The late Harry Blackstone Jr. and Doug Henning played here. On Feb. 26, Siegfried and Roy announced that they had signed one last multiyear contract at the Mirage before retiring from live performances. Las Vegas is the world's magic capital in other ways as well. The industry's leading trade publication, Magic magazine, is published here. The world's only school for master magicians is conducted here.
Visitors come here with a mind-set to be wowed.
And there are practical considerations. The emergence of magic in Las Vegas dates back decades, when magicians were employed in big production shows to entertain for 10 or 15 minutes during big scene changes. Magic flourished in the 1990s as magicians explored different themes and America discovered that it could embrace more than one king of magic. For spectacle, lasers and white tigers, there are showmen Siegfried and Roy. For classic magic in top hat and tails, the elegant Burton.