Masked magician ends TV series with no secrets

Web posted November 3, 1998

By Paul Brownfield
Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD -- His name, we now know, is Leonard Montano, a.k.a. Valentino, a.k.a. the ``masked magician.'' Fellow illusionists have been aware of this for some time, but Fox, insisting it would send ``shock waves'' through the magic community, officially unmasked its illusion-spoiling magician Thursday night in the fourth and likely final installment of ``Breaking the Magician's Code,'' specials that have given away trade secrets of the profession.

After showing viewers how, among other things, a magician can escape from a coffin after being buried alive, Montano ended the special by peeling off his black mask and giving a brief testimonial, saying that his specials have helped make magic a more accessible art form to all.

``Coming out and explaining who I am now brings more credibility to the message that I'm bringing,'' he said in an interview earlier this week, when he was still calling himself the Masked Magician and refusing to confirm his identity.

Montano, a veteran Las Vegas-based performer whom fellow magicians characterize dismissively as an afternoon lounge act, said he might resurrect the masked magician persona in other forums.

``I'm sort of excommunicated now from the magic fraternity's world. I've heard there's talk that when I perform they're going to picket, or make it difficult for me to work. That's to be seen.''

Bruce Nash, whose Nash Entertainment produced the specials, called the unmasking ``a way to close out the saga.'' But it was also an attempt to boost the ratings of a series whose numbers have flagged considerably since the first installment aired in November of 1997 and drew 24.2 million viewers, the highest-rated special ever on Fox. Thursday night's show drew 14.7 million, up from the 12.4 million who watched the third installment of the series last May.

Magicians were hoping the series would go quietly into the night.

From the outset, the specials have divided the magic community into two camps -- those who've actively discredited Montano as a sham artist while campaigning against Fox and urging boycotts of the show's advertisers, and those who've felt ignoring the specials was the quickest way to make the controversy go away.

``You can teach someone to sing a Frank Sinatra song but they're not Frank Sinatra,'' said Milt Larsen, founder of the Magic Castle in Hollywood. ``That's where they have this thing wrong. Magic isn't about knowing how it's done, it's about watching the beauty of magic.''