October 30, 2024 • 13 mins
Master Magician Lance Burton discusses his interest in magic, launching his career on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, his crazy work schedule in Vegas, and your chance to see him this weekend...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's all kinds of great things coming up, including this
weekend a chance for you to see a world famous
master magician. His name is Lance Burton. Welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Lance, Hey, Terry, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Everything's beautiful. I'm so glad to have you as a
Kentuckian who was in a kind of a retirement mode.
But you still occasionally bring your show out, your unbelievable
mix of illusions and sleight of hand and audience participation
and it's a great family show. Occasionally you come out
and put this show on display again.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, yeah, let me address the whole retirement issue. So
as for people who don't know, I spent thirty years
performing magic shows out in Las Vegas. I was at
the Trapacana Hotel, the Hacienda Hotel for the last fourteen
years of my career at the Monte Carlo Hotel, and
(00:59):
during that time I did five hundred to six hundred
shows a year. That was that was two shows a
day and in the beginning of a seven days a week.
So so I mean that was that was what the
job entailed. And then I retired from regularly scheduled performances
in twenty ten. So now I'm back in Kentucky. I'm
(01:21):
down here in Derek County and living on the farm,
and I'm enjoying being back in my home state. And
every now and then I go out and do a show.
So this year I will probably wind up doing twenty
five shows. Wow, but that is a far cry from
five hundred to six hundred shows a year.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Well, yeah, you can keep your you can keep your
sanity this way, and your friends are all broke. Now,
I remember you on the Tonight Show of Johnny Carson
and that kind of didn't that elevate you to the
national presence?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Oh? That was That was how my career was launched.
It was October twenty eighth, nineteen eighty one. I made
my first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,
and that appearance launched my career, and that got me
my first job in Las Vegas. And you know, since
you mentioned Johnny Carson, I have to tell you last
week I did two shows. Not my Lance Burton and
(02:18):
Friends show, which I'm doing this Saturday in Campbellsville, but
last week I did two shows with some other acts
in Nebraska. We did one in Lincoln, Nebraska at University
there that Johnny Carson. Johnny was from Nebraska, where Johnny
donated too, and then another one in Norfolk, which was
(02:39):
Johnny's hometown, in the John Carson Theater there, and it
was in celebration of what would have been Johnny Carson's
ninety ninth birth Oh wow. And all of the acts
that were on this show were all like me, got
their start on The Tonight Show. And Pat Hazel and
(03:01):
Kathy Ladman and the Passing Zone, great juggling act and
Jay Johnson, that terrific ventriloquist who you might remember from
the TV series Soap back in the seventies. We all
got our break on the Tonight Show. So it was
a really fun to get together with those guys.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, and Johnny Carson was fascinated by magic, so he
I was really locked into you.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, he was a very skilled magician growing up.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Before he did stand up comedy or hosted television shows,
he was a magician. He performed there in his hometown
at church socials and clubs and birthday parties, and that's
how he started his career in show business, right.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But I know you were ultimately you were on Letterman
and with Jay Leno and The View and Hollywood Squares,
and you've been on Solar shows doing all kinds of things.
That's just that's all hot, old hat to you. But
I saw you show a couple of years ago when
you did it for the Crusade, it was mesmerizing. And
so you're gonna do this same type of show this
(04:08):
weekend for the Campbellsville, Taylor County Chamber of Commerces.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, that's exactly right. When we did the Crusade, they
told us could you They asked me, could you do
an hour? And and you know what, I looked back
at the tape that show ran sixty minutes. Of course,
I was very proud. I mean, that's hard to do,
is to bring it into the minute. So so we
(04:35):
did an hour. The show we're doing on Saturday will
probably run ninety minutes or more. But you're correct. It
is it is the It is the Campbellsville, Taylor County
Chamber of Commerce. This is their seventy fifth anniversary celebration
and it's a black tie galla. There's gonna be a
dinner and there's going to be entertainment at dinner. My
(04:57):
friend Gabrielle Bersace is coming in. She's gonna during dinner,
and then they're going over to the theater right next door,
and we're going to do the entire show. And it's
going to be and it's all to raise money for
their new foundation, which they're using the money with an
emphasis on education. So the money is going to go
(05:18):
to educate future business leaders and scholarships and things like that.
