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John Katsilometes
Siegfried and longtime S&R performing partner and confidant Lynette Chappell at the L.V. Hilton Theater.
Often, a person’s feelings can be measured not just in what they say, but how long it takes to say it. This afternoon, outside the Las Vegas Hilton Theater just before the “Ribbon of Life” Golden Rainbow benefit performance, I spotted Siegfried Fischbacher and asked him if he could talk about the death of his friend, Michael Jackson.
There was no spontaneous response. Not for this one.
Siegfried, in attendance at the Hilton not to perform but to support one of his favorite charities, pulled himself away from the group of friends and fans he’d been easily chatting with to gain a hint of privacy. He paused and pondered for what seemed an eternity but might have been a minute. His eyes glistened, he put his clenched right hand to his mouth and nodded a few times before saying, “It hurts.”
He halted for a few more moments, then said, “He was a good, good friend, one of the finest entertainers. He wrote music for us when we really needed him to do that.” Jackson’s unreleased “Mind Is Magic” is the Siegfried & Roy theme song, and his was the final voice heard in the S&R performances at The Mirage.
“I remember us talking to him about needing a song, and he just said, ‘Let me write it,’ no questions asked,” Siegfried said, shaking his head. “It was such a gesture of friendship.” Jackson was one of the duo’s biggest celebrity fans, a frequent visitor to the show, where he was dually enamored of the entertainers’ white tigers and trailblazing illusions onstage.
“I last saw him about a month ago,” Siegfried continued, “at the Wynn hotel, with Kenny Ortega.” Ortega, director of Miley Cyrus’ concert tour, “High School Musical” and “Dirty Dancing,” also was director of Jackson’s upcoming shows at London’s O2 Arena. When I asked the nature of the meeting at Wynn, Siegfried demurred and said, “Michael, he was always interested in magic. We were just talking about how we designed magic in our show -- he was in love with our show.”
I asked if Jackson seemed in ill health at the time of that meeting in Las Vegas, and Siegfried only shook his head. “It gets me upset,” he said. “It is hard, what I read in the papers about him. First Danny Gans, now this. (Pause) I’m just so sad about all of it.”
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-re
It was no illusion.
Legendary illusionists Siegfried and Roy appeared in public last weekend for the first time in more than five years, sharing the stage with the Bengal tiger that had ended their careers, for what they said was one last performance.
"They really wanted a final chance to get on the stage and say good night, goodbye, and thank you to all the fans who have supported them so devotedly," says ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas. "And they wanted to take this risk."
On a special edition of the "20/20" newsmagazine, Vargas reports on their remarkable performance at Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel and Casino, where for more than 13 years they thrilled thousands.
In the hour-long program (which was not available for preview), Vargas also visits with Roy Horn and Siegfried Fischbacher at home, and hears about the grueling five years endured by both of them since Montecore, a massive white tiger, brutally mauled Horn during a 2003 performance.
"Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Returns" airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.
"Up to now, the focus, understandably, has been on Roy and the catastrophic injuries he suffered," says Vargas. Even after cheating death, "he was told by doctors he would never walk or talk again, and he's doing both.
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"But an unreported part of the story was what Siegfried went through. He suffered from something we know as 'caregivers' syndrome' — when people who take care of others forget to take care of themselves.
"Roy, for all his improvements, is still terribly, terribly injured. But Siegfried has had struggles of his own. He really lived for the stage, and then it was taken away in one moment.
"He's honest in talking about how, after that, he suffered from severe depression."
A year ago, the pair surprised their public by announcing a one-time-only comeback: a brief charity show to benefit the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which will treat brain disorders like those Horn (now 64) suffers and is set to open in Las Vegas later this year in a building designed by famed architect Frank Gehry.
A signature trick by these veteran performers, it began with Fischbacher (now 69) dressed in white robes and a mask standing inside a cage that was then draped. As Horn removed the cloak seconds later, Fischbacher appeared across stage, a hulking tiger having taken his place.
"I asked them both, 'Why do this?'" marvels Vargas. But after spending time with them, she says, the answer may be found in "the power of their friendship and partnership."
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ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co.
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