Miss Nevada, USA Alicia Carnes Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Former magician's assistant hopes to pull a win out of the hat as Miss USA

By Joan Whitely
Review-Journal

Alicia Carnes knows quite a bit about magic.

She has stuffed herself into tiny boxes -- and then disappeared -- on stages from Las Vegas to California to Spain, as a magician's assistant.

But she can't read crystal balls or draw out of a top hat what she'd most like to possess -- the crown of Miss USA 2000.

Carnes has done the next best thing -- put on her crown as Miss Nevada USA to travel to Branson, Mo., to compete the conventional way for national honors.

CBS will televise the final rounds of competition in the annual pageant Friday (9 p.m. on KLAS-TV, Channel 8).

Carnes, 22, graduated in 1995 from Chaparral High School. Not long after, she got her start in magic at the Magical Empire at Caesars Palace, which was just opening.

The job "definitely sparked my interest," says Carnes. "I liked having an audience. Every time you stepped `onstage,' anything can happen."

Her first role at Magical Empire involved shepherding guests through the so-called Chamber of Destiny, which Carnes admits with a smile, is "essentially an elevator."

But the job did sharpen her improvisational skills. Whenever the maintenance staff and inspectors checked on the fire alarm systems inside the then-new Magical Empire wing, there was always a chance the elevator's lift mechanism would freeze. And Carnes would be left on her own to entertain 20 people or more, including some who got nervous in confined spaces.

"I saw people faint," Carnes recalls.

Then for two years, 1996-1998, she worked as an assistant to magicians at the Magic Castle and Wizards, two magic-themed dinner clubs in Los Angeles. With one of those magicians, James Dimmare, she also traveled to Spain, France and Portugal for performances.

In 1999, Carnes rejoined the staff at the Magical Empire, where she also assisted in stage illusions done by the Pendragon performing team.

Most recently, the nimble redhead served as assistant to Darren Romeo, a singer-magician who has his own show, "Singing Magician," at the Flamingo Hilton.

"I had two of my own bows (during `Singing Magician')," she recounts proudly. "We talk to each other" as the music segues, for instance, from a clown number to something more serious and romantic out of "The Phantom of the Opera."

Assisting in magic is not all applause, Carnes is the first to acknowledge. "I've come out of boxes bleeding, because you jump the wrong way, or you move too fast in the dark."

However, Carnes recently stepped down from her onstage work with Romeo to prepare for Miss USA. To do so, she went to work for the administrative side of Dixon Entertainment Arts, the company that provides the performers for such venues as Caesars' Magical Empire.

Her boss, Brian Dixon, sponsored her participation in the Miss USA pageant. He describes her as "highly motivated" and someone with the knack of getting "people to feel very comfortable with her."

Partly at Carnes' urging, Dixon says he is adding an agency department to Dixon Entertainment -- which Carnes will head -- to book outside work for its talent.

Miss USA is selected after judging segments that cover impromptu interviewing and appearances in swimsuit and evening wear. The winner goes on to the Miss Universe pageant.

Carnes is no stranger to the beauty circuit. In 1995, she represented Nevada in the Miss Teen USA pageant. For four years before that, she also participated in pageants.

She says her parents, Richard and Diane Carnes, initially were skeptical of her desire to do so, but consented when they saw that she enjoyed the experience of all contestants coming together to put on a stage production -- and she made many friends in the process.

Although Carnes didn't win the national title in 1995, she says it did not sour her on the idea of competing.

"I've never looked at it that way," as comparing herself to others, she explains. "You're up there to do the best you can. It's not life or death. It's 10 (judges') opinion on that one night."

She looks at winning the pageant as a way to further her education and career. Celebrating its 49th year, the Miss USA pageant each year gives the winner a one-year contract to travel, representing the organization at charity and social events. In recent years, title-holders also have adopted a personal charitable cause to further.

If Carnes wins, her cause will be the same one she has promoted for a number of years: Special Olympics, an athletic program for the handicapped in which all participants are awarded medals.

Since the early 1990s, Carnes has helped prepare Special Olympics participants for bowling events. She is a certified bowling coach -- "My parents were both (certified bowling) coaches," she notes -- and helped coach youth bowlers for many years in a league at the Showboat.

Any person can benefit from the upbeat attitude of Special Olympics athletes, Carnes contends: "Because of the nature (of the noncompetitive event), when they get a gutter ball, they jump up and cheer. They give hugs and high fives. They cheer for each other. Every athlete gets a ribbon. Nobody loses. Nobody gets left out."

Carnes' professional goal is to complete her college education to earn a degree in communications. Her personal plan is, "in about five years," to start a family.