So it's a really going to be an amazing event.
And it's it's sponsored by the Taylor Regional Hospital, so
so everyone is invited to attend if you want to.
It's it's ninety minutes from Louisville. If you want to
pop down and it's a black tie event and have
(05:41):
dinner and see a magic show and say hi to
a fellow Kentuckian. I'm happy to say hi to everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's just not a magic show. It is an experience.
I mean watching you and your team work is brilliant.
Now I don't know how you do what you do,
but it's mesmerizing.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, we like to I always like to give a
good variety when we're doing a show. So I have
a lot of really great guest stars that are going
to be there doing we have a lot of comedy
in the show and juggling, and we're gonna have music
and I think Barbara streisand may even make an appearance
this Saturday.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Fantastic. What do you do to stay proficient? I mean,
because you were doing five hundred shows a year, so
obviously little you know, you're in your game, You're in
your element. But then when you limit it to twenty
five shows a year, do you is this like anything else,
like dance or singing? You practice this?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well? You know what funny you should say that it
comes back to you because when I retired, I didn't
do in twenty ten, I retired. I didn't do any
shows for like seven years, except for maybe fundraisers for
charities and profits that I supported out there in Las Vegas. Uh.
(07:03):
I would get up and do ten minutes, and that was,
you know, simple and easy. But that was all kind
of small slid of hand stuff things that I can
I can do in my sleep. But when I started
doing this Lancepert and Friends show, you know, we added
we added some allusions to it, and and yeah, we
had to rehearse, we had to we had to get
(07:24):
together with the cast and there's about ten of us
in the cast, and we had to we had to
actually spend some time going over tricks that I've done,
you know, hundreds and hundreds of times, but I had
to kind of to relearn them, and the cast had
to kind of relearn them. But but as you go on,
(07:44):
as we perform, now that we've been doing this for
a few years, the show tightens up, and I'll have
new ideas and I'll throw those in, and we're always
working on new things to put the show.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
What's the first thing you learned you were a kid
at Butler High School, grew up here in Louisville, you're
Butler High School. You get fascinated by magic. I mean,
what was the first thing that you learned that you
that other people were like, dude, how'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You know? I started so young, even before I got
to high school. I mean I was five years old
when I got interested in magic. There was a magician
down in uh who was from Glasgow, Kentucky named Harry Collins.
And Harry Harry is buried out there at Cave Hill
Cemetery and they had this beautiful bronze statue of him there.
(08:33):
And if you ever go take the tour of Cave
Hill Cemetery. There are several magicians there that you want
to go see. Muhammad Ali of course is there. That's right.
An amateur magician, Harry Collins. Thomas Tobin is buried there,
a magician from England who who died here in Louisville
back in the gee. This over like over one hundred
(08:56):
years ago. But uh, but my influence was My first
influence was Harry Collins. He was a terrific magician, terrific
slide at hand artists. So I started doing magic at
a really young age. So I was even in elementary school,
I was. I was doing tricks for my friends. You know,
at lunchtime I would I would I would bring a
(09:17):
deck of cards to school and at lunchtime we'd eat
our lunch and I would do card tricks for.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Thee I'm sure that went overwhell with the teachers, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I hate to be macabb, but are you going to
be buried at Cave Hill with those other magicians.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm not sure that would be that would be a
fitting place to be to be there. I haven't given
it that much thought. Why have you heard something?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
No, I haven't heard anything, Lance, But that's a majestic
place to it. It's you know, it's a fascinating, beautiful
place here in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, and and and and if you can get over there,
and we I was there, oh, for the first time
in recent memories, several years ago. I guess it was
twenty sixteen. And we ran into this guy who I
don't think he works there full time, but he's kind
(10:14):
of associated with that. John Campbell was his name, and
he took us around on a tour and it was
the most fascinating day you can spend in Louisville if
you go there with somebody that really knows who's buried
where and all the backstage stories. And I think a
lot of that now is I think I think I'm
(10:34):
remembering correctly. They have an app that you could kind
of go around and a thing on your phone, but
it is. It is a gorgeous place to go visit.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, but I didn't want to rub your nose in darkness.
