Believing in magic at ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ premiere

Jim Carrey walked the red carpet at “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” premiere Monday night wearing shiny silver boots, gold Elvis-style sunglasses and a white jacket. Hordes of screaming fans along Hollywood Boulevard in front of TCL Chinese Theater made his progress slow.

At one point a group of fans yelled in unison, “We love you Jim Carrey!”

“I love you too, collective ego,” he responded with his trademark mischievous grin.

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It was a fitting response at the premiere of a film in which Carrey plays a relentlessly egotistical Svengali of magic named Steve Gray. He is the foil to Steve Carell’s character, a superstar magician named Burt Wonderstone who is forced to update his aging act thanks to the hype surrounding Gray’s flashy form of masochism as magic (he drills holes in his own skull, and holds his urine for days on end).

Carell appeared on the carpet shortly before Carrey along with costars Steve Buscemi, Alan Arkin and Olivia Wilde. Real-life superstar magician David Copperfield joined them. Copperfield served as a consultant on the film and helped stage its many magic tricks, one of which is called “the Hot Box.”

“Spending a couple of days suspended above the Las Vegas Strip in a Plexiglas box with Steve Buscemi was pretty incredible,” Carell said of the trick, which goes terribly awry in the film.

Buscemi also said the “Hot Box” sequence was probably his favorite memory of making the film.

“Being in that box was pretty wild,” he said. “It was pretty amazing.”

Still, Copperfield said he didn’t pull the curtain back too far on his magic secrets.

“Although I did give one big thing away,” he said, adding that the actors considered it a badge of honor to keep the secrets they learned.

“Every kid has a time when they get a magic kit and I think there’s a fascination about it and a sweetness to it,” said Carell. “To me it’s like Santa Claus and it’s much more fun to believe.”

After the premiere, the cast enjoyed an elaborate party at a ballroom on the fifth floor of the Hollywood and Highland complex. Cocktails flowed freely, a DJ kept the beat and guests lined up to get their photos taken in a magic-themed photo booth.

The most interesting moment of the evening came when Carrey got into the photo booth with his pal Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and a few other sexy friends.

Carrey held his hands up like a conquering conjurer, and Tyler pulled a toy rabbit out of a hat.

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