A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of attending a magic show at the Royal George Theatre.
Titled The Rosenkranz Mysteries, the show features physician turned magician Ricardo Rosenkranz as a magician/philosopher. Interspersed between tricks of mentalism, magic, and historic spiritualism, Dr. Rosenkranz expounds on ideas of magic, health, and healing.
There's nothing earth shattering about what he does but he does it well, and it was pretty fun. We went with a friend of mine who is also a physician and his son, and we all were very entertained.
Rosenkranz has been a doctor for over 20 years and has been practicing magic at least that long. He's achieved some pretty good accomplishments in both fields, currently serving as a faculty member at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. In the magic field, he has performed on Penn and Teller's television show Fool Us, as well as performed a run at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles.
Rosenkranz is very professional, and his routines are well thought out and mystifying. They all go very smoothly. Most of the tricks seem to be classic tricks that one would expect in a parlor show. drawing from different branches of magic, including card magic, spiritualism, mentalism, and other disciplines. There's a bit with a skull that's a lot of fun, and he does use some audience members as volunteers, so beware.
The program shows that he has studied with and consulted with a couple of the top magicians in the world about these tricks, including Eugene Burger, Jeff McBridge, and Johnny Thompson, and their tutelage shows. The magic is all superbly performed and well thought out.
I also really love the idea of magic and science (or medicine) being linked. Arthur C. Clarke once wrote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to the uninitiated." And one of Rosenkranz's heroes once squelched a revolt by passing off electromagnetism as magic.
And I really like what Rosenkranz wrote on his website talking about the intertwined nature of medicine and magic, being like the caduceus (the image of two snakes around a rod that now symbolizes medicine in the United States.)
If I were being asked about his show, my only real suggestion from a theatrical point of view is that the pace and rhythm of the whole show are very similar.
Rosenkranz is level-headed, good-natured, soft-spoken, and quite reasonable-- all befitting a doctor of his level.
I'd like to see some changes to his speaking rhythm and to the rhythm/pace of the show, so that not every trick was punctuated by talking, and that Rosenkranz veers away from "I will show you something amazing" to his actually being amazed.
He talks about amazement and wonder a lot in his show, but I would like to see him being amazed as well.
It's a small criticism, and I don't think that most people would notice, but I think that it could take the show from being an 8.5 to a 9.3.
The show has been selling quite well, and in fact, has now been extended through May 27. To get your tickets, Click here for ticketmaster.com or call The Royal George Ticket Office (312) 988-9000. Tickets for the show are $50-$75 at the Royal George Theatre Cabaret, and discounts can be had often on Goldstar.com
We saw the Illusionists on Tuesday night at the Oriental Theatre, and it is a fun and mystifying evening at the theatre. It bills itself as the "Cirque du Soleil of Magic" and I don't think I'd go that far, but the show is very entertaining.
The basic concept of the show is simple. Rather than have one magician come and do a 2 hour show of all different kinds of magic, let's bring a number of magicians together and they can each do 20 minute bits, featuring their speciality. With that in mind, they have cast 7 magicians to put the show together, added 4 or 5 dancers/helpers, and made the show.
The performers in our edition were as follows:
Andrew Basso, Escapologist
Colin Cloud, Deductionist
Jonathan Goodwin, Daredevil
Jeff Hobson, Trickster
Kevin James, Inventor
Ah Ha Lim, Manipulator
Dan Sperry, Anti-conjuror
Each of them was quite good at their speciality, with Jeff Hobson serving as the MC. Two particular favorite acts of mine were Colin Cloud doing a