We were in Tahoe for Christmas (as we do each year) and to celebrate the birthday of our 14 year old. Great show, great venue and a very friendly cast who took time to meet and great with all of the guest after the show. The best part was when I ask my 14 year old son what he wanted for his birthday and he said he wanted one of those boxes that the magician had that made girls keep coming out of it.
Great magic acts with lots of comedy thrown in. I would recommend this to anyone with children.
We enjoyed the show very much, a little different for Christmas. Great for all ages.
Upon entering the MontBleu, a run-down casino/hotel, well past its probably 1960's glory (assuming it ever had any to begin with), the first thing you notice is the eye-stinging cloud of stale cigarette smoke and cleaning products. Venturing in further, you realize that this whole hotel, like so many over-painted barflies well past their prime is just hanging on, sipping one more watered down cocktail at the bar, hoping for a warm body to come along and keep them company until closing time...except the bar never closes and nobody ever comes. The halls were full of wandering aimless families, because after all a smoky casino is the perfect family destination. The auditorium has clearly seen better days, but to be fair, the view is okay from most every seat, not great, but okay. The "fully stocked" bar can only really be considered that if water counts for liquor, because all of our drinks, even the Pepsi were watered down to the point of undrinkability. On to the show...these guys are hacks, their tricks and illusions are all stock stuff. You will get better entertainment from a children's birthday party magician, and at least then you get a balloon animal to take home. The emcee claimed to have been doing this for twenty years...unfortunately, his jokes were twenty years old and his tricks were lame and easy to figure out. The next guy had some kind of creepy sister-assistant thing going on and his show consisted mostly of the standard "girl in a box" gets cut in half or things poked through or "magically switched with the magician or the other assistant behind a curtain." All that's fine, if you see it once, but he did it multiple times. He did one good illusion where he pulled an improbably large object out of a picture he'd just drawn, then made it go back...I'll give him credit for that one. There was one good act, or at least it was good until it played out too long. One of the performers did a routine with people's zip codes, leading to some jokes and the old "psychic note from Elvis that magically captures the moment," but even his act took a wrong turn when he brought out the dog with a fake jaw for a "conversation" (not a ventriloquist act, mind you, just him carrying out both sides of the conversation with the dog). The poor old dog really looked like it would rather be somewhere, anywhere else. And just when we thought it was finally over, the emcee came back and reminded us that we were still there, dragging out the moment a little longer. You know those sad clowns on the velvet paintings? that would have been more entertaining. This is county-fair circuit bad entertainment...actually, that's unfair to the county-fair performers. Add on the exploitative Ticketmaster fee and it all adds up to a phenomenal ripoff.
Don't let the performers' awards and other accomplishments fool you. The show itself is far from award-worthy. This is a group of so-called professionals who have devoted their lives to magic and entertainment, and that did not show in the performance. Yes, I saw this show on the first night, and I can forgive a few gaffes. But I cannot forgive poor showmanship, bad interaction with the audience and tired tricks that I've seen before. Seriously, there was no new ground being broken. That would be fine if the performers were at least entertaining, but unfortunately, they are not. There is also an overuse of prerecorded segments (seriously!). Perhaps the worst part of the show comes when the main magician attempts to pay tribute to his late mentor. What could have been a short, touching interlude turned into an awkward and uncomfortable routine that seemed more like mockery than anything else. See this show if you want a story to tell with your family, but not if you want to be entertained.
What an memorable evening! It just went too fast as we were throughly entertained and impressed! Thank you Thank you to a great show.
