Nope, the Burton magician the reader was looking for was Nathan Burton, who got a lot of attention through his appearances on the summer NBC show "America's Got Talent" and now with his own afternoon show at The Flamingo.

Nathan Burton calls his act "comedy magic," which is a bit of a misnomer especially if you've seen Mac King's afternoon show down the street at Harrah's (which you should). Instead of the small tricks and jokes that King does, Burton focuses on more traditional illusions with lots of things and people appearing and disappearing from boxes and the like. But it's all done with a genial good nature and a humorous set-up that seems to say "Yes, it's just a trick and no I'm not going to really be killed by the whirling blades of death."

For instance there's the one trick that is included in just about every illusionist show that I've ever seen where the magician in question gets inside something (a box, a container, etc.) and then suddenly appears in the audience within seconds of when he was just on stage. It's gotten to the point where I almost always see this coming and usually turn around before the illusionist reveals himself because I know what's about to happen.

Nathan Burton's version of this, which was performed on "America's Got Talent," has a fun twist. Yes, he gets in a box and we see his hands, supposedly shackled above the box, but then his comely assistants "flatten" him into a poster version of himself and shoot the poster out of a cannon into the audience. It's a great set up and a perfectly executed spin on the kind of trick we've seen a bazillion times.

The "mind-reading" segments, where he predicts the type and cost of cereal that an audience member will say or the details of a "dream date" for another audience member are done with the same kind of "we're just having fun here" spirit.

I find this kind of attitude toward magic refreshing. The dramatic poses and grand flourishes that usually accompany this type of show have become a parody of themselves, attempting to force us, the audience, to be amazed. What a pleasure it is, then, to have an act like Burton's where we can let the illusions themselves do the amazing instead of the pretentious theatrics.