Las Vegas’s biannual MAGIC Live convention differs from Las Vegas’s MAGIC Market Week in that it’s actually about magic. (The Market Week is a fashion convention.) The convention just wrapped up and at the closing party, I got to buy a $5 plastic cup of wine for Daily Show “Senior Black Correspondent”/close-up magician Larry Wilmore. I confessed to him something I’ve been feeling bad about the past couple weeks: I think I like John Oliver more than Jon Stewart. (Oliver has been sitting in the anchor chair in place of Stewart.)

I feel guilty about this because, well, if you’re my age and not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, Stewart is sacrosanct.

“Just wait until Jon comes back,” Wilmore told me. He said it as if he knew Stewart has some great bits saved up.

Other MAGIC Live convention highlight: Seeing Wayne Dobson, a hilarious British magician with Multiple Sclerosis, perform a God-awful mind-reading bit ... which ended with a prediction that read, “THIS TRICK SUCKS.” Genius bit.

I should explain: That picture of me and the puppet comes from the MAGIC Live dealer’s room, where I dropped about $400. Not on puppets. I got a card trick, a locket trick, a big old book ... and that’s about it. Magic tricks and magic books are expensive.

Congrats to (Vegas-based) MAGIC magazine on another great gathering. Or am I not allowed to use “magic” and “gathering” in the same sentence like that?