Las Vegas is full of magic shows, so a new one has to stand out to get noticed. HACKED, the technology-driven Vegas magic show now running at Ivan Kane's Forty Deuce inside Mandalay Bay, has been turning heads since it opened. Here is a closer look at what the show is, the trailer, and a wall of real reactions from people who have seen it.

What Is HACKED?

HACKED is a Vegas magic show built around one uneasy question: in a world of deepfakes and endless screens, can you still trust what you see? British champion magician Keelan Leyser spends seventy minutes moving between sleight of hand, mind reading and technology, turning what could have been a standard Vegas mentalism show into something closer to a live experiment run on the audience. It is quick, it is funny, and more than once it left the room genuinely lost for words.

Watch the trailer

Meet the Cast: LILA, Navitron and a Robot Dog

HACKED is not a solo act. Keelan Leyser shares the stage with a small cast of characters that give the show its personality and push it well beyond a standard Vegas magic show.

LILA, the retro A.I.

At the centre of it all is L.I.L.A., short for Lazer Interactive Logical Assistant, a retro artificial intelligence character with the accent and attitude of a 1980s mainframe that never quite got switched off. She is dry, a little contemptuous and very much part of the act, trading lines with Keelan and reacting to the room in real time. She belongs to the show's fictional backstory, Lazer Corp, an 80s technology company that set out to change how people see reality. It is a clever framing device, because it lets a modern show about screens and machines wear a nostalgic, almost analog coat.

Navitron, the humanoid robot

Then there is Navitron, a full-size humanoid robot that shares the stage with Keelan. This is where HACKED earns its billing as a robot magic show, and it is genuinely strange, in the best way, to watch a humanoid robot perform alongside a human magician on the Las Vegas Strip. Navitron moves, reacts and takes part in the routines, and the effect sits somewhere between charming and slightly uncanny, which is precisely the point of a show asking how comfortable we really are around machines.

The robot dog

There is also a four-legged robot, a robotic dog that patrols the stage and, at one point, does something nobody in the room expects a robot dog to do. We will not spoil it. It is a short beat, but it usually earns one of the biggest reactions of the night, and it is a quiet reminder of how far this kind of technology has come.

The Questions HACKED Asks

Underneath the robots and the mind reading, HACKED is really built around a set of questions most of us are already living with. Can you still trust what you see when a convincing deepfake can be put together in minutes? When did the phone in your pocket become more interesting than the person sitting across from you? Where is all of this technology actually taking us, and what happens when a machine can do your job faster than you learned it?

Keelan turns each of these into a piece of magic or mentalism, so the ideas land as moments of astonishment rather than a lecture. That is what makes it stand out among Vegas magic shows: it is genuinely about something, while still being funny and fast enough to work as a straightforward night out. Families, couples and skeptics tend to leave with the same slightly rattled grin.

Who Is Keelan Leyser?

The mind behind HACKED is Keelan Leyser, a British magician and mentalist who has spent nearly three decades pioneering technology magic. He was hooked at the age of four after watching Lance Burton perform in Las Vegas, and went on to become British Magical Grand Prix Champion and British Champion of General Magic.

Since then he has appeared on more than 100 television shows across over 60 countries, starred in his own BBC One documentary, and delivered his "Reimagine the Impossible" keynote for companies including Microsoft, Intel, Google and BP. He has performed for King Charles and for the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and co-wrote the book "Unseen" with psychologist Dr David Lewis. HACKED, now his resident Las Vegas show, is the most ambitious thing he has built, pulling all of that history into one room at Mandalay Bay.

Is HACKED the Best New Magic Show on the Strip?

We will be upfront: we are close to this one, so instead of handing out our own score, it is fairer to look at how audiences have reacted. Creators and first-time guests have been quick to call it one of the best new magic shows in Las Vegas, and it is easy to see why. Forty Deuce is an intimate cabaret room, so there is nowhere for the performer to hide, and Keelan Leyser uses that closeness to make every reveal land on a real person sitting a few feet away.

The show also refuses to sit still. One moment it is close-up sleight of hand, the next it is a full-room piece of mentalism, then a stretch of technology that genuinely makes you question what just happened. That range is what makes HACKED work as both a magic show and a mentalism show without ever feeling like two different acts stitched together.

What People Are Saying

The online reaction has been loud. Here are a handful of clips from creators and guests who caught the show and posted straight afterwards, which is usually the truest measure of how a Vegas show actually lands.

One reviewer went further and filmed a full breakdown from their car on the way home. If you want a longer, unscripted take before you book, it is worth a watch.

How to See HACKED in Las Vegas

You can book HACKED below. For full show details and behind-the-scenes on the show's world, head to the official HACKED Las Vegas magic show site, or read more about the performer at Keelan Leyser.