Centerfolds of Magic

Discuss the latest news and rumors in the magic world.
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CraigMitchell
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Centerfolds of Magic

Postby CraigMitchell » April 19th, 2013, 4:54 am

Seriously ? How long before the show closes ?

http://www.vegasnews.com/93998/centerfo ... may-1.html

Nothing better than making your own clip-art logo
http://www.facebook.com/centerfoldmagic

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mrgoat
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby mrgoat » April 19th, 2013, 7:17 am

Worst. Photoshop. Ever.

Image

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jonathan Townsend » April 19th, 2013, 8:16 am

Does this box make me look fat?
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CraigMitchell
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby CraigMitchell » April 19th, 2013, 11:34 am

Image

Richard Tremblay
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Richard Tremblay » April 19th, 2013, 12:02 pm

Looks interesting... As for the magic: I don't care.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jeremy Greystoke » April 19th, 2013, 12:34 pm

Earlier, Craig Mitchell wrote:

Seriously ? How long before the show closes ?


Hopefully, not until after Magic Live! in August. :D

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CraigMitchell
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby CraigMitchell » April 19th, 2013, 2:37 pm

I can see Stan definitely offering all delegates a special on this one ;-)

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erdnasephile
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby erdnasephile » April 19th, 2013, 3:43 pm

Another win for magic.

(Do people actually go to these shows?)

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby John Signa » April 19th, 2013, 4:06 pm

Sounds like a variation of the "Showgirls of Magic" which ran at the San Remo in LV for some time. Seem to recall seeing the sign up at the San Remo for few years.

And in an indirect way, Stan Allen did offer a MAGIC Live promotion to see SoM. At the second MAGIC Live, there was a raffle for LV magic show tickets, Showgirls of Magic amongst them. I won a pair and because I had seen the show already, tried (unsuccessfully) to give them away.

Brad Henderson
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Brad Henderson » April 19th, 2013, 5:20 pm

Not sure which photo demeans magic more, the one's posted on the centerfold article page, or this one:

http://www.vegasnews.com/82139/world-st ... t-5-7.html

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Brad Henderson » April 19th, 2013, 5:23 pm

And I suppose "celebrity" is a word that has any meaning we want it to now:

http://www.vegasnews.com/76420/celebrit ... vegas.html

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 19th, 2013, 7:02 pm

I don't see what Murry Sawchuck has to do with naked female magicians.
But I would definitely pick the naked female magicians if asked to choose between the two. (No offense to Mr. Sawchuck.)
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Doug Thornton » April 19th, 2013, 7:42 pm

Doug Henning's "Things That Go Bump In The Night" is now called "Bumps In The Night"? Wow. Is that really the new title or just poor reporting? Maybe they should get right to the point and change it to "Boobs In The Night."
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Brad Henderson » April 19th, 2013, 8:33 pm

re: murray his article came up in related story. Just found the self attached title of 'celebrity' to someone no on other than a few magicians has ever heard of to be insulting - as much as the naked girls or the overly zealous photo linked to previously.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Curtis Kam » April 19th, 2013, 9:43 pm

But they're doing Houdini's famous "Water Substitution" effect. You don't see anyone doing that one, um, ever. Certainly not Houdini.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Kelly Rusk » April 20th, 2013, 7:06 am

Nekkid women and magic. My 2 favorite subjects combined in 1 show!!

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erdnasephile
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby erdnasephile » April 20th, 2013, 11:29 am

Kelly Rusk wrote:Nekkid women and magic. My 2 favorite subjects combined in 1 show!!


I dunno...I like ice cream and Chinese food, but I'm not lookin' to stick 'em in a blender together. ;)

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Chris Aguilar » April 20th, 2013, 11:58 am

Didn't Lance Burton once find success at the Hacienda mixing topless women into his magic?

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erdnasephile
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby erdnasephile » April 20th, 2013, 12:25 pm

Chris Aguilar wrote:Didn't Lance Burton once find success at the Hacienda mixing topless women into his magic?


Fair enough, but in the Burton show, the gratuitous breast baring was the accent, not the main dish. (I believe his first show of the day was a covered-up family version, which also did well).

In contrast, the "magic" in this show appears to be mainly of the gravity defying kind. (I haven't seen the show, however, so perhaps I'm speaking out of turn.)
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Chris Aguilar » April 20th, 2013, 12:34 pm

If there's no audience for this "centerfold" show it'll fail.

But a topless show? In Las Vegas?

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 20th, 2013, 12:42 pm

Burton's early show had the girls fully clothed. The late show had them topless. It felt completely out of place and seemed to make the audience uncomfortable.
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erdnasephile
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby erdnasephile » April 20th, 2013, 1:06 pm

What is off-putting to me is the apparent presumption by the producers of this show that magic is such a lame concept that it needs bolt-on mammary glands to succeed.

I'm neither surprised nor shocked. It's just the crassness of it all.
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Chris Aguilar » April 20th, 2013, 1:16 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Burton's early show had the girls fully clothed. The late show had them topless. It felt completely out of place and seemed to make the audience uncomfortable.

