There’s a new Burton in town

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006 | 7:33 a.m.

What: Nathan Burton Comedy Magic

When: 2 p.m. Saturdays through Thursdays; dark Fridays

Where: Aladdin's V Theater

Tickets: $12 to $27; 932-1818

Rating (out of 5 stars): ****

Magician Nathan Burton is still young and has a long way to go before he is in the same league with the other magician named Burton down the street at the Monte Carlo (Lance Burton, no relation).

But Nathan is a rising star and well worth the admission of $12 to $27, which are pretty magic numbers in a town where triple-digit admission prices are the norm.

And you might recognize the new kid on the block, because he's been getting a lot of well-deserved national exposure lately.

When he hasn't been performing in his afternoon gig at the Aladdin's V Theater, he has been hopping around the country appearing on television.

Burton, who bills himself as a comic magician, has come a long way since he was growing up and honing his craft along the Arkansas River in Fort Smith, Ark.

The young man has a lot of talent and manages to come up with gags that keep fans both laughing and in awe - such as flushing a man down a toilet.

On Friday, Burton flew to Los Angeles to tape the "Megan Mullally Show," a new syndicated talk show hosted by Mullally, who played Karen on "Will & Grace." Burton's segment is scheduled to air Oct. 13.

Sometime in mid-October, Burton will appear on VH1's "Surreal Life," coaching a team of celebrities - including Emmanuel Lewis ("Webster") and Verne Troyer (Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" movies) - on how to do a magic act.

But his greatest exposure has come from being a contestant on the hit NBC series "America's Got Talent." Although 11-year-old vocalist Bianca Ryan took home the $1 million prize, Burton did become a favorite among the judges and made six appearances on national TV. He performed on the season finale, even though by then he had been eliminated.

Burton so impressed producer Simon Cowell ("American Idol") that the magician helped with auditions for the series' second season on Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Although Burton surrounds himself with glamorous showgirls in Sin City, he remains a country boy at heart. His act is clean and suitable for the entire family, and not just because his mother Nancy is on hand behind the scenes to assist him.

Burton is naturally lik able and his shows are inoffensive.

With six appearances on "America's Got Talent," the nation got a good sample of his show - including flushing the assistant down the toilet, creating a snowstorm, being shot out of a small cannon and surviving the "Microwave of Death," which is his signature bit.

His show opens with a tape of a CNN Headline News segment about Burton's stunt last year of spending seven days in a plexiglass box with seven showgirls. Then he comes onstage with a bit worthy of Carrot Top - two rolls of toilet paper attached to the front end of a leaf blower. The rolls of paper unravel neatly.

He said he created the device to toilet paper houses quickly.

While some of his tricks are old hat, or "classic magic," as he calls them (such as drawing a bowling ball on a sketch pad and then dropping a real ball from inside the pad), most have his unique twist.

If you don't catch him on one of the TV shows, you might want to check him out in person while he is still affordable.