Vegas tourists and locals alike are in for a new, exciting experience with Stephane Vanel’s new show at the Paris Las Vegas. “The Magic of Paris” has an Old World charm that will enchant audiences of all ages. There will be no tigers, no jet airplanes disappearing or reappearing, but instead, they will be treated to the performance of a very talented young man performing real magic with his hands. The difference between Illusion and Magic is quite simple. An Illusion is being intellectually deceived or misled. Magic requires great skill or cleverness by the magician, using sleight-of-hand and giving a feeling of enchantment engendered by wizardry. Stephane is not just another pretty face, although he was stopped on the streets of Paris and asked to model for Armani, which he did from the ages of 19-21. He’s not just an intellectual, even though he attended medical school following in the footsteps of his father. Stephane spent fourteen-hour days from the time he was a child, rehearsing his sleight-of-hand to become a world-class magician. After winning the European Championship of Magic award in 2001, he headed to America to fulfill his dreams of becoming a star. After spending seven years doing his card manipulations at La Femme at the MGM Grand, and doing a stint at the Crazy Girls show, he became a host at Haze in the Aria and Marquee at The Cosmopolitan. He was hired by high rollers to watch over private and high stake games to make sure there was no cheating going on. Now headlining his own show, charming audiences while performing his feats of manipulations for all of us who love magic.

