A couple of my friends way back saw Melinda do a topless magic act in Vegas as well.

Yes, I've got it somewhere in my "tape" library. It had a number of interesting acts, not the least of which were the shows choreographers Dennon & Sayhber Rawles who decided to become illusionists. They basically just got some illusions and demonstrated them while dancing around, which sadly isn't that much different from what many illusionists do minus the dancing.



lol... She was never better. "The Showgirls of Magic" was another Vegas treat from her Mom where she just got topless dancers and taught them to do a few effects. Maybe "taught" isn't the correct term but at least it looked like someone read the instructions.

What's Melinda up to these days?

Franz Harary did a magic spread for Playboy with naked/topless assistants back in the 80s.

That was a Playboy spread on the "Girls of Magic" It was mostly a scam. Everyone that did it just hired a topless model to "act" like a magic assistant. Virtually none of them actually did an act with anyone. Franz, ever the promoter, pitched a whole mess of shots with different models so got several pictures in the mag. It was fun but mostly fantasy.

I heard she did an escape there. Can you confirm it, please?

All true Jim!

I came to Vegas from London about 20 years ago for inspiration in my early days as a performer. I came for 7 nights and saw 15 shows - pretty much every magic show in Vegas at the time. Cost me a small fortune but worth every penny (or cent!!!)

Don't recall all of them but they included Copperfield, S&R, Lance Burton, Mac King, Joseph Gabriel, Geno Munari, Jeff Hobson, The Hanky Panky Show, Melinda and loads of others.

Back then, pretty much every show would do 2 performances a night. A 6.30pm family show and a 9.30pm adult show where all the girls were topless. I saw 2 shows a night plus Mac's show. It was quite an eye opener for an innocent 18 yr old.

I recall Lance's horizontal levitation being breathtaking with the topless girl straddling him as he rose into the air (no pun intended)

Each night I would go back to my hotel room and make copious notes on the shows. I wrote down all the routines they did and scored each show out of 10 for magic, entertainment, originality, overall enjoyment etc etc. I've still got the notebook tucked away at the bottom of a cupboard somewhere.

It was a fantastic trip with lots of great magic and memories.

Stu

Just to set the record straight Melinda was never topless it was her dancers.

But did she do an escape?

Melinda is a mother of 2 kids, her husband is in the restaurant business. She is retired from show business for now.

--Vinny