Luxe Life Blog

Exclusive Photo Gallery: Siegfried & Roy launch MagiCares with ill teen

Posted September 14, 2009 • 3:08 p.m.

Siegfried & Roy flank the Dunn family.

Photo: TVT

It was a scene that would break anyone’s heart -- even hard-boiled, cynical journalists -- and make your eyes tear up! Simultaneously, it was magical, as 15-year-old James Dunn miraculously maneuvered his wheelchair close to his hero Roy Horn, also in a wheelchair. The two had met a year ago at a London Palladium tribute to Siegfried & Roy, and now here they were bonding again one year later.

The miracle is that James is still alive to see another dream come true of meeting his magic heroes on home ground in Las Vegas, thousands of miles from his Liverpool, England, residence. Siegfried & Roy sponsored the trip for James because there is no cure for his painful skin disorder, Epidermolysis Bullosa. James is slowly dying from blisters and sores all over his body that peel his skin right through to the bones.

The amazing fact is that young James -- albeit that he’s tiny, frail, has never been able to walk, has lost his fingers and toes and is fed through a tube -- has an amazing, fun and positive attitude. He’s well spoken, polite and well mannered. His laughter is strong, and I’d swear that he was glowing with happiness.

As Siegfried said to me: “We have nothing to complain about. Whatever anybody thinks is a problem to complain about, they should just remember James and his condition. Roy thinks James is the real hero with a similar, unbroken spirit.”

Now the incredible illusionists have joined the new MagiCares charity founded by producer Paul Stone, who has recently relocated here. MagiCares will be headquartered here, and its first fundraising effort will be for EB research to find a cure. Siegfried & Roy have become the trustees, and James is the spokesman.

I met James upon arrival from England when he checked into The Mirage with his parents, and in the six days he’s been here as guests of the marvelous magicians, he’s seen The Beatles Love, Terry Fator’s show and the Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat all at The Mirage. “We’ve been having a great time looking around at everything, and now seeing Siegfried & Roy again is the highlight of our visit,” he told me.

His mom, Lesley, explained for me: “There is no cure for his painful skin condition. He was born with no skin on his hands and feet. It is untreatable. I change his bandages every day for three hours. I administer him morphine to control the pain. It was too dangerous for him to learn to walk. A simple trip-up would take away large parts of his skin. Eating is a problem, as he blisters and scars around the throat. He’s had surgery to stop his esophagus from sealing up altogether and now eats through a tube. Each time his skin blisters, scar tissues form, and that has caused his fingers to seal up, and his hands have become mittens. It’s now too painful for him to have operations to separate the fingers.”

“James is mad about magic and loves going to see magic shows. He wanted to be a magician but can’t even hold the magic wand. We’d traveled once before to Vegas to see his ultimate heroes Siegfried & Roy, but when we got here, there’d been that accident with Roy and the show had been canceled. It was only last year at the tribute to them in London that James finally got to meet them. Now being invited back to meet them again at their home in Las Vegas became very important to him. It’s literally kept him alive.

“There’s nothing the doctors can do to help except treat the pain with morphine. I can’t even give him a proper hug because it would be too painful for him. No cuddling! I can’t even hold his hand, as it might take off the whole layer of skin down to the bones.”

It’s believed that the rare disease has some 5,000 sufferers in Britain and 1,000 in the U.S. Siegfried & Roy hosted a VIP gala reception last night at The Orleans to launch MagiCares. British artist Willard Wigan, who is the world’s greatest microscopic sculptor, was in attendance. Willard is donating a portion of his future art sales to MagiCares.

His work is magical, too; in fact, it’s mind-blowing. I actually managed to get this photo of the Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter’s Tea Party sculpted inside the eye of a needle shooting my lens right through a microscope. He uses a human eyelash as his paintbrush and a pin to carve the fragments of fractured glass, ground-up diamonds, tungsten, wood shavings and platinum dust for the pieces. “My mother always told me the smaller I worked, the bigger my name would become,” he told me.

Willard said he got the idea to do the microscopic work inside needle eyes or on pinheads after watching ants build a colony and while reading a Biblical passage that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

Siegfried, tanned and just back from a St. Tropez vacation, commented: “This work is magic -- simply amazing. When we met him a year ago in London, he carved a replica of our old Mirage billboard with our images on the inside of a needle! We treasure it and keep it here in Vegas. This is also magic through the eye of a needle. Wonders are easy. Miracles take a little longer. When MagiCares, miracles happen.”

Boxer Mike Tyson, who looked at the micro-sculptures, said: “I can’t believe what I am seeing.” His Royal Highness Prince Charles has said of Willard’s work: “His talents defy description.”

Willard told me it takes him about two months to sculpt a piece inside a needle: “I don’t wear glasses. I’m blessed with exceptional eyesight, but I work in the middle of the night to create these micro-miniatures. It takes a lot of stealth in the total quiet of dark.”

The artist held the microscopes so James could look through the lens at his creations. MagiCares hopes to put some of his work on display here so they can be sold to art enthusiasts to help the charity’s initial fundraising effort.

James says he returns to England on Wednesday with incredible memories of his visit with “The Masters of the Impossible.” Siegfried summed up: “He and Roy definitely bonded. They are simpatico. We are all confident MagiCares will be successful both inside and out of the magic community to assist those who need our help.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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