AMA HONORS MAGICIANS

Johnny Thompson Presents Lance Burton with "Masters Fellowship"On April 10th, 2011, the Academy of Magical Arts honors some of the top names in the art during the awards ceremony held at the Avalon Hollywood Theater. This year's awards were emcee'd by Jonathan Levit (Form ABC's Flash Forward, Fox's Master of Illusions and VH1's Celebracadabra).

According to Broadway World:

Celebrity presenters included Rico Rodriguez (Modern Family), Keith David (The Cape), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean) as well as a star studded audience that included Debby Ryan, Kate Linder, Tippi Hedren , Raini Rodriguez, Alison Arngrim, Romi Dames, Quentin Aaron, Josh Moore, Dawn Olivier, Richard Sherman and Fred Willard.

Selected honorees and nominees for 13 categories were on hand to receive accolades from their peers. Tonight's winners included: Dana Daniels (Stage Magician of the Year); Andrew Goldenhersh (Parlour Magician of the Year); David Regal (Lecturer of the Year), and the first female nomination and winner of Close-up Magician of the year, Suzanne. Other coveted awards went to -- eight time TONY award winner from "Liza" to "LA Cage," Jules Fisher, who received the Special Fellowship Award; for entertaining US Troops and Iraqi/Afghani children in Army hospitals, William Scott Anderson received the Award of Merit; Bob White (Performing Fellowship Award); Franz Harary (Performing Fellowship Award); Stan Allen (Literary Fellowship Award); Jeff Black (Junior Achievement Award); Dean Dill (Creative Fellowship Award); Topas (Magician of the Year); John Daniel (Lifetime Achievement Award) and, following in the steps of greats such as Sigfried & Roy and Harry Blackstone, Lance Burton was this years recipient of the Masters Fellowship Award.