Get down with the blues, up with comedic magic

By Jerry Fink (contact)

Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Four weeks after recovering from prostate surgery, Roy Rogers — king of the slide guitar — will head to the showroom to entertain fans with some of the best blues this side of the Mississippi Delta.

Rogers’ first postoperative gig will be Thursday at Boulder Station, part of the venue’s weekly blues series.

“I’m itching to play,” Rogers said from his home in snow-covered Nevada City, Calif., near the historic town of Truckee.

Although still a little weak from the radical surgery, the famed blues guitarist — and producer for such legends as the late John Lee Hooker and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot — says he’s ready to get back on the road.

Rogers recently released “The Best of Two” album, a reissue of 18 songs from his favorite releases of the ’90s — “Slide of Hand” and “Slide Zone.”

On April 1 he will release an album of instrumental duets with Doors co-founder and keyboardist Ray Manzarek — “Ballads Before the Rain.”

He’s jumping right back into his hectic schedule — after Las Vegas he heads for Bakersfield, Calif., then to an Indian casino near Yosemite National Park, then to Canada and Denmark.

“I’m on the mend,” he said.

‘Crazy Girls’ magic

Comic-magician Tony Douglas has landed what he says is a dream gig: host/comic relief for “Crazy Girls,” a topless show that’s been running at the Riviera for more than 20 years.

He opens the show with five minutes of comedy and magic and, midway through the production, returns for a longer routine.

Douglas was interested in magic as a child, and his mother, actress Coco Barat, fostered the interest by buying magic tricks for him. In addition to acting, his mother is part of the mother-daughter comedy team Coco and Penny.

Over the years Douglas has opened for such entertainers as country singer Trisha Yearwood and comedian Richard Belzer.

For the past six months he’s been performing at the Riviera.

“I do a lot of audience participation stuff, some sleight of hand, some standard magical effects,” Douglas says. “I’m attracted to the tricks that make people think.”

Sometimes his magic is unintentionally funny.

In one bit he asks for a volunteer to wear a cape, and hold his hands and arms behind his back. Douglas then stands behind the volunteer — under the cape — and extends his arms around the person. If all goes well, it appears that the volunteer is performing magic tricks.

One night things didn’t go so well. The volunteer stood about 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed in excess of 300 pounds. He was as big as a redwood tree, and Douglas could barely get his arms around the man — who looked as if he had a pair of hands growing out of the sides of his rib cage.

Douglas hopes to settle in with the show, which, he said, would be better than traveling.

“I love being in one place,” he says. “As a magician I always carry my stuff around. With this gig, I can leave my stuff right here.”