Lance Burton Tickets

I've been a fan of Lance Burton for many years. I watched his TV specials in the 90s and after he retired in 2010 I thought I would never get the chance to see him live. When this show was announced I jumped at the opportunity and bought front row tickets. After the show, in the car ride home, my wife and I compared notes and both used the words "washed up"to describe what we had just seen. Before I describe the negatives, let me say that what redeemed the show was the juggler and the ventriloquist. As in, the only two non-magic acts in a magic show were the high points. Both of these performers were funny, original and had the audience eating every moment. The magic was mediocre at best, and occasionally veered into bad. Lance himself opened with a classic of magic: the vanishing bird cage. There is a word that magicians use called "flash"which means that the audience sees something they are not supposed to. My wife and I saw exactly where the bird cage went. But this wasn't Lance's only "flash."There was another, bigger illusion where Lance appeared from an inside upright curtained cabinet that an assistant had just entered and vasnished from, and Lance himself was visible before his appearance. Lance did not perform many "big"illusions, which would have been OK except that when it came to his "pack small"illusions, he also didn't do the sleight of hand routines that made him famous. There was no card manipulation, only a single dove produced (during a routine that didn't go so well), no candles and certainly no FISM act. Had he really shined in the sleight of hand department, I would gladly overlook that instead of levitating a beautiful assistant he did a ladder suspension with a little girl from the audience (a trick that you would expect of a typical local magician at a summer festival). I think Lance's best routine in the whole show was his Miser's Dream that he does with a boy from the audience. Overall it was a hit with the audience and I only saw one "move." Most of the "big"illusions were done by Lance's guest Keith West, who in my opinion kind of exemplified why a lot of people hate magic. He had the personality of a used car salesman, his humour was dated and much of it didn't land for anyone under the age of 50 and he did this annoying thing that is typical of illusionists where every other beat he gave the audience an applause queue even when not doing anything. As in "Behold! A prop! Tada!"The audience quickly grows tired of applauding in these types of act. It's obnoxious. The dated humour was true for pretty much all of the show. Lance did a tired gag where he asks the audience: "any questions?"A stooge in the audience then shouts "how did you do it?"Lance says "if I told you that I'd have to kill you"and the stooge yells back "tell my wife!" Some of his routines felt disjointed. He would go into the patter for the routine and it just didn't flow from what came before. This created a sense that he was just going through the motions. It kind of reminded me of the movie "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone"where, at the beginning of the film, the two magicians are doing the same act they've been doing for decades and not only is it dated but it's obvious that their heart really wasn't in it. Lance's closer was a take on an illusion called "Assistant's Revenge"only it had a twist where the assistant began in a transparent sword basket and was "trapped"by the swords. I have never, in all the magic shows I've seen, witnessed such a luke-warm reaction from the audience to a closing illusion. It was "ok"but would have been better in the middle of the show. It certainly didn't have the "grand"feeling that you want in a grand finale. The stage decor and lighting was also amateur hour. For much of the show, the stage was empty, with very few props. This is not a problem, except that the way the stage was lit emphasized how vast and empty it was, making the performers look small. By contrast, we have seen Penn & Teller perform on the same stage. They take a very minimalist approach, with many of their tricks having few props. Yet when they light the stage, the backdrop falls to black while spotlights focus your attention on what matters. If it hadn't been for the juggler and ventriloquist I would have given this a 2/5 but it was an enjoyable, mediocre show thanks to those two acts who were great.

Would have liked to see more magic, big tricks. Lance did only a handful and most were mediocre. I bought the tickets for my son's birthday and he enjoyed it.