Me oh my Magic

Peter and I attended The Magic Cabaret last night at Greenhouse Theater. It was a very impressive close-up magic show. Close-up magic, also known as micromagic and table magic, is magic performed on a table or tray not more than 10 feet away from the audience. We were given a brief history of how this form of magic became know as Chicago-style magic within the magicians community here in the city throughout the 30's and 40's. If you weren't a magician in Chicago during that time you would probably not refer to it as such. The show mostly consisted of slight of hand, and flourishes.

Although there were a few tricks that made me actually believe in magic. At one point one of the magicians brought two people from the audience and had them write down a time and a name on a card, without looking at the cards, he then studied the women and or touched their hands and guessed both the time and name. It was clear from the women's reactions that they did not know this man and one woman was visibly disturbed by his ESP. I have no idea how he did it. The other trick was at the end everyone in the audience was given 4 cards. We were asked to bend the cards in half and tear them down the middle. We then were instructed to do a series of things with the cards that included trading with neighbors in the audience, throw them at the magicians, place one piece beneath a shoe. After about 20 commands we were all left with two pieces of card and when turned over they were the two halves of the same card. It worked for every single audience member and was spectacular! Next time you are in Chicago you should definitely make an effort to catch this act.