus Pocus, It's Fielding West," evenings (Lady Luck); and Dixie Dooley's "Houdini Lives Again," afternoons (Plaza). See our review below of that show.

Weekend wrap-up

If possible, catch Gregory Hines tonight in UNLV's Ham Hall at 8 o'clock, the weekend's main event ... Don Menza's Big Band is back, Monday nights at the Riviera ... Try to keep those resolutions but don't stress ... See you next Thursday.