The top floor theater of Fotografiska resembles an old attic. Heavy wood beams crisscross above. A collection of dusty ephemera is “stored” on either side of seating. There’s a telescope, turned away canvases, a small vanity, something that looks like chemistry paraphernalia, lanterns, lights, flats draped in drop cloths. Clamshell footlights line the stage (oddly turned out). Wordlessly, an old man locks a heavy box, hanging it from a hook in the ceiling. It remains suspended until the finale. The key is entrusted to a woman in the front row.
Dan White is way ahead of us. An observant magician and mentalist, he talks fast and thinks faster. This is a show filled with audience participation – nothing embarrassing – often made random by successive tossing of a crumpled ball of newspaper. White repeatedly tries to convince us he’s not in charge. Once a trick has started, the performer frequently leaves every move to a volunteer, never touching its elements. He even gets an unwitting man to read our minds as we all concentrate on the same word. See, you can do it too, the practitioner suggests. Video is helpfully employed to see tabletop card work and creatively employed to follow a volunteer outside.
Intermittent set-ups are continual throughout the show. Playing cards identified by someone having written his/her name, folded papers with secret words or numbers are sequestered in pockets for later reveals. Numbers on a blackboard – White uses a lot of number effects – turn out to be considerably more than they seem when first chalked. (Take note of The Magic Square.) Some numeric sequences we’re told, are in code.
The wallet, phone and wedding ring of an audience member are “French dropped” into an antique ballot box. There are four keys, only one of which works. The trick is not in opening it, but in the escape of an object and its newfound location. Even if he palmed the possession, achieving its witty new position remains a mystery. White plays with testing trust. Submitting a $100 bill, a startled volunteer is convinced to give it up in a visually original fashion. It is, of course, in another striking visual, unearthed elsewhere.
The “Oil and Water” trick of changing and rearranging card suits is common in magic shows. White also offers something fresh. Having been handed playing cards on the way into the theater, we’re now asked to manipulate them in a series of shuffles, inserts, and rather gleeful elimination. An unexpected denouement causes furrowed brows, the finale yelps of surprise. We’re also given cards on which to write the name of an object/image. These are collected in boxes. A few people are asked to blindly choose one from each folded tumble. The manner in which the performer literally shows he knows what’s on every card, is demonstrably fun. Familiarly, the hanging box contains the names of who did what during the show. This is, after all, magic.
White is genial and encouraging, fluent with a quip. It’s an entertaining evening with some surprises even for those of us who regularly search out prestidigitation.
Food and drinks are served from half hour before the performance.
Photos of The Magician Courtesy of the production
Preview/Trailer
Park Avenue at 22nd Street
