Stage: Sleight of bland

By Barbara Scherzer

Magicians are my own personal crazy. During Steve Wyrick's tenure in this town, I have witnessed his journey from downtown headliner to the Strip. Although Wyrick's current show has its riveting moments, it is a mixed affair, as he has not yet mastered one vital role: that of showman.

A persistent problem is he frequently delivers his lines without emotion and fails to evoke a sense of danger during his supposedly life-threatening tricks. The sizzle/sex factor is missing when Wyrick and his assistant play out their saw-the-girl-into-pieces routine. During his "crane of death" trick, Wyrick cracks a one-liner that receives nary a chuckle. The joke was funny; his delivery was not.

Wyrick fares better when he goes one-on-one with his audience. When he borrows a hundred-dollar bill from an audience member, gathers up the ladies' rings, or brings volunteers onstage, his personality perks up. If only more of that kind of spirit could be on view for the entire show.

His large-scale illusions are well-executed. The appearance of a genuine yellow Hummer H2 is a definite jaw-dropper as is his closer, the materializing of a Beechcraft airplane. In one of his longtime routines, he appears to step unharmed through a rotating turbine blade. Also impressive is a motorcycle with Wyrick aboard that somehow vanishes from a box elevated above the stage.

Unlike most magic productions at the high end of the ticket tier, originality does not appear to be one of Wyrick's strong suits. His floating-in-air beer glass routine looks a lot like Lance Burton's, and Wyrick's interlocking finger rings strongly resemble magician Nick Lewin's showstopper. David Copperfield used to perform the turbine blade effect, and levitating a youngster chosen from the audience is a magic mainstay.

The rock score is fine, but the dancing needs addressing. In one sequence, Wyrick's showgirls perform a complex number with folding ladders, but the dancing does not advance any magic action. So why do it? More problematic is that one of the dancers remains persistently out of step with her fellow hoofers throughout much of the show.

Magic aficionados will find few new tricks on display. However, his larger illusions are worth watching and his close-up rapport has improved. If Wyrick could develop a more uniformly engaging presence and inject a sense of danger into his show, the evening might become more magical.