9 Best Performing Arts Venues in Nevada, USA

The reigning king of Las Vegas afternoons has been on the Strip so long (more than 20 years) that he now greets the children of those who remember seeing his show when they were kids themselves. Ensconced at medieval-themed Excalibur, King remains ageless in his plaid suit and folksy daily greeting of \"Howdy!\" The actual magic takes a backseat to the comedy, which is adjusted to whomever he pulls up onstage on a given day. The one-man hour of low-key, self-deprecating humor features the kind of close-up magic—punctuated by a few more elaborate illusions—that's more baffling than you might first realize amid the running banter and audience participation.

Eccentric comic magicians Penn & Teller are more popular now than when they settled into the Rio in 2002. Ventures such as their durable TV magic contest Fool Us expanded the duo into mainstream culture beyond the Strip. Their magic in a gorgeous 1,500-seat theater remains topical and genuinely baffling, and their comedy is satiric, provocative, and thoughtful. 

Even in his late 50s, Criss Angel puts on the loudest and most energetic of the Las Vegas magic shows, in a Planet Hollywood theater that's been customized with wraparound video walls and surround sound to create a club-like atmosphere. Now a Las Vegas veteran with more than 17 years on the Strip, Angel's show is still dependent on how big a fan you are of him as a performer and how excited you were about his TV glory days. Angel is consistent in his Long Island rock-star image, even as the fast-paced barrage of illusions unfold with a schizophrenic tone that shifts from heavy-metal sinister to rave-up dance party.

The master magician has made Las Vegas a part of his career since the 1980s and now roosts at the MGM Grand with a tireless schedule that usually has him doing three (!) shows a day on Saturdays. However he gets that energy in his late 60s, Copperfield is sort of the Rolling Stones of magic; you sense his authority and submit to it from the minute the show opens and trust him to wow you with illusions—such as the one involving a T. rex—that take years to perfect. His story-telling approach varies the pace with illusions that can be touching or funny, but most of all they still genuinely fool you.

A winning smile (and winning America's Got Talent) turned out to be a formidable combination for a magician who settled on the Strip after the TV talent show fast-tracked his fame in 2014. Franco's charm and likable attitude compensates for a streamlined production, on a mostly bare stage augmented by video screens. But he gives the classics a youthful attitude, and the show builds to a big finale in two bits of trickery that both involve the wider audience.

A knack for self-promotion—and an unimaginable outlay for hair products—made this comedy-magician instantly identifiable by his black-framed glasses and an exploding shock of vertical blonde hair. Murray (Sawchuck) has become a Las Vegas mainstay with a relaxed, slow-burn stage presence and a solid showcase of classic magic heavy on audience banter. When his longtime home at the Tropicana was demolished, Murray moved north for weekend shows inside the L.A. Comedy Club at the Strat.

The likable magician had the good fortune to be on the very first, highly watched season of America's Got Talent in 2006, parlaying that national exposure into a durable career on the Strip. Having relocated from Planet Hollywood, Burton puts a fun spin on familiar illusions and is family-friendly for those with older children. Mom and Dad will smile because the tickets are one of the few show bargains left on the Strip.

Billing himself as \"The Loser of America's Got Talent\" fits the droll humor of the British comedy-magician, whose goal of competing on the TV show was to get a berth in Las Vegas. It worked. The magician who stands out for his satin dragon suit, bad attitude, and stoic chihuahua sidekick, Mr. Piffles, keeps the jokes coming as fast as the card tricks, and pulls plenty of recruits from the audience. It's a testament to Piff's popularity that he's moved from the Flamingo's smaller cabaret to its main showroom.

Call it destiny that this Canadian-American magician ended up in Las Vegas. His first big break was on Penn & Teller's TV show Fool Us, which frequently films at the Rio. A viral performance there led to winning America's Got Talent, which has created a home on the Strip for at least five other resident headliners. Not only that, he followed his 2018 victory on AGT by winning an all-star edition, The Champions, the very next year. Shin Lim has since become a steady presence on the Strip, moving across the street to the Palazzo Theatre after The Mirage closed. In some ways he is the most unlikely of the Las Vegas magic stars, since much of his act depends on \"close-up\" magic and card manipulation tracked by video cameras rather than comedy or big, showy illusions. But he got to where he is by being different and theatrical, not by following some other magician's lead.