162: Lance Burton

LANCE BURTON is widely considered by his peers to be the greatest stage magician of the past century. Born in Louisville, KY, his first break came in a debut appearance on the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” and through the course of Burton’s career he was invited back for a total of ten appearances while Johnny was host and another ten appearances during Jay Leno’s tenure. Additionally, Lance has racked up appearances on Letterman, Leno, The View, Ferguson, The World’s Greatest Magic, Hollywood Squares, and guest starring roles on “Knight Rider’ and “Las Vegas.” In 1996, Lance Burton’s first TV special, “Lance Burton Master Magician; The Legend Begins,” aired on NBC and was quickly followed by a series of 4 TV specials. He also hosted specials for the history channel, Discovery, Animal Planet, The Family Channel, Discovery, Animal Planet, The Family Channel, and many more. While successful on TV, Burton’s greatest accomplishments have been made in live performance, working primarily in Las Vegas, performing an astounding fifteen thousand shows in his 30-year career. His longest running show, “Lance Burton Master Magician,” opened at the brand new Monte Carlo Hotel in The Lance Burton Theater. This was the first time any entertainer in the history of Las Vegas has a theater built and named for him… and ran for 14 years. Throughout his career, Burton received numerous awards and accolades from his peers including in 1980 as the fist magician to be awarded the gold medal from the International Brotherhood of Magicians, in 1982 as the first American and youngest magician to win the Grand Prix (World Championship) from The Federation Internationale Societes Des Magiques, and The Academy of Magical Arts (Ama) has honored Lance with awards many times, including; Best Stage Magician of the year (twice). He is currently working on a number of documentary and narrative film projects and is finishing “Billy Topit Master Magician,” which will mark his debut as a film director. Recently, Lance worked on “Oz The Great and Powerful” an a magic advisor and taught magic to James France, who he now considers his number one student See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.