Quite a Pair

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They hardly knew each other a month ago, but now Hans Klok and Pamela Anderson are cracking each other up like a veteran comedy team.

"I teach her some magic. She loves magic," the Dutch magician says.

"I’m much more fun at parties now," the "Baywatch" beauty replies.

"I don’t need any wild animals, I’m happy with Pamela," he says later.

When it’s noted that this novel pairing comes without precedent, Anderson jumps in, "We have nothing to live up to so you can’t disappoint anybody."

"The Beauty of Magic," the three-days-per-week attraction in Planet Hollywood’s big theater, may be a bit of a head-scratcher compared to known commodities such as Celine Dion or Elton John. But producers are hoping to find their own magic in the teaming of a high-profile celebrity who has no act, and a magician with an act but no celebrity in the United States.

"I’ve been offered lots of different shows. I can’t sing and I can’t dance so this is the next best thing," Anderson says. "I kept thinking, I’d love to do a Vegas show but what would I do?"

For his part, Klok recently packed arenas in Europe before his producer, Dutch billionaire Joop van den Ende, decided the production was Vegas-worthy. "In Europe we always were building it very slowly by doing all the talk shows and everything," Klok explains. "But this show is so expensive you cannot say, ‘OK, let’s take five years for making the name.’

"So we were thinking, should I do an outrageous (stunt), but it’s all been done by other people. I came up with the idea of having the most sexy woman on the planet. There was only one name that came up."

"And she was busy so then they asked me," Anderson chimes in. "And I’ll do anything, you know."

Indeed, Anderson wasn’t the first "Baywatch" name announced for the show. Carmen Electra also had signed several years ago to star with Klok in a show called "Lumiere" that was derailed by the bankruptcy of the former Aladdin.

The producers revived the pairing, but Electra dropped out after discovering her aversion to the claustrophobic confinement required for the illusions. The show’s backers frantically cracked open their checkbooks and approached Anderson. A working summer offered the chance to bring her two sons to Las Vegas Thursdays through Sundays. "Between Junior Lifeguards and Vegas, my kids will be very happy."

"She watched the show and, I’m not making this up, she was absolutely enamored. Genuinely thrilled to be part of it," says director Anthony Van Laast.

"I’m not scared. I enjoy it," Anderson confirms. "I like that feeling (of being) out of your element a little bit, being a little nervous and trying things that are challenging. I needed something like this in my life and career at this point."

Given her high-profile association with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, "I only asked one thing: ‘Please tell me you have no animals in the show.’ I wanted to do it so bad, that was my only hesitation."

Comedy writer and Hollywood script doctor Bruce Vilanch was recruited to add jokes and dialogue to the show’s thin premise of a father helping a boy realize his dream of becoming a magician. But Van Laast says Klok and Anderson hit it off with their own natural repartee. "I think the more they work together, the more fun it’s going to become."

By a strange twist of show business, Van Laast worked on "Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage" when that show redefined Vegas spectacle in 1990. Noting that Klok resembles a young Siegfried Fischbacher, Van Laast volunteers that "What our show has is still a central performer. At the end of the evening the audience has met a great star. I think what’s happened with Las Vegas now is you don’t spend an evening with a star personality.

"Not only is he a showman but he is also possibly the fastest illusionist I have ever seen. He is very personable and has a great relationship with his audience."

"Many places around the world they call me the fastest magician," Klok concurs. "Except in China, people speak even worse English than I do. They announce me as the fattest magician."