Digging deeper into magician Wyrick’s woes

I can't explain it. Maybe a psychologist can.

Some people grapple with the existence of God. Las Vegas entertainment folks obsess over the existence of a magician named Steve Wyrick. How is he able to keep having a show in town after the public seems to have voted him off to Timbuktu, or at least Branson?

Why did the Las Vegas Hilton let him try again? Especially after the Hilton had just pulled the plug on another nonstarter magic show called "Triumph."

To the surprise of no one -- except, apparently, Wyrick and the Hilton -- the magic show is on "hiatus" after six weeks and unlikely to reopen ... at least not at the Hilton.

So in a rare cross-column leap, I consulted Steven Kalas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal's "Human Matters" behavioral columnist, to explore the Big Questions.

First, the Hilton taking on Wyrick, who had just emerged from bankruptcy court. Kalas quoted an adage you occasionally hear outside Psychology 101: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result."

But to dig a little deeper, "Sometimes we call compulsives people who are trapped in an internal dialogue. That is to say they're in a loop that goes 'round and 'round: 'I'm never going to drink again. I drink.' "

And what do we make of Wyrick -- a performer who cannot get the message that people do not care about his show? Like his past efforts, the Hilton was said to be a competent production full of big props. "It's like visiting your creepy old uncle's house. He has a lot of really cool, really expensive stuff in his house that you want to enjoy," says one who saw it.

"But he looks uncomfortable, and that makes everyone kind of uncomfortable," says another.

The real truth here may be that Las Vegas already has enough solo male magicians. If the public wants to see one, there are more famous, better-advertised, better-funded guys, including some with tigers, to choose from.

"One of the things about narcissism is its singular lack of self-awareness," Kalas says. He points to "American Idol" contestants who don't comprehend that they are horrible until Simon Cowell tells them.

Perhaps the Hilton and Wyrick needed each other in a dysfunctional, domestic violence-relationship kind of way.

"What we notice is that narcissism and borderlines attract each other across continents," Kalas says. "This is how Charles Manson gathers up those runaway teenagers. ... I don't have a self, so I tend to glom on to these narcissistic, 'aren't I cool' kind of people."

So maybe that explains it. Or maybe the Hilton, having hit its own financial hard times, feels compelled to say yes to anyone as long as the rent checks clear. That raises new questions about old theories of generating casino traffic.

But for those, I would need an economist.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.