But I was just curious since there's so many other
famous magicians and that's we're talking about one hundred years
from now. Lance.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Oh, okay, Yeah, I don't know to be that long.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, listen, I know you're gonna put on a spectacular
show again. This is the Campbellsville, Taylor County Chamber of
Congress seventy fifth anniversary Gala. It's this Saturday night. There's
a dinner all that full of tails are at Campbellsville
Chamber dot com. And I think this is going to
be another stellar event. Black Tye perfect for Lance Burton,
Master Magician. It's always great to talk with you, buddy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Thank you, pal, it's good talking to you. Thanks for
having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And also thank you for your care and concern for animals.
You're just such a good soul.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I love the animals, and I love I've got a
bunch of them here at the farm, and I love
helping out Kentucky Humane Society, and and I love what
you do there in the community. And of course I
watched you on the Crusade this year and and they
actually they replayed right the year from the seventies.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
N We are never gonna let go of the tape
of you from a couple of years ago that was
magnificent because you gave it.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You you put a stopwatch on that and you will see
they asked me for an hour, and I gave them.
I gave them sixty minutes. When I walked off stage
to look at that tape, I was so proud was
I was going to everyone in the cast. Did you
see how much time we did exactly what they asked for?
It was a proud moment in my life.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
You're the best, Lance Burton. Great, thanks for checking in again.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
All right, thanks Terry, you have a great day. God
bless you.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
God bless you to see you down the road.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Brother, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know what, that's the I've never asked anyone before
where they thought they were going to be buried. That's
a new one. That didn't hurt his feelings. He's such
a good soul. Saturday Night, great show. I mean, if
you haven't seen a master magician perform, this guy is.
He's the best of the best they ever had in
Las Vegas, and he's been doing it for forty something
years and he still looks like a kid. Saturday Night,
(12:53):
November two, and it's in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Full of tails
at Campbellsville Chamber dot com.
It's all kinds of great things coming up, including this
weekend a chance for you to see a world famous
master magician. His name is Lance Burton. Welcome back to
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Lance, Hey, Terry, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Everything's beautiful. I'm so glad to have you as a
Kentuckian who was in a kind of a retirement mode.
But you still occasionally bring your show out, your unbelievable
mix of illusions and sleight of hand and audience participation
and it's a great family show. Occasionally you come out
and put this show on display again.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yes, yeah, let me address the whole retirement issue. So
as for people who don't know, I spent thirty years
performing magic shows out in Las Vegas. I was at
the Trapacana Hotel, the Hacienda Hotel for the last fourteen
years of my career at the Monte Carlo Hotel, and
(00:59):
during that time I did five hundred to six hundred
shows a year. That was that was two shows a
day and in the beginning of a seven days a week.
So so I mean that was that was what the
job entailed. And then I retired from regularly scheduled performances
in twenty ten. So now I'm back in Kentucky. I'm
(01:21):
down here in Derek County and living on the farm,
and I'm enjoying being back in my home state. And
every now and then I go out and do a show.
So this year I will probably wind up doing twenty
five shows. Wow, but that is a far cry from
five hundred to six hundred shows a year.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Well, yeah, you can keep your you can keep your
sanity this way, and your friends are all broke. Now,
I remember you on the Tonight Show of Johnny Carson
and that kind of didn't that elevate you to the
national presence?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Oh? That was That was how my career was launched.
