Magician everywhere but in his showroom

Open up your Sunday paper, and there's Mac King's comic strip.

You drop in Barnes & Noble while you're out shopping, there's King's new magic book.

You stop by Applebee's for a bite. Agh! He's on the children's menu! He's everywhere!

It's partly coincidence for the Harrah's afternoon headliner, partly the odd parallel life of the cartoon character King created with his artist cousin Bill King.

The cartoon King, who has yellow hair and hangs out with a monkey in a fez hat (the same one that was in "Shag With a Twist"?), first was created for his "Magic in a Minute" comic strip. But it's more aggressively promoted than the real King, by an agent who specializes in promotional tie-ins.

The Applebee's cups and children's menus have been in the works for most of the year and arrived about the same time as his "Great Big Ol' Book-O-Magic" hit Barnes & Noble stores last week. "It's pretty neat. It's like a magic kit in a book," says the only Las Vegas headliner who actually says "neat."

"Each page is on heavy card stock and half the pages fold out, like a little Playboy magazine for magicians."

Readers punch out perforations to make props. The book comes with a DVD and retails for $15. The book retailer is the publisher, "so they don't have a middleman," King says.

King also adapts his comic strips for National Geographic Kids magazine. There's only one place he -- the real magician -- isn't this week: his Harrah's showroom. King is on vacation, replaced through Saturday by comedy magician Nick Lewin, who has his own local following but no cartoon monkey. ...

Wayne Newton's dancing career may not be over yet. He's hitting the road with the "Dancing With the Stars" tour, which may be good news for the entertainer but perhaps not for his local fans. "Mr. Las Vegas" isn't listed for the local Orleans Arena date on Dec. 30.

This is curious, since Newton's Christmas show at Harrah's Las Vegas ends Dec. 29. And the tour is promoted by AEG Live, which is partnering both with Harrah's Entertainment on a planned arena next to Bally's and with Boyd Gaming on theaters at the upcoming Echelon Place.

If the announced tour schedule is accurate, Newton may end up canceling a few of his Harrah's shows the week of Dec. 17. ...

At this writing, the Feds had yet to either charge David Copperfield in a sexual assault investigation or apologize to him for an embarrassing raid on his local warehouse, and there is no deadline to produce charges. Earlier this week, MGM Grand officials said Copperfield is still booked to perform at the casino Nov. 15-28.

Should anything motivate either Copperfield or the MGM to cancel, he would lose his most lucrative Las Vegas dates of the year.

Following recent custom, the magician is set to perform three shows per day on Nov. 17 and 24 and a staggering four daily shows when he returns the week of Dec. 22-30. That's a gross of about $260,000 per day in the 650-seat theater.

"The holidays are the highest-grossing days of the year for magic," says V Theatre headliner Nathan Burton. "All of the other shows are off. If I could do four a day, I would." (He can't, because other titles share the venue.)

Competition for the magic dollar will be thinned by Hans Klok's "The Beauty of Magic" pulling the plug on Dec. 8 and Lance Burton taking a vacation Dec. 9-25. ...

At least two resident Las Vegas shows get cross-cultural promotion on today's Latin Grammy Awards, broadcast on Univision from the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The Blue Man Group performs with Ricky Martin, while the cast of "Stomp Out Loud" teams up with Calle 13. Neither show has an English-language barrier for Spanish audiences, unless you count the Blue Men's science-geek text scrolls.

A news release for the award show also cites participation from "Folies Bergere" and "Havana Night Show," which is not currently on the Strip. ...

Anyone still care about "Phenomenon"? It seems like even Criss Angel, the show's celebrity judge, is trying to get himself kicked off the NBC show by sparring with the contestants.

Hooters mentalist Gerry McCambridge was again making e-mail pleas for fans to vote for him. But Jason Scott, a second Las Vegan announced for the show, never even made it onto the air. His manager, Clifford Billups, cites the usual artistic differences and says vagueness is demanded by reality-TV contracts.

Scott is a roaming nightclub performer at the Palms but does not have a ticketed Las Vegas show.

The most noteworthy aspect of Scott's vanishing act may be the way NBC handled it. Instead of issuing a news release or amending one, the network did an Orwellian "1984" doctoring of its original Oct. 10 release, swapping a new contestant for the biographical info on Scott. ...

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