Fischbacher and Horn have not acknowledged that they are homosexual, but it is widely perceived that they are. Of their sexuality, a Las Vegas entertainment reporter said in 1997, "It's a bit like Clinton's policy on gays in the military. We don't ask and they don't tell." Shirley MacLaine, a longtime friend, has stated that the two "used to be lovers a long time ago."

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When asked by Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer how they felt about being perceived as gay icons, Fischbacher said that he was "very honored" and Horn called it "a wonderful thing," but neither commented on whether the perception of their sexuality was accurate. Fischbacher described the two of them as "friends."

Charlie Skelton of The (London) Guardian described their stage show as one of "the most charged performance[s]" that he had seen. He characterized it as "an excuse for two fabulously rich gay Germans to act out their wildest fantasies, night after night after night."

Accounts of the show mention that the cast of dancers included "a dozen behooded men in padded pink muscle-suits" and that Fischbacher and Horn's costumes (especially Horn's) featured lamé capes, skin-tight leggings, and codpieces variously described as "ridiculously enormous," "as big as soup bowls," and "certainly more frightening" than the tigers.

Their show told a fantasy story of battle with and defeat of a dragon and an evil sorceress. Lasers, holograms, high-tech props such as the four-story-tall dragon, and dramatic music contribute to the spectacle, which Tyrnauer calls "a kind of hallucinogenic 'buddy picture.'"

In 1991 Fischbacher and Horn won the German BAMBI award as the best live entertainers of the decade and the Liberace Legend Award from the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts.

In 1992 the Academy of Magical Arts in Los Angeles bestowed upon them the Magicians of the Decade Award. They were chosen as the Magicians of the Century by the International Magicians Society in 2000.

Fischbacher and Horn's long-running show tragically came to an end on October 3, 2003 when Horn was bitten in the neck by a tiger during a performance. Although gravely injured, immediately after the incident Horn pleaded that the animal's life be spared.

Initially in critical condition because of loss of blood and suffering a stroke, Horn, in what Fischbacher described as a "remarkable demonstration of will, courage, and faith," began to recover and was transferred from the Las Vegas University Medical Center to the UCLA Medical Center for further evaluation and treatment.

A few weeks after the accident Fischbacher accepted the 2003 World Award for entertainment on behalf of the couple and optimistically declared, "The Siegfried who you see before you here will soon return again as Siegfried and Roy."

Horn defied doctors' predictions that he would never speak or walk again. On February 28, 2009, he and Fischbacher appeared at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas for a farewell performance in a benefit entitled "Keep the Memory Alive: Power of Love for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health."

Albeit with halting steps, Horn walked onstage unaided, and the pair delighted the audience with their illusions for one last time. Afterward, more than half of the hundreds of members of the cast and crew from their previous productions gathered backstage to congratulate them on the bittersweet occasion of their swan song.

Historically, cabarets and revues have been much more likely to mention or imply same-sex desire than the "legitimate" theater; and same-sex desire has been less frequently condemned in cabarets and revues than in mainstream plays.

Variety and vaudeville and related theatrical forms featured cross-dressed acts, as well as routines that challenged prevailing gender constructions.

Liberace was for many the epitome of flamboyant camp, yet he was also a gay man who steadfastly refused to acknowledge publicly his sexual identity.

Among the most prolific and respected of contemporary costume designers in America, William Ivey Long has always been openly gay in his professional life.