The Magic Is Back: 5 Best Places You Can Catch This Travel Trend

“The 1920’s were known as the Golden Age of Magic, and a century ago, magicians like Houdini, Dante, Thurston, Carter The Great, and Dai Vernon were household names. Ever since, magic has had upswings and downswings, enjoying a high-profile era of televised specials in the Seventies and Eighties with David Copperfield and Doug Henning.

Now magic is back, but not on the flat screen. Live performances, especially the very intimate styles known as close up and parlor magic, are red hot. What is different about the current prestidigitation craze is that it features increasingly upscale performances and attracts a hipper, more sophisticated audience than the sparkly sequins of Siegfried & Roy to the oddball stunts-masquerading-as-magic of David Blaine.

Today’s magic show is positioned as more respectable, competing with the likes of Broadway theater and classical music, and these are 5 top spots to be blown away:

Masters of Illusions, Las Vegas: Masters of Illusion began as a television series, most recently on the CW network for the past four seasons, and just made the leap to the live stage. It just opened two weeks ago and I saw it in previews. This production takes a very different approach, with an ensemble cast of five renowned magicians, who alternate or cooperate in a rapid-fire, fast paced series of tricks with little banter, mixing small scale sleight-of-hand and card tricks with grander Vegas-style illusions such as a disappearing helicopter and Lamborghini, as well as classic levitation and sawing a woman in half. Masters of Illusion is a perfect choice for those craving more spectacle, held in the world-famous Jubilee Theater at Bally’s Las Vegas.”

Read the full article here: FORBES (The Magic is Back) by Larry Olmsted