educated in the sleight of hand and mentalism schools of magic , and it has opened up an entirely new market for performers to explore . In my opinion , this is a trend that has been way too long in arriving .
We are currently at a point of time where smaller magic in smaller venues is in vogue , and it is springing up in cities across the country . While the larger touring magic shows , such as The Illusionists still feature plenty of grand illusion they are beginning to feature more intimate kinds of magic simply because the audiences want to see it . There are now many smaller venues with live magic that are popping up and catering to the type of intimate magic that is currently being featured on television . What is even more exciting is that these shows are attracting enthusiastic audiences and meeting with a great deal of critical and commercial success . Steve Cohen has been quite a trailblazer and pioneer in this kind of endeavor , and his style and methods have been adapted and adopted with excellent results by other magicians . The late Ricky Jay was also way ahead of the curve in this respect with his various one-man shows . This trend is now becoming an incredible boon to many sleight of hand performers , and I think we will see this approach continue to escalate for quite some time .
The recent opening of Milt and Arlene Larsen ’ s Magic Castle Cabaret in Santa Barbara is just the latest and classiest addition to the 30 to 40 seat magic showrooms that are popping up nationwide . To lay audiences , the very intimacy of these micro showrooms is a refreshing development in the way they can observe and participate in magical events . To mention a few other examples of this kind of venue , just in the state of California ; Jay Alexander ’ s Marrakech Magic Theater , Steve Mitchell ’ s Junkyard Magic and Gerry Griffin ’ s California Magic Theater jump to mind as powerful success stories . The integral intimacy of these showrooms is a considerable part of their continuing success .
The average magician tends to think BIG when it comes to magic showrooms , and I suspect it has a great deal to do with our being raised on the mystique of the gigantic traveling roadshow ’ s of Houdini , Thurston , Copperfield , and other luminaries from the last century . It always seemed so enticingly simple , Houdini arrived in town , performed a sensational publicity stunt and voilà the theatre was filled . Of course , there was no internet , television or Netflix to compete with the public ’ s attention in those truly golden years ! It was the arrival of cinema
that helped draw the curtain on that era . There were still a few performers who could muster the mass crowds needed to fill a regional theatre ; however , it quickly became apparent that there were only a handful of performers who could make that old paradigm succeed in modern times .
The size of the show / showroom has a direct correlation with how many people are needed to fill the seats in a venue sufficiently for the production to be considered a success . A full sized theatre with 40 people in it is a disaster ; the same audience in a 40 seat showroom is called a sold-out performance , and you are then ready to add a second show in the same night . The tough part of producing an ongoing magic event is never about the mounting of the show , but almost always about getting those paying asses in the seats .
28 VANISH Magazine www . VanishMagazine . com