Mac King's afternoon hour of comedy magic is about as perfect a thing as this life has to offer. It's a laugh-out-loud funny show, even if you've never cracked a smile your life, and the whole thing is just faultless. The magic is strong, not to mention beautifully performed and routined, and Mac himself must be something of a happily deranged genius for having thought the whole thing up.

Penn & Teller's show was great, because their shows always are. It featured Teller's version of a trick known as 'The Miser's Dream'. This is the most beautiful piece of magic I've ever seen on a stage. The Lance Burton show is exquisite, and people rave about it for all the right reasons. Plenty of great magic, covering all the bases from immaculate sleight of hand to massive stage-filling illusions that leave your jaw somewhere in your lap.

I was actually a little bit disappointed in the Siegfried & Roy show. Only about a quarter of the show, if that, was actually about anyone performing any magic. For the rest, I believe the aim was to blend costume, make-up, dance, mime, music, smoke, pyrotechnics and acrobatics into the world's most lavish and extravagant theatrical experience. I could applaud the goal, and I relished the ambitious nature of the production. The problem is that Cirque Du Soleil do much the same thing, and do it three times better.

I enjoyed Rick Thomas's afternoon magic show, and he is certainly one very hard-working magician. For reasons unknown to me, Steve Wyrick doesn't tend to get the same love from the magical grapevine that most of the others do. Be that as it may, I'm happy to swim against the tide and say that I thought he delivered a first-rate show, with great illusions and splendid attention to detail throughout.

David Copperfield was appearing at the MGM Grand, in a theatre slightly smaller than the ones he is perhaps used to. In other words, it was a great opportunity to see the show in slightly more intimate surroundings than normal. The show was terrific, filled to overflowing with unbelievable magic, including his richly deceptive and satisfying 'Teleportation' illusion - a personal favourite. As it happens, I ended up in the show. I was actually vanished by David Copperfield! This led to an interesting and rather disappointing incident, which I describe here.

The Amazing Johnathan is hugely successful, and all due respect to him for what he's achieved. But it just wasn't my kind of show. Showgirls Of Magic was awful. Really awful. Some out of work showgirls had been shown how to operate a few idiot-proof pieces of magic apparatus, and that was about it. I only went because I felt honour-bound to see every show that even had the word 'magic' in the title. Big mistake.

The non-magic shows I saw were Ronn Lucas and Cirque Du Soleil's 'Mystere'. Ronn Lucas is great, very talented, and very funny. I didn't quite laugh until my face hurt, but I liked the show very much. Ronn knows that most people have a pre-conceived idea that ventriloquism acts aren't very good, and he works hard to overcome this reputation.

All the Cirque Du Soleil shows are excellent. They had three running in Vegas when I was there, with a fourth due to open shortly. Mystere was so good I don't think there are superlatives that can do it justice. It was awesome, vast, immense, spectacular, rich, deeply satisfying on every level, breathtaking... in short, the ultimate theatrical experience delivered by the most amazing team in the world.