Friday, May 9, 2003 | 8:35 a.m.
Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at [email protected].
It's probably safe to assume most magicians take their craft seriously. But not Fielding West.
Fielding who?
No offense taken: The Las Vegas magician hears that all the time. But after having lived in and performed around town for 23 years, he hopes his name starts sticking soon.
"People are actually starting to pronounce it correctly. I was 'Feldman Weiss' for years," he jokes. West's history practicing his brand of comedy magic at venues on and off the Strip is lengthy. He started in 1980 at the Sahara, after getting juiced into a showcase there by none other than Liberace.
In recent years West hosted and starred in the production shows, "Hocus Pocus: It's Fielding West," at Lady Luck, and the short-lived "The Fielding West Show: Comedy, Tricks and Naked Chicks" at Bourbon Street. This weekend West headlines at Catch a Rising Star at Excalibur.
This ain't your average wand-and-pony show, folks. West takes chances -- and gets laughs-- by tackling illusions that mock those belonging to magic's greats, several of whom also perform locally. (Luckily for West, he's friendly with most of the magicians offstage.)
"I always like to think of my show as the show that keeps Siegfried and Roy awake at night," West said recently from his Las Vegas home.
West points a finger at the prestidigitators who fancy oversized felines by preparing his audiences to witness a 600-pound man-eating tiger onstage. We won't spoil the trick, but West clearly catches said tiger by the tail.
His act takes an edgy turn when, without naming names, he pays homage to another duo (whose names sound like a writing instrument and "seller"). Those guys catch speeding bullets between their teeth. West's choppers double as a landing pad for Bob, his feathered assistant, who is shot from a cannon.
Actually, Bob plays a big role in the act: He is West's response to the requisite bird bits favored by many magicians, including Lance Burton. By the way, West and Burton have been friends for 20 years, with West having served as a writer and consultant on several of Burton's network-television magic specials.
"I always wanted to have a bird act," West says, explaining how the one he features in his show is "kind of the antithesis" of the segment Burton includes in his production at Monte Carlo. "Instead of being beautiful and spectacular, I wanted it to be funny and grandiose."
West, 53, hasn't always served knee-slappers with his sleight of hand. He first became interested in magic during the early '70s while pursuing his master's degree in psychology at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
A couple of guys he roomed with ran a performance club at nearby Florida State University. One weekend they called on West to chauffeur around a magician who was scheduled to headline at the club. The long-haired, bearded magician was an up-and-comer named Steve Martin.
West caught Martin's act at the club that weekend.
"After spending two days watching four of his shows, I went down the following Monday and checked out of graduate school and knew exactly what I wanted to do," he recalls.
Before long, West was hosting a Saturday-morning TV show for kids called "Magic Gang" in Jacksonville, Fla. He went to work developing an act to take on the road, which featured the hypnosis he'd studied in college.
The act was a hit -- so much so that he had to drop it when people began requesting his skills to heal the ailing and assist with past-life regressions.
West didn't want that sort of responsibility on his shoulders.
"I think that's one of the problems that hypnotists get into today," he says. "When they start getting these requests, they start superseding their show-business boundaries thinking they can do this kind of stuff. I just wanted to do comedy."
Upon arriving in Las Vegas, "I decided that all of my magic from then on was going to be comical."
He boasts that his act is obscenity-free and plays well to all generations. "I always say I have a family show." (His performances this weekend, as well as all others at Catch a Rising Star, are restricted to ages 18 and older, however.)
West will be plenty busy starting later this month: He's among the performers scheduled to appear (and, presumably, disappear) in "Lance Burton's Magic & Comedy All Stars," with special performances slated for May 30, May 31 and June 1 at Monte Carlo.
In late June, West will take his illusions to Lake Tahoe, where he'll perform a version of his one-man show through early September at Harveys.
He'll be also featured on "Guerilla Magic," a special airing July 1 on Animal Planet (Cox cable channel 58). For the episode, West was taped performing tricks for unsuspecting tourists at Venetian's Grand Canal Shoppes.
But don't look for West to set up shop for an extended run in a Las Vegas showroom anytime soon. As magic's popularity here has grown, magicians are flocking to town, he says. The competition for show-goer dollars is fierce, and West just isn't willing to work for peanuts.
"If you're not already in a room and established, guys are working for next to nothing," he explains. "My philosophy is there's plenty of work and plenty of money out there; you just have to be willing to go out and get it.
"That's the difference, I think, between the guys who stay in the game and become successful with lifetime careers," he says. "I wasn't just passing through; this is what I love to do, and I've always maintained that I'll go onstage as long as it's fun."
Out for laughs
Be able to say you saw the comics of tomorrow tonght. Check out the "Kings and Queens of Comedy Search" at 8 p.m. at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The show, staged by comedy producer Walter Latham (the man behind the flicks, "The Original Kings of Comedy," "The Queens of Comedy" and "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat"), is searching nationwide for a dozen comics to star on a reality TV show. Each week a low-scoring semifinalist will get the ax; the rest continue to compete, and four will take the stage at Madison Square Garden this year for the chance to win $25,000 and the, um, royal title. Tickets for tonight's search are $40 and $60; call 891-7777.
Also tonight, the latest installment of "Kazam Komedy" wraps at 7 p.m. at Sunset Station's Club Madrid. The two-man, hour-long show (which kicked off Monday) is staged every two months and hosted nightly by namesake comic Matt Kazam. Peter Berman, who frequently plays Palace Station's Laugh Trax, headlines this week. Tickets are $12.95 plus tax; call 547-7777.
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