The Hacienda show ran for five years, so I'd wager that if the topless women were a total turn off (or causing lost ticket sales) they'd probably have been removed at some point during those five years. Does anyone know if the topless women lasted the full five years (of late shows)?

From what I understand, Burton's late shows were sexually charged, with Burton performing a sensual two person levitation that included a topless woman astride him as he floated.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Terry » April 20th, 2013, 5:03 pm

Chris Aguilar wrote:
Richard Kaufman wrote:Burton's early show had the girls fully clothed. The late show had them topless. It felt completely out of place and seemed to make the audience uncomfortable.

The Hacienda show ran for five years, so I'd wager that if the topless women were a total turn off (or causing lost ticket sales) they'd probably have been removed at some point during those five years. Does anyone know if the topless women lasted the full five years (of late shows)?

From what I understand, Burton's late shows were sexually charged, with Burton performing a sensual two person levitation that included a topless woman astride him as he floated.


Saw it during the first week it opened during the SAM convention.

The girls had clothes on in the early show and he did a levitation with he and a female. It wasn't anything scandalous.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Chris Aguilar » April 20th, 2013, 6:39 pm

Terry wrote:convention.

The girls had clothes on in the early show and he did a levitation with he and a female. It wasn't anything scandalous.

As awful as this new "centerfolds" show is likely to be (from a performance view) I don't see anything particularly scandalous about it either. Vegas is no stranger to awful shows, topless women, etc.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Max Maven » April 21st, 2013, 3:08 am

This should be discussed in context. From the 1970s, virtually all of the production shows in Las Vegas had topless female dancers. At that time, Vegas was not the family destination that it is today.

This started to change in the 1980s. The first show to offer a "covered" early show (initially only on Fridays, then adding Saturdays, then expanding to all of the early shows) was Beyond Belief at the Frontier, starring Siegfried & Roy.

They were ahead of the curve. As Las Vegas continued to redefine itself, other shows made their early performances covered. When S&R opened at the Mirage in 1990, there were no topless dancers. In fact, just about all of the production shows were covered, early and late. It is only in the past decade that some topless shows have returned, but they are no longer the norm.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Tom Moore » April 21st, 2013, 6:40 am

What is off-putting to me is the apparent presumption by the producers of this show that magic is such a lame concept that it needs bolt-on mammary glands to succeed.


I would refer you to /most/ magic stage performances which i would argue are lame, ill thought out, badly conceived, poorly directed illogical mess's that would be greatly improved by the bolting on of almost any gimmick, however base.
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Jonathan Pendragon
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » April 25th, 2013, 3:57 am

"You keep using that word, I don't think it means what you think it means."

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Steve Bryant » April 25th, 2013, 8:16 am

Showgirls of Magic was a lot of fun. Not high art, nor did it pretend to be, but fun. It too presented the first show clothed, the late show topless. Mike Close had a funny joke about it, but I can tell that some on this thread are too prudish to hear it.

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Dustin Stinett
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Dustin Stinett » April 25th, 2013, 11:46 am

I want to hear/read it, Steve.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby M.Lee » April 26th, 2013, 4:04 pm

Here Is a Frighting Image - P & Teller Or Amaz Jonathan Topless
Mac King on the other hand ..hey could work ? . LOL !!


ML

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » May 2nd, 2013, 6:45 am

I did illusions topless. I never get any credit.

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CraigMitchell
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby CraigMitchell » May 2nd, 2013, 8:17 am


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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 2nd, 2013, 8:54 am

Jonathan, I'm sure you had your share of closted fans for your magnificent man-boobs. :) They just didn't talk about it. These days, your ass would get pinched.
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » May 2nd, 2013, 9:12 pm

Some of them weren't so closeted.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Curtis Kam » May 3rd, 2013, 6:57 pm

Thanks for the link, Craig. Buried in the article--yes, I read the article--is the best advert line, or at least the beginning of one--for this show: "Centerfolds of Magic: Where the Magic Comes First!" Supply your own joke line (i.e. "but the customer's never far behind") or not, as you choose.

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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Jonathan Pendragon » May 3rd, 2013, 8:52 pm

That's a sub-reference to the Mustang Ranch in northern Nevada. Vintage ashtrays from the ranch with their motto on it are as collectable as old chips, slot machines, card shoes and gambling tables to people who collect casino antiques.

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Gary Kosnitzky
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Gary Kosnitzky » May 3rd, 2013, 11:12 pm

In Vegas, strippers have some dignity.
This will give strippers a bad name.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 3rd, 2013, 11:33 pm

I don't know why training strippers as magicians will automatically give them a bad name. You should recall the song "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" in the show Gypsy.
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Re: Centerfolds of Magic

Postby Gary Kosnitzky » May 4th, 2013, 6:14 am

A quote from Christopher Hitchens essay on why "Woman aren't funny" applies to strippers in magic:

“Women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way. They already appeal to men, if you catch my drift."

A Stripper does not need a gimmick. Stripping is the gimmick.


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