The Amazing Johnathan is not your father's magician -- heck, he's not even that much of a magician. He's more of a one-man comic army, mercilessly poking fun at magic acts and audience members with a unique, bizarre and very amusing show now playing again at the Golden Nugget after a year on the Strip at the Flamingo.

But don't look at that as a demotion. I think the more intimate room at the Golden Nugget and the overall downtown sensibility are better for the Amazing Johnathan's sensibility, or lack thereof.

Get there early enough and you'll get a pretty good idea of what you're in for as a roving camera broadcasts big-screen images of audience members with captions. Some of it is pretty juvenile (show the group of Asian people and put the words "Ahh! Godzilla" underneath them, hilarity ensues) but this is not aiming to be anything other than an icebreaker of questionable taste, so leave your righteous indignation at the door.

Johnathan opens his show with the aid of Psychic Tanya, the epitome of every dumb, blond magician's assistant. She makes the perfect dim-bulb foil to Johnathan's sarcastic know-it-all and their first bit, where he winds up affixing playing cards to her face with a staple gun, wrapping her head in tape, and then shoving scissors into her skull is both demented and laugh-out-loud funny (even if it doesn't actually sound all that funny when you read it).

Tanya pops up throughout the show and is hilarious every time -- whatever she's being paid, it isn't enough.

Next, Johnathan grabs an unsuspecting audience member for an extended bit that is essentially designed to make the poor guy look like an idiot. When I say extended, I mean extended -- this guy was on stage for about an hour, and what started with a "rip the $20 bill in half" trick progressed through card tricks, mind-bending riddles, some gross-out stunts and a lot of ridicule for both the guy on stage and the audience in general.

As mentioned, there isn't a lot of actual "magic" in the Amazing Johnathan's show. It's more of a comic deconstruction of magic acts, where he'll set up one of those tricks that you've seen a million times and then find some excuse to not actually finish it, or twist it in a way you hadn't been expecting. In other words, if you want to see cars disappear, go see Lance Burton. If you want a good laugh, go see the Amazing Johnathan.

A friendly warning -- this show is not for the faint of heart. It can be quite crude in language and content, so the easily offended may want to go elsewhere.

Vegas4Visitors Grade: A-

The Amazing Johnathan
The Golden Nugget
129 E. Fremont St.
Las Vegas, NV 89101
(866) 946-5336

Tickets: $55 per person, plus taxes and fees. No one under 18 allowed without a parent or guardian
Showtimes: Nightly except Monday at 10 p.m.

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