It was October twenty eighth, nineteen eighty one. I made
my first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,
and that appearance launched my career, and that got me
my first job in Las Vegas. And you know, since
you mentioned Johnny Carson, I have to tell you last
week I did two shows. Not my Lance Burton and
(02:18):
Friends show, which I'm doing this Saturday in Campbellsville, but
last week I did two shows with some other acts
in Nebraska. We did one in Lincoln, Nebraska at University
there that Johnny Carson. Johnny was from Nebraska, where Johnny
donated too, and then another one in Norfolk, which was
(02:39):
Johnny's hometown, in the John Carson Theater there, and it
was in celebration of what would have been Johnny Carson's
ninety ninth birth Oh wow. And all of the acts
that were on this show were all like me, got
their start on The Tonight Show. And Pat Hazel and
(03:01):
Kathy Ladman and the Passing Zone, great juggling act and
Jay Johnson, that terrific ventriloquist who you might remember from
the TV series Soap back in the seventies. We all
got our break on the Tonight Show. So it was
a really fun to get together with those guys.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, and Johnny Carson was fascinated by magic, so he
I was really locked into you.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yes, he was a very skilled magician growing up.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Before he did stand up comedy or hosted television shows,
he was a magician. He performed there in his hometown
at church socials and clubs and birthday parties, and that's
how he started his career in show business, right.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But I know you were ultimately you were on Letterman
and with Jay Leno and The View and Hollywood Squares,
and you've been on Solar shows doing all kinds of things.
That's just that's all hot, old hat to you. But
I saw you show a couple of years ago when
you did it for the Crusade, it was mesmerizing. And
so you're gonna do this same type of show this
(04:08):
weekend for the Campbellsville, Taylor County Chamber of Commerces.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, that's exactly right. When we did the Crusade, they
told us could you They asked me, could you do
an hour? And and you know what, I looked back
at the tape that show ran sixty minutes. Of course,
I was very proud. I mean, that's hard to do,
is to bring it into the minute. So so we
(04:35):
did an hour. The show we're doing on Saturday will
probably run ninety minutes or more. But you're correct. It
is it is the It is the Campbellsville, Taylor County
Chamber of Commerce. This is their seventy fifth anniversary celebration
and it's a black tie galla. There's gonna be a
dinner and there's going to be entertainment at dinner. My
(04:57):
friend Gabrielle Bersace is coming in. She's gonna during dinner,
and then they're going over to the theater right next door,
and we're going to do the entire show. And it's
going to be and it's all to raise money for
their new foundation, which they're using the money with an
emphasis on education. So the money is going to go
(05:18):
to educate future business leaders and scholarships and things like that.
So it's a really going to be an amazing event.
And it's it's sponsored by the Taylor Regional Hospital, so
so everyone is invited to attend if you want to.
It's it's ninety minutes from Louisville. If you want to
pop down and it's a black tie event and have
(05:41):
dinner and see a magic show and say hi to
a fellow Kentuckian. I'm happy to say hi to everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's just not a magic show. It is an experience.
I mean watching you and your team work is brilliant.
Now I don't know how you do what you do,
but it's mesmerizing.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, we like to I always like to give a
good variety when we're doing a show. So I have
a lot of really great guest stars that are going
to be there doing we have a lot of comedy
in the show and juggling, and we're gonna have music
and I think Barbara streisand may even make an appearance
this Saturday.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Fantastic. What do you do to stay proficient? I mean,
because you were doing five hundred shows a year, so
obviously little you know, you're in your game, You're in
your element. But then when you limit it to twenty
five shows a year, do you is this like anything else,
like dance or singing? You practice this?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well? You know what funny you should say that it
comes back to you because when I retired, I didn't
do in twenty ten, I retired. I didn't do any
shows for like seven years, except for maybe fundraisers for
charities and profits that I supported out there in Las Vegas. Uh.
(07:03):
I would get up and do ten minutes, and that was,
you know, simple and easy. But that was all kind
of small slid of hand stuff things that I can
I can do in my sleep. But when I started
doing this Lancepert and Friends show, you know, we added
we added some allusions to it, and and yeah, we
had to rehearse, we had to we had to get
(07:24):
together with the cast and there's about ten of us
in the cast, and we had to we had to
actually spend some time going over tricks that I've done,
you know, hundreds and hundreds of times, but I had
to kind of to relearn them, and the cast had
to kind of relearn them. But but as you go on,
(07:44):
as we perform, now that we've been doing this for
a few years, the show tightens up, and I'll have
new ideas and I'll throw those in, and we're always
working on new things to put the show.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
What's the first thing you learned you were a kid
at Butler High School, grew up here in Louisville, you're
Butler High School. You get fascinated by magic. I mean,
what was the first thing that you learned that you
that other people were like, dude, how'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You know? I started so young, even before I got
to high school. I mean I was five years old
when I got interested in magic. There was a magician
down in uh who was from Glasgow, Kentucky named Harry Collins.
