Part 2 of Greg & Maria's trip to Las Vegas.
On Wednesday I decided to take things a bit easier since my feet were pretty sore from the previous evening. I still went out in the morning when there was a couple hour break in the conference to see a few more casinos. My 24 hour monorail pass was still good, so I went back out and walked through Imperial Palace, Harrah's, the Venetian, and Treasure Island (TI).
(The gondola rides inside the Venetian)
That night the rest of the conference was going to see "Barry Manilow: The Music and the Passion." I have nothing against Barry, but I had no interest in seeing his show, even though the price was included with the conference package. So I was happy to have my hard-earned Penn & Teller ticket instead.
Before the show, I went to the Rio's buffet for dinner. I didn't know it at the time, but this particular buffet is considered one of the best in Vegas. You literally couldn't see one end of the buffet from the other because it was so long with so many options. I filled up on roast beef, french rolls, and several other plates of items including a serving of gelato from their dessert counter.
(The gelato counter at the Rio buffet)
The Penn & Teller show was great. Before it started, everyone was invited on stage to sign a large envelope, while a jazz duo played on the side. It wasn't until I was on stage that I noticed the bass player was Penn. I knew he was a great magician and stage performer, but I had no idea he was a musician as well. While I was on stage I looked around for any type of trap doors or other possible contraptions to help in the pending magic show, but everything looked fairly ordinary as far as I could tell.
Penn & Teller performed quite a lot of great magic routines. One of their gimmicks is that they are huge skeptics, so they often give away how they do their own tricks. They performed a cups and balls routine where they immediately turn around and show how they did it. This youtube clip is pretty much exactly what I saw them perform:
Then they follow up the explained tricks with others that seem amazingly impossible, except that they go out of their way to let the audience know that everything they do is a trick. They finished off the evening with their famous bullet catch routine:
So why did I pay around $85 for stuff I can find on Youtube? Because no matter how amazing something is, it's always more amazing when you see it in person. I really enjoyed the show, and was surprised that with Vegas' reputation and for being a 9pm show, it would have been something I'd have gladly brought my kids too. In fact, the only "adult" moment of the show was when Penn referred to Penn & Teller's Showtime series with the PG-13 title, "BullCrap" (title softened for politeness sake).
After the show, both Penn & Teller were standing out in the foyer for pictures and autographs. I shook Teller's hand, got his autograph on my ticket stub, and got really blurry camera-phone pictures of the two. (It wasn't until a week later that I realized I still had the protective cellophane over the lens of my new phone's camera!)
All-in-all, I was pretty happy to have seen my first real Vegas show and actually shake the hand of a much admired magician/celebrity.
On Wednesday I decided to take things a bit easier since my feet were pretty sore from the previous evening. I still went out in the morning when there was a couple hour break in the conference to see a few more casinos. My 24 hour monorail pass was still good, so I went back out and walked through Imperial Palace, Harrah's, the Venetian, and Treasure Island (TI).
(The gondola rides inside the Venetian)
That night the rest of the conference was going to see "Barry Manilow: The Music and the Passion." I have nothing against Barry, but I had no interest in seeing his show, even though the price was included with the conference package. So I was happy to have my hard-earned Penn & Teller ticket instead.
Before the show, I went to the Rio's buffet for dinner. I didn't know it at the time, but this particular buffet is considered one of the best in Vegas. You literally couldn't see one end of the buffet from the other because it was so long with so many options. I filled up on roast beef, french rolls, and several other plates of items including a serving of gelato from their dessert counter.
(The gelato counter at the Rio buffet)
The Penn & Teller show was great. Before it started, everyone was invited on stage to sign a large envelope, while a jazz duo played on the side. It wasn't until I was on stage that I noticed the bass player was Penn. I knew he was a great magician and stage performer, but I had no idea he was a musician as well. While I was on stage I looked around for any type of trap doors or other possible contraptions to help in the pending magic show, but everything looked fairly ordinary as far as I could tell.
Penn & Teller performed quite a lot of great magic routines. One of their gimmicks is that they are huge skeptics, so they often give away how they do their own tricks. They performed a cups and balls routine where they immediately turn around and show how they did it. This youtube clip is pretty much exactly what I saw them perform:
Then they follow up the explained tricks with others that seem amazingly impossible, except that they go out of their way to let the audience know that everything they do is a trick. They finished off the evening with their famous bullet catch routine:
So why did I pay around $85 for stuff I can find on Youtube? Because no matter how amazing something is, it's always more amazing when you see it in person. I really enjoyed the show, and was surprised that with Vegas' reputation and for being a 9pm show, it would have been something I'd have gladly brought my kids too. In fact, the only "adult" moment of the show was when Penn referred to Penn & Teller's Showtime series with the PG-13 title, "BullCrap" (title softened for politeness sake).
After the show, both Penn & Teller were standing out in the foyer for pictures and autographs. I shook Teller's hand, got his autograph on my ticket stub, and got really blurry camera-phone pictures of the two. (It wasn't until a week later that I realized I still had the protective cellophane over the lens of my new phone's camera!)
All-in-all, I was pretty happy to have seen my first real Vegas show and actually shake the hand of a much admired magician/celebrity.
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