Award too late to help magician Hans Klok

Timing is everything when it comes to publicity.

Those who tune into a TV broadcast of the World Magic Awards will discover Hans Klok was named Magician of the Year on the show taped Oct. 13 in Santa Monica, Calif.

Oops. Friday's broadcast of the awards at 8 p.m. on KVMY-TV, Channel 21 (Cox Cable 12), comes six days after Klok's "The Beauty of Magic" with Pamela Anderson closed at Planet Hollywood.

Ah well. Magicians are famously cynical about the confusing number of awards handed out in their profession, and how much they mean. This one was more about who could perform and how they fit into the TV special than the actual awards; Anderson is prominently featured in the ads.

The executive producer is Gay Blackstone, president of the Academy of Magical Arts and the widow of magician Harry Blackstone Jr. In the Planet Hollywood show, Klok made a big deal of the fact that he is now the custodian of Blackstone's famous "floating light bulb" illusion.

Harrah's headliner Mac King was named Comedy Magician of the Year and says he was impressed by the "black-tie audience, jam-packed in this airport hangar" (The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica).

The broadcast also features Lance Burton, Penn & Teller and Rick Thomas. ...

"Marshall Sylver Presents The World's Funniest Hypnotists" will no longer be the longest title in town. The late show at Harrah's Las Vegas quietly disappeared last week.

Sylver, the controversial hypnotist of self-help infomercial fame, tried to create a brand without actually performing more than one week per month. The bulk of the shows since late August were performed by the capable Thom Kaz, but audiences never bought into the bait-and-switch in sufficient numbers. ...

The "Zumanity" aerialist injured during a Nov. 13 show remains hospitalized. But she is no longer in critical condition and is improving.

"She has a lot of healing to do," Cirque du Soleil spokeswoman Anita Nelving says of the Bulgarian performer whose name has not been released.

The performer fell in full view of the audience during the "aerial silk" act she performs with Alan Jose Silva, a little person who has done the number since the show opened. He is back, but the silk aerialism has been suspended indefinitely.

Cirque officials have been analyzing tape of the accident to determine its cause and whether the number could return in some form. The show is on vacation until Wednesday but will reopen with the hand-balancing act that replaced the silk number after the accident. ...

The Las Vegas Hilton shoehorned in a return visit on Sunday by the Las Vegas Tenors, local favorites who will perform a holiday concert with a 20-voice choir and special guests including Clint Holmes.

Bill Fayne, who started the Tenors, is Holmes' musical director. ...

Last week's column noted that Tom Jones impersonator Harmik's bash to renew his wedding vows was filmed for a Lifetime program, "Top This Party." Today, the crew is back for a party celebrating the 1,000th performance of the Stratosphere's topless vampire epic "Bite."

The party at producer Tim Molyneux's house will feature contortionists, fire-breathers and other suitably creepy atmospherics, and raises money for the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation. ...

Harmik isn't the only local tribute artist who had the distinction of performing alongside the real deal in Las Vegas. Brooks & Dunn play the Las Vegas Hilton through Saturday. On the phone with Kix Brooks, I suggested that if one of them came down sick, they could recruit the Brooks & Dunn impersonators in the "Country Superstars Tribute" at Fitzgeralds.

"I'm glad you remind us of that," Brooks said with a laugh. "We might just skip a night and see how it works." ...

Finally, you hear the house always wins, but sometimes it really wins big. The locals-oriented Suncoast isn't used to having a show so hot that it has to turn down requests from other casinos, big players and the like.

And back on May 31, when the casino put in a Thanksgiving weekend offer for Marie Osmond, she wasn't that big a deal. That was, of course, long before "Dancing With the Stars." Her success on the hit TV show moved the Suncoast dates to Dec. 21-23 but also made Osmond as big a star as she's been since the 1970s.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.