Old Vegas captivate Magician Murray Sawchuck
Las Vegas magician Murray Sawchuck, who appears five days a week at Planet Hollywood, conjured up a heck of a good deal when he bought his Las Vegas home in 2009 for $230,000. It had last sold in 2006 for $380,000.
The entertainer bought his three-bedroom, 2½ bath, 1,837-square-foot house near Durango Drive and Oakey Boulevard at the right time. He liked the neighborhood so much that he purchased a second house across the street two years later as an investment.
Back then, Sawchuck was a single guy, but he has since married Chloe Crawford, a featured dancer in the "Fantasy" show at the Luxor as well as Playboy Magazine's "cyber girl of the month" for February 2014. She also works as his assistant and is practicing to become a professional magician in her own right.
He moved here in 2002, and had his first show in the New Frontier. In 2010 he was a semifinalist on "America's Got Talent," and has appeared twice as a Houdini expert on "Pawn Stars."
The two-story house is in a well-kept neighborhood near The Lakes and Canyon Gate Country Club. It has a Mediterranean façade with a porthole window and shutters upstairs. A pair of palm trees and a low-lying mesquite tree hugging a wall between the entry courtyard and the backyard. A young lizard races its length, hopping into the fountain bubbling in the front yard.
Inside, the decor could be best described as "contemporary eclectic." Many framed photos including family and friends like Wayne Newton, Siegfried and Roy, sit atop the living room fireplace. Chloe's famous soccer-playing grandfather's photo is on display, as is a shadow box with Phyllis Diller's photo and rhinestone cigarette holder. Sawchuck met her when he played the Magic Castle in Los Angeles.
The couple has traveled the world together and separately for work and leisure, including Tahiti, Ukraine, Melbourne and Paris, and brought back many mementos to display throughout the house.
"We're really eclectic people, "Sawchuck said. "We love stuff that we've touched or seen in our house, versus to having things that are really expensive looking. We like character. Everything in our house has something to do with our lives."
Throughout the home the floor is covered with warm malt-colored porcelain tile and white and wheat blended loop carpeting.
The living and dining room have a 22-foot high vaulted ceiling with accent windows dotting the walls, letting in light and allowing a view of the mature trees that surround the backyard.
The master bedroom and ensuite bath are on the first floor, and two bedrooms, a bathand an office/loft are upstairs.
A small but well-laid out kitchen holds more of the couple's memorabilia. On the wall, a trio of watercolor paintings of venues where they have worked: the Gold Coast (Chloe), The Frontier, and The Tropicana, complete with "Murray" on the marquee.
They replaced their kitchen table with a red velvet banquette with black table top, raised a couple inches off the floor, which came from Debbie Reynolds' former hotel. Reynolds had purchased it from the theater at the Dunes Hotel, and it was supposedly her personal booth in her showroom. Sawchuck bought it when the Clarion closed. "We never used to sit here, but now we do all the time. It's so comfortable," he said, especially when they're entertaining.
When the Riviera closed, Sawchuck made a beeline to its furnishings auction the first morning it opened, hoping to score the chandelier from the Frank Sinatra suite. After hauling a barstool from another suite to stand on while he physically removed a light fixture from just outside the suite from the ceiling, he spent two hours in line to purchase his piece of history, along with a brass "R" door handle from the hotel entrance. The crystal light fixture is mounted on his kitchen's ceiling above the banquette.
More treasures are stored in the garage, including an old sign from the (closed) "Folies Bergere" show at the Tropicana.
"We love old Vegas," Sawchuck said.
Only a small patch of flagstone made up the backyard when he bought the house in 2009. Now there are two patio seating areas, designed to maximize space and provide a calming ambiance.
The patio just off the kitchen is where he loves to "sit in the morning, read my newspaper and have my coffee while it's still cool."
It is paved with red flagstone and surrounded by river rocks. There is a chiminea and a barbecue area with a wooden picnic table atop a patch of faux grass. A flagstone path leads to a trickling waterfall elevated and banked against a wall.
Several mature chaste trees are planted strategically throughout the yard and pruned to provide a high, wide canopy over the lot and privacy over the corner hot tub, which is cushioned by an elevated planter with lantana and a palm tree. A border of mock orange bushes, dwarf oleanders, and roses lead to the dining area beneath a wooden plank ceiling bordered with strung lights.
A two-hole putting green with sago palm, bougainvillea and a plum tree fill space leading to a gate separating the front courtyard from the backyard.
Every inch of space is perfectly proportioned and maximally designed to look cozy but not crowded; not always easy to do in a small yard. It evokes a Southern California feel less than a desert backyard.
Inspired by a fireplace his father had built on the family ranch in Washington, Sawchuck built a similar one here, with large river rocks and a chimney that reaches the top of the back wall.
"I always wanted a fireplace here so when I looked out the window, I could see it. It reminds me of Whistler, B.C. where I grew up. I made it with big rocks, because with them, you don't have to be that accurate," he said. It took almost four weeks, and he accomplished it with help from a DIY book.
"When I sit back here, I feel like I'm in Brentwood (Los Angeles). You don't feel like you're in Vegas. That was the idea when I designed it," Sawchuck said.
The couple is very happy with the home and the neighborhood and has no plans to leave it, Sawchuck said.
"We love this area. Plus you can walk … to the supermarket, or lunch with friends at Canyon Gate. It's really convenient," he said, adding that they frequent the Tivoli Village Cigar Lounge, and many restaurants at Boca Park.
It's more than enough space for the two of them, said Crawford, "especially because I'm British. The houses here are so big. I'm used to … being able to lie in bed and touch the room's walls," she recalled, saying the difference in size between our houses and the ones in England is "massive."
"We work on the Strip so much that we wanted something a little more homey" he said.
The only thing they want is a bigger garage to hold their many cars, including a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix that his parents brought him home from the hospital in.
And while they enjoy traveling and hitting the local hot spots, they say there's nothing as great as an evening in their very own magic castle.
