big cat magic

Just some quick background. Megan’s mom just started teaching sign language classes for wee kids at a community center and a couple of TV stations wanted to do a piece on her. At one of the interviews the PR group for the community center gave her tickets to a magician here in Vegas. It turned out that Megan’s mom had knee surgery and Megan’s sister Katie was sick and neither of them could go so…

Megan and I went to see a magician. Normally I would leave out the name of the magician to protect his identity but his real name adds so much more to the story that I’m going to risk leaving it in. The show we saw was called Extreme Magic with Dirk Arthur. First of all I think magicians are ridiculous. Not as entertainment but as individuals. I’ve personally a couple magicians in my life and I always leave laughing. Granted the illusions they do are really cool but at the end of the day they still have to tell people that they grew up (using the term loosely) to be magicians. Which includes dancers/assistants, wild jungle cats, flashy jackets, top hats, doves, and big smiles.

The theatre we were in was kind of grungy. Our usher was an old guy with a gut and a mustache. We sat in the first row of booths about 10 yards from the stage. Between the stage and us were rows of long fold up table. I think we have those same fold up tables under the stage at our church. Everyone at the show look tired and grumpy and most of them were probably retired.

The show started with Dirk’s Dancers. 4 girls who probably could get a dancing job anywhere else in Vegas. Megan was worried about the visual scars the dancers were making on her little brother Riley (11) and I couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous they were. Anyway, Dirk Arthur loves tigers and more than half his tricks had to do with making tigers disappear or appear or whatever else you can get a tiger to do. Except, he never put his head in a tiger’s mouth, which would have been really fun to watch. He also had a really old African Black Panther. He said it was something like 15 years old and you could tell. It had grey hair by its whiskers and it walk like it had arthritis. He did have an all white tiger (no stripes) that was way sweet.

Anyway, sorry to bore you with all the details. Overall the show was pretty fun, I laughed a lot. My favorite part of the show was when Dirk came off his stage and was talking to people. It was just the usual “where you from followed” by a lame joke until he stopped at our table. Megan was sitting on the outside and he asked her if she’d been winning at the casinos. She told him she didn’t gamble. Then he said this “well maybe you should cause it’s your lucky day.” Then he made her get up on stage and help him with a card trick. YEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! I laughed so hard. Megan hates doing that kind of stuff. The trick was fun but being able to remind her for the rest of our lives that Dirk chose her to do a magic trick is the best part. He also gave us a free DVD called Big Cat Magic. It’s about his work with the tigers. We gave it to Riley.