Even for the likes of David Copperfield, Criss Angel and Nik Wallenda, it’s never easy for an illusionist to sell out a big theater or sustain a national movement. They all need personal brands: Copperfield sells approachable romance, Angel sells punkish attitude, and Wallenda markets life-threatening danger of ever-increasing scale. But what about a clutch of magicians together, co-branded and sharing a bill?
That’s pretty much the theory behind “The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible,” the multimagician magic show now at the Cadillac Palace Theatre as part of a trek across America. Despite receiving a collective, nose-in-the-air sniff from most critics, “The Illusionists” (with a somewhat different cast) did pretty well during a limited Broadway engagement before this tour, reminding us that one of the reasons they call it “show business” is that a good portion of the paying public actually likes to see a real show.
So do you get one? Certainly.
Considered as a whole, “The Illusionists” is the kind of production you might expect to see in Las Vegas (where I have seen some of these performers before), up in the Wisconsin Dells, down in Branson, Mo., or on one of the mega-cruise ships. But not everyone wants to navigate the interstate or set sail to see a card trick or a body sawed into two sections. Large-scale magic shows aren’t in Chicago every week, and among the many pleasures of the art is that whole families can enjoy it together. At the performance I saw earlier this week, the Caddy was packed with paying marks.
On the multiple bill are Andrew Basso (as The Escapologist), Aaron Crow (The Warrior), Jeff Hobson (The Trickster), Yu Ho-Jin (The Manipulator), Dan Sperry (The Anti-Conjurer), Adam Trent (The Futurist) and Kevin James (The Inventor). They’re backed by a little crew of vaguely Goth, noir-clad, mascara-caked dancers, hair blown back, blowtorches at the ready. So you get the gestalt. Even though some of these guys have been around for years, this teen-friendly show works really hard not to be your grandmother’s magic show, instead delivering a DJ, big screen, band, faux-Marilyn Manson makeup and plenty of attitude. In fact, Sperry’s self-consciously cynical act is all about attitude. “Ooh, a trick,” he leers. Cynically.
I resisted some of the endless branding during the show — which includes the show’s own logo showing up in the final trick, which is a bit much. The show could ascribe the audience a bit more intelligence throughout. But there are some stellar craftspeople at work here, artists we don’t regularly get to enjoy in this town.
I’ve long been a fan of Hobson, an old-school Vegas guy, and James, who affects a kind of Victorian, Dr. Frankenstein persona but whose work is rich in content and flawless in presentation. Basso, an Italian escapologist, has an interesting variation on Houdini’s Water Torture Cell in that he does the famous trick without any covering on the chamber. He does not exactly pile on the chains (like Chicago’s own Dennis Watkins doing this trick), pretty much confining himself to picking handcuffs. But getting to watch every moment of his underwater escape is a lot of fun.
The other interesting performer here is Yu, who is, of course, branded as a mysterious, mystical, unknowable kind of magician, being as he is from South Korea. But once you are past that stereotype, you see a really beautiful manipulator of playing cards. It’s not so much that Yu, likely the youngest of this crew, does anything terribly new. It’s the way this serene dude makes his cards float in space, caressing and changing them as if they were extensions of his own body. He has a formidable act.
You have to suffer through a lot of the “by applause, who out here is…” shtick. You also have to suffer performers prowling the aisles, looking for volunteers and abusing nice people who just happen to have a pen in their hand. And, since some of the content really is close-up magic, you often find yourself watching the show on the big screen. It always drives me nuts when magicians can’t scale up by themselves.
But if — like me — you are a fan of these black arts and interested in an opportunity to experience ideas and tricks, “The Illusionists” will entertain you and yours very nicely for a couple of hours. And I can’t resist one spoiler, in the interests of the broader public. At one point Tuesday, Trent, a big creative talent, brought up a 5-year-old girl to the stage, asking her to write on a card for one trick. She got to keep the card, and after she went back to her seat, Trent told the enthralled little girl from the stage that she had been given a special card.
“Put it under your pillow tonight and when you wake up in the morning you’ll find $10,” he said.
It was the biggest laugh of the night. No illusion needed. Well, one. The best kind of all.
Twitter @ChrisJonesTrib
REVIEW: The Illusionists Witness the Impossible
3 STARS
When: Through March 22
Where: Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.
Running time: 2 hours
Tickets: $16-$90 at 800-775-2000 or broadwayinchicago.com
