Magic doesn’t get much respect. In TV and movies, it’s often portrayed as a corny, delusional art whose practitioners produce only crushed doves, puddles of unignited lighter fluid and snickers.
But this belies magic’s centuries-long evolution from a trick of mystics and shamans to a popular entertainment in theaters and on television.
From Harry Houdini and to Burt Wonderstone and Criss Angel, it’s either been high art or a joke, a thrilling suspension of disbelief or the pre-cake entertainment at a kiddie birthday party.
At the moment, it’s all of those things.
“It never dies,” said Stan Allen, founder and publisher of the 24-year-old Magic Magazine. “But it’s booming right now thanks to the rejuvenated economy, a number of TV shows and the fact that it’s a little bit cooler than it has been.”
Inch by inch, magic has crept back into the national consciousness after a two-decade absence, thanks in part to the advocacy of Tony-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris, who served a six-year term as president of the world-famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles.
“Interest in what we do is up exponentially,” said Magic Castle general manager Joe Furlow, who noted a revenue increase from $8.7 million in 2012 to $14.8 million in 2014. “We had to put a freeze on selling new memberships as of Jan. 1.”
The Magic Castle is the clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, whose 5,500-strong membership represents an all-time high for the 53-year-old organization.
So, too, is Colorado’s magic scene booming, according to Manon Rodriguez, national administrator for the Parker-based — the world’s oldest magic organization, and one that counts Houdini as a past president.
“We have our here, which is an appointment-only museum and library for magic,” said Rodriguez, who relocated the Society to Parker four years ago. “We have 6,000 worldwide members, but there are also lots of local shows.”
Rodriguez hopes the Society’s April 1 “Tomfoolery” fundraiser will help transform the Magic Archives from an appointment-only space into a public one.
In the meantime, Front Range magic lovers can catch an increasing number of acts along, from weekly variety shows at to nationally touring artists at Castle Rock’s and the .
“My bookings have close to doubled lately,” said mentalist Professor Phelyx, who performs frequently at Lannie’s and will play both Las Vegas and L.A.’s members-only Magic Castle later this year.
Phelyx plans to debut his biggest show yet, under the umbrella of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Off-Center” brand on April 10. The show promises a non-traditional, “immersive” take on illusion with original music from DeVotchKa’s Tom Hagerman.
“I do mostly birthday parties and things like that, and that hasn’t changed,” said , president of the . “But the amount of corporate and promotional bookings has gone up substantially. People want flair at their events.”
Denver has one of the biggest professional magic scenes in the country, with 100 paying members in the Mile High Magicians (many of them hobbyists, Wonder admitted) and more than a dozen full-time magicians. That’s compared to about 200 dues-paying members in New York’s Parent Assembly, which has a far deeper well from which to draw.
New York audiences aren’t shy about their tastes, however. “The Illusionists,” a high-tech stage show, recouped its $1.75 million investment after last month. Its 30-city tour, which features , continues through June (no Denver dates have been announced), alongside other nationally touring ensemble acts like “Masters of Illusion.”
On TV, there’s magic for nearly every taste, such as TruTV’s hidden-camera street-magic show “The Carbonaro Effect,” or Syfy’s reality-style competition “Wizard Wars” — which premieres its next six-episode run Jan. 29.
And for the first time in its 29-year history, PBS’s “American Masters” series will launch on Jan. 23 with a profile of . The most recent season of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” even featured, for the first time, a magician (Mat Franco) as the overall winner.
“What you’re seeing here is cycles,” said Becki Wells, head of public relations for the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which counts about 10,000 members worldwide. “In the ’90s every casino in Vegas wanted a magic show, and then Cirque du Soleil came in and suddenly every casino wanted that. But the influence of touring productions and TV shows is bringing it back around.”
Indeed, Cirque du Soleil’s magic show “Criss Angel: Believe,” which is a little more than halfway through its 10-year Vegas run, is being joined this year by Cirque’s touring “Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities.” The production, which will play the Pepsi Center grounds June 11-July 5, uses the late-19th century’s fascination with illusion and mechanical oddities as its jumping-off point.
Still, most magicians make their livings modestly, cobbling together income from corporate events, variety shows and private parties.
That’s where Colorado magicians operate.
A veteran Denver magician who asked not to be named estimated that most make about $45,000 annually, with particularly successful ones pulling in up to double that.
“I’ve done everything from women’s business luncheons to bookstores to stage shows,” said Denver’s Erica Sodos, the rare female mentalist-magician in a field dominated by men. “It’s very much an old boy’s club, but we’re gaining on them.”
Sodos, whose next “Magic Within” performance is , represents another reason for magic’s resurgence: the self-contained act.
“Magic shows are always available and they come in with their own hardware, so certainly compared to a Broadway show, it’s less expensive in most cases,” said Magic Magazine’s Allen. “And it’s family entertainment, too. All of these things make it attractive.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel
