King After Noon

Even after 10 successful years as Harrah's afternoon headliner, comic magician Mac King often is asked, "Why are you still doing a daytime show?"

The question is a backhanded compliment of sorts; an entertainer who lands a nighttime Las Vegas gig is considered to be a major success. So those who think King should be doing a night show are saying he's good. Really good.

Few of those questioners consider King's reality: He's quite satisfied with his 10-year reign over daytime Strip entertainment. And there's nothing he would change.

"I've had vague overtures from other places about doing a nighttime show. I would do a night show if it was an amazing offer and I could retire in a couple (of) years," King says. "But I have a pretty swell job, especially for a married guy with a daughter. I have breakfast with them every morning and dinner every night. Sundays and Mondays off. I get a full day with my wife and daughter and half a day to myself. It's pretty great."

When King landed the Harrah's Las Vegas gig, he saw a long career ahead of him. But he never imagined a 10-year run. A lot of shows can get stale and the entertainer bored during such a lengthy residency. People who ask him how he keeps things fresh get a stock answer that King says happens to be true, too.

The show is designed in such a way that it's different from day to day. More than half of it involves audience participation and people react differently, King says. That affects the way he performs his tricks and gives him fresh material for ad-libbing.

"My show is about 70 minutes, sometimes longer, depending on laughter," King says. "Out of that time, there's probably only 15 minutes where somebody's not onstage with me. I genuinely react to them, so there's a lot of room for improv in there. People are funny. Over the course of 10 years, that's what has kept it interesting to me."

Influenced by two grandfathers who liked doing little tricks for their grandson, King, whose full name is Paxson McCormick King, started doing magic when he was about 8. A trick with a toothpick, or matchstick, he can't remember which, hooked him.

"It was like a brain explosion," the 50-year-old entertainer recalls.

His first gig was when he was about 10 or 11; he got paid $5 to perform at a birthday party.

"That was pretty sweet money, I was ready to move out and get my own place," he says.

King started honing his act after meeting childhood friend, and fellow Strip magician, Lance Burton. Both were 14 and Kentucky natives, and both belonged to the Louisville Magic Club. Burton, who moved to Las Vegas in 1982, tried for years to convince King to bring his act to Las Vegas. He even went so far as to get a mutual acquaintance to tell King that he had dreamed about him moving to Vegas.

"I thought he would find work here," Burton says. "He's such a great act. Of course, he's very funny and really a great magician. That's the thing about Mac that a lot of people miss. They talk about how funny he is" while failing to mention the magic.

His show is so successful because, just when audiences least expect it, King performs top-notch magic.

"His magic is very well thought-out," Burton says. "You never see it coming when he gets to the end of the trick and you're caught off-guard. The technique is perfect, but you're so busy being engaged by Mac and his personality and improv skills that you don't really think about the magic until it happens."

Burton calls King his oldest friend and even credits him with turning him on to pizza with anchovies when they were kids.

They both started to earnestly shape their talent at 19 when they landed their first professional job in 1979 at Tombstone Junction, an amusement park in Cumberland Falls, Ky. Three shows a day, seven days a week enabled them to put their acts together, Burton says.

While Burton tried his luck in Vegas in 1982, King took the circuitous route to the Strip. He earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology (and magic) in 1981 from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and started performing anywhere he could.

King moved back to Kentucky and then hit the road again, performing there and in Ohio and Illinois.

"I was grateful to be doing my act," King says.

He married Jennifer Sils in 1985 and the couple eventually ended up in Los Angeles. Television exposure on NBC's "The World's Greatest Magic" shows increased his name recognition and brought him to Las Vegas for taping.

King did a few shows in Las Vegas, working his way up to headlining. In 1999, he was announced as the headliner at the Maxim. A few months later, the casino closed as did King's show. During his short run, he was able to showcase his talents to local entertainment directors and it wasn't long before King was offered a spot at Harrah's.

Now, in addition to his two performances Tuesday through Saturday, King has a line of magic kits, magic lunchboxes and an iPhone magic application. His latest book is "Mac King's Campfire Magic." King also has been active in promoting children's literacy. And the Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada had a limited edition Campfire Magic patch created in conjunction with a benefit show he performed Saturday.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@review journal.com or 702-380-4564.