Chi, IL Live Shows on our Radar:
Guest Review
by Dugan Kenaz-Mara
The night started off with the classic Magic parlor experience. My partner and I were led to our seats by a lovely host, ordered drinks from a kind waiter, and then got to experience some close-up sleight-of-hand card magic right at our table. This time around, we had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful work of Abby Segal (https://www.abbysegalmagic.com/), who has a soft and gentle approach to blowing our minds. Even with tricks I had seen before, she made them look and feel personal, which merits a special shout-out at the beginning of this review.
After about an hour of table magic and getting food and drinks settled, each member of the audience was given a secret little envelope. A handful of lucky audience members were also given an extra card with instructions on it for use throughout the show. This act of inclusion was the start of what I would soon find out is a hallmark of Ondřej’s work: the audience is his best friend.
As soon as the show began I noticed that he came off differently from other magicians. His focus was not on performing tricks himself and “showing off”, but rather on trying to engage the audience. He wasn’t telling a story on stage, but having a conversation. During the time between tricks he often would ask if the audience had any questions, to which someone would respond and lead into the next trick, always accompanied by a short story about how Ondřej learned magic, some of the things he enjoys, or silly little quips.
The show itself is fairly leisurely. Pšenička takes a slower pace with a good amount of time between tricks, lacking in background music. But, that dead space is made up for in the unique way he does his tricks. Or rather, gets others to do them. The highlight of much of his magic is that he can get audience members to perform magic without any prior instructions. For example, a trick I am still absolutely baffled by (that was featured on his first appearance of Penn and Teller’s ‘Fool Us’) didn’t even require the magician on stage! For this trick, Ondřej called an audience member on stage, gave them headphones to wear, and sat off to the side eating popcorn while the audience member searched a deck of cards, narrowing it down until he found a specific card, picked at random by another audience member earlier.
Tricks like that, and the pre-scripted audience interactions, highlight what makes 52 Lovers so interesting: It makes you think about how magic is constructed. When someone other than the magician is able to perform their trick, it forces you to consider how carefully and intentionally everything is set up and really provides perspective on the level of trickery involved. It’s especially interesting in this case because Ondřej is not quiet about when he’s forcing a card, sometimes even openly explaining what he’s doing. It all feels very clever.
And he even manages to tie everything together at the end. Remember those secret envelopes I mentioned? By the end of the show, everyone in the audience gets to do their own personal little bit of magic with the contents (no spoilers as to what’s inside).
If you’re interested in a slower-paced, relaxed magic show, I would recommend 52 Lovers. Recommended. Three out of four stars.★★★
Dugan Kenaz-Mara is a Chicago based designer, photographer, educator, and graduate of Northwestern University's theatre program.