And Harry Harry is buried out there at Cave Hill
Cemetery and they had this beautiful bronze statue of him there.
(08:33):
And if you ever go take the tour of Cave
Hill Cemetery. There are several magicians there that you want
to go see. Muhammad Ali of course is there. That's right.
An amateur magician, Harry Collins. Thomas Tobin is buried there,
a magician from England who who died here in Louisville
back in the gee. This over like over one hundred
(08:56):
years ago. But uh, but my influence was My first
influence was Harry Collins. He was a terrific magician, terrific
slide at hand artists. So I started doing magic at
a really young age. So I was even in elementary school,
I was. I was doing tricks for my friends. You know,
at lunchtime I would I would I would bring a
(09:17):
deck of cards to school and at lunchtime we'd eat
our lunch and I would do card tricks for.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Thee I'm sure that went overwhell with the teachers, that's
for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
I hate to be macabb, but are you going to
be buried at Cave Hill with those other magicians.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm not sure that would be that would be a
fitting place to be to be there. I haven't given
it that much thought. Why have you heard something?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
No, I haven't heard anything, Lance, But that's a majestic
place to it. It's you know, it's a fascinating, beautiful
place here in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, and and and and if you can get over there,
and we I was there, oh, for the first time
in recent memories, several years ago. I guess it was
twenty sixteen. And we ran into this guy who I
don't think he works there full time, but he's kind
(10:14):
of associated with that. John Campbell was his name, and
he took us around on a tour and it was
the most fascinating day you can spend in Louisville if
you go there with somebody that really knows who's buried
where and all the backstage stories. And I think a
lot of that now is I think I think I'm
(10:34):
remembering correctly. They have an app that you could kind
of go around and a thing on your phone, but
it is. It is a gorgeous place to go visit.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, but I didn't want to rub your nose in darkness.
But I was just curious since there's so many other
famous magicians and that's we're talking about one hundred years
from now. Lance.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Oh, okay, Yeah, I don't know to be that long.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, listen, I know you're gonna put on a spectacular
show again. This is the Campbellsville, Taylor County Chamber of
Congress seventy fifth anniversary Gala. It's this Saturday night. There's
a dinner all that full of tails are at Campbellsville
Chamber dot com. And I think this is going to
be another stellar event. Black Tye perfect for Lance Burton,
Master Magician. It's always great to talk with you, buddy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Thank you, pal, it's good talking to you. Thanks for
having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And also thank you for your care and concern for animals.
You're just such a good soul.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I love the animals, and I love I've got a
bunch of them here at the farm, and I love
helping out Kentucky Humane Society, and and I love what
you do there in the community. And of course I
watched you on the Crusade this year and and they
actually they replayed right the year from the seventies.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
N We are never gonna let go of the tape
of you from a couple of years ago that was
magnificent because you gave it.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
You you put a stopwatch on that and you will see
they asked me for an hour, and I gave them.
I gave them sixty minutes. When I walked off stage
to look at that tape, I was so proud was
I was going to everyone in the cast. Did you
see how much time we did exactly what they asked for?
It was a proud moment in my life.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
You're the best, Lance Burton. Great, thanks for checking in again.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
All right, thanks Terry, you have a great day. God
bless you.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
God bless you to see you down the road.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Brother, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know what, that's the I've never asked anyone before
where they thought they were going to be buried. That's
a new one. That didn't hurt his feelings. He's such
a good soul. Saturday Night, great show. I mean, if
you haven't seen a master magician perform, this guy is.
He's the best of the best they ever had in
Las Vegas, and he's been doing it for forty something
years and he still looks like a kid. Saturday Night,
(12:53):
November two, and it's in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Full of tails
at Campbellsville Chamber dot com.
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