SLV: Tell me a little about yourself.
STEPHANE: I grew up in Paris, France, and moved to America when I was 23 years old. I was going to medical school and decided to change my path and go into magic. I was supposed to be a doctor, but I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do, and so I tried magic for just a summer. It’s now been 10 years that I’ve been doing magic.
SLV: How did you discover magic?
STEPHANE: The reason is very simple. I was extremely shy as a child, to the point that I couldn’t make any friends. I was going to a vacation center and if you don’t make any friends, you stay by yourself the rest of the time. One day this guy came into the center and he was extremely rude, aggressive, and not nice, and everybody hated him. One night he sat down at the table and started to perform magic with a pack of cards. The day after, he became a superhero to the whole village without saying a word, so I thought this might be a way to make friends and overcome my shyness. I started magic at this time and became hooked on it. I actually begged the rude guy to teach me a couple of tricks, and from there I bought DVDs and spent about 14 hours a day practicing. I practiced in front of a mirror and in front of my mother, who started to hate it after awhile. It changed my life, because with magic I became more sociable, and then it became my career.
SLV: As an adult are you still shy?
STEPHANE: I am, but when I’m on stage with the lights, I feel that I’m a different person.
SLV: How did you end up in America?
STEPHANE: I won the European Championship of Magic in 2001. It was a huge event with 100 magicians and that made me realize that I probably had the skills to make this a career. After that I did a lot of TV shows that were very successful in France. My name was starting to be out there, and then I got my own TV show in Paris. I was doing very well and then I got an opportunity to go to Reno, Nevada, to perform, so I took it. America was always a dream for me. In Reno I met Joanie Spina, who was David Cooperfield’s director for years. She saw a lot of potential in me and told me to try Vegas.
SLV: Were you ready to be a performer in Vegas?
STEPHANE: I believe I was very lucky to see Cirque du Soleil during my time in Reno. It made me realize that doing magic wasn’t enough to be a great performer and that I would have to mix magic with dancing, acting with mime, and other things that would make the magic look better. I had to learn to dance and not be stiff. I had to learn to be an entertainer. You have to communicate with the audience, so they feel they are part of the show. The biggest mistake I think magicians make is they do magic for themselves. They do very difficult sleight-of-hand, but forget that there is an audience and they should be entertaining them.
SLV: What did you do when you came to Vegas?
STEPHANE: My first job was at the Excalibur as a jester. I was doing my act eight times a day for kids that were pretty mean to me. When you’re dressed as a jester, they pinch your ass all the time! They fear the jester, so they attack him. But it was a good experience and made me work harder and harder. Then I heard there was an audition at the Crazy Horse Paris at MGM. I was lucky and got the job, and worked there for about seven years.
SLV: Did you make enough money there or did you have to have a second job?
STEPHANE: I was making very good money. I became lazy to be honest, because I was only working ten minutes a day. After seven years I quit, because I felt doing my act two times a night, six days a week, the same routine was becoming where I wasn’t enjoying entertainment anymore. I wanted to do something different. I’m so happy to have this opportunity to work for the Paris Las Vegas.
SLV: Did your family understand your passion for magic?
STEPHANE: At first my brother didn’t like it, but then I got hired at Crazy Horse Paris at the MGM. At the time it was called La Femme and I was suddenly working with 14 naked women, so he shared my passion at this time.
SLV: Being such an expert at sleight-of-hand, did you ever try to cheat?
STEPHANE: I never cheated personally, but I was always interested in how to cheat. I don’t think cheating is a great thing. I actually did a DVD on how to avoid being cheated while playing poker. Without explaining the technique, I was showing people how to avoid having cards taken away from the table or false counting or a lot of things people do to cheat. I warn people all the time that it’s good to play at the casinos because it’s safe, but every time you play at your house, or a private poker game for a lot of money, there’s always a risk you’ll be cheated out of your money. I’ve been offered to work at casinos for their security program, but I’m just not interested. When you’ve practiced for 14 hours, you can tell right away when somebody is doing a move or a sleight-of-hand technique by the way they hold the deck, and by the way they move the cards, or shuffle. They have machines at the casinos that can tell if a card is missing when they shuffle and they have about twenty cameras looking at your hands. Anyone who tells you they can cheat at a casino is lying. It’s impossible anymore. There are new techniques every year, but they always get caught in the end. Who wants to spend 10 years in jail?
SLV: Has anyone ever contacted you to catch cheaters?
STEPHANE: Players who play for huge amounts of money have contacted me. They have me come to their games and see if anything unusual is happening. I did it once for a huge party where there was a million dollars in the game. They hired me as a consultant to make sure everything was proper and that no other players at the table were cheating.
SLV: Did you ever catch anyone cheating?
STEPHANE: I have—a couple of times. When you catch someone cheating and there’s a lot of money involved, someone might become very aggressive. The cheater might have a gun or a knife to protect themself. So the best way I tell people is to just walk away. If they’ve lost a lot of money, it’s still better to walk than deal with a situation where you might get cut or shot.
SLV: Are there other sleight-of-hand manipulations that you do?
STEPHANE: Everything that is manipulation, I’m interested in. I like to master balls, coins, linking rings, and then make it different by mixing it with newer music. I like to challenge myself and learn new stuff all the time.
SLV: Are there special cards that you use for your magic?
STEPHANE: Every trick I do is with regular cards, not trick cards. Everything I do on TV, I can do right in front of you. SLV: Tell me about the show.
STEPHANE: I’m going to bring hand manipulation into the show, which is the hardest kind of magic. It’s all about pure skills. I hired a hilarious comedian – Mark Kornhauser, two of the best dancers in town, and the finest marionettist – Anthony Rais whose puppets almost come to life. This artistry dates back to the early 1600’s, and brings the Old World charm of the streets of Paris straight to the audience. They’re all a perfect fit for the show. I wanted to do a show that is going to touch people emotionally. Everything comes from Europe and it’s new magic. Of course, I admire a lot of American magicians and that inspires me to be better.
SLV: What sets you apart from other magicians?
STEPHANE: Sleight-of-hand is very risky. At any point you can drop a card or a coin. A lot of performers don’t do sleight-of-hand anymore on stage. An illusion is an illusion. You put the lady in the box and she will disappear. That’s the way the box is made, but if you drop your cards, you look like an ass in front of everybody. Siegfried and Roy and Lance Burton, who I admire very much, used minimum sleight-of-hand, because it’s so risky. You never know, especially with birds, where the birds are going to go, are they going to be in a good mood and that’s a lot of stress. This show is about 40 minutes of sleight- of-hand, so that’s a lot of stress I’m putting on my shoulders. I think that if you stay relaxed in anything you do, you’ll be able to handle it.
SLV: Is there something besides magic that you have a passion for?
STEPHANE: I have a passion for Brazilian jujitsu and martial arts. I have been practicing jujitsu since a young age and I’ve always been a big fan of fighting, the UFC. Brazilian jujitsu is a very technical sport that requires a lot of practice and technique. It’s similar to magic, where you can spend hours and years learning a technique. It helps me because I eat a lot, all the time, and if I didn’t have this passion, I’d probably be 600 pounds by now! I love candy, chocolate, etc., so I need to have this sports activity to remain in shape. I eat at the Paris, quite often just for the desserts.
SLV: Tell me what a standard day is for you.
STEPHANE: I wake up and if I have the energy I go to the gym, which about 90% of the time is a no-go. I’m trying to find the force to do it. I look at YouTube video for an hour, to check to see if there’s a new magician coming up with a video, so I can stay on top of the new things that come out. Then I perform and rehearse magic. At night I spend time with some of my friends. I used to go out all the time, but now I’m trying to stay focused on work.
SLV: Do you see yourself being a magician for the rest of your life?
STEPHANE: I’ll always be a magician! SLV

Stephane Vanel appears Tuesdays through Sundays
at 4pm & 6pm in an all-ages show at the Paris Las Vegas.

Issue 61 featuring: Julia Bond, Alexis Ford & Rebecca Miller