Lance Burton
| Lance Burton | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Lance Burton March 10, 1960 Columbia, Kentucky USA |
| Occupation | Magician |
| Years active | 1979–2010 |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
William Lance Burton (born March 10, 1960 in Columbia, Kentucky) is an American stage magician. He performed more than 15,000 shows in Las Vegas for over 5,000,000 people. In 2010 he ended his 31-year career.
Burton first became interested in magic at the age of 5, when he was one of the volunteers at a magic show of Magician Harry Collins during a Christmas party at the Frito-Lay plant where his mother worked. The trick was The Miser's Dream, where Collins "pulled silver dollars out of the sky" and Burton's ears. The young Burton was fascinated, and a neighbor, hearing of his interest, gave him a book, Magic Made Easy, which her own (then-grown) children had used. It contained ten tricks, all of which young Burton quickly learned. His first performances were for neighborhood children, charging them a nickel each.
Collins, a full-time magician, noticed the interest, and became his mentor when Burton was in his teens, teaching him the fundamentals of the trade. In 1977, as a teenager, Burton entered his first magic competition and won first prize. In 1980, shortly after his 20th birthday, he was awarded a "Gold Medal of Excellence" from the International Brotherhood of Magicians. After that, he moved to Southern California, where within a week he appeared on The Tonight Show (on October 28, 1981). Through the course of Burton's career he was invited back for a total of ten performances while Johnny Carson was host, and another ten performances during Jay Leno's tenure. Burton has also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
He performed an initial eight-week trial at the Folies Bergère show in Las Vegas, and this was then extended for a record-breaking nine years. In 1982, he competed at the international Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques (FISM) competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, and won the "Grand Prix" prize, (the main event of the FISM competition). He was the youngest person to ever win the main event, and the first American to do so.
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