Brandon Hall wrote:Richard Kaufman wrote:I actually believe that Siegfried and Roy would have attained stardom with or without the wild cats.
Sigfreid, perhaps
S&R had a great dove act which I think they continued to do through their run at The Stardust. Add to that their showmanship to bring excitement to the illusions. They had several untouchable routines, like the sub trunk and their levitation, sawing, asrah routine. Siegfried knew how to sell an effect and he also had the charisma to go in one and do a simple salt vanish.
Even though they had a cat come out of the trunk, the routine stood on it's own without the cat. And just adding cats to a show doesn't put you in the same league as S&R which is evident with all the imitators. None of these other guys come close to what S&R did.
The cats helped them stand out in the early days because no one else was doing what they did. But they also had the duo-factor working for them. Not many great duo magic acts.
S&R came along at the right time with the right act. But that was over 40 years ago when they were starting to make a name. That is what all these other guys are copying. This is almost a continuation from the "Vegas doesn't need another magic show thread", but guys who are doing illusions with cats are doing what S&R did 30 - 40 years ago and haven't done anything to differentiate themselves from S&R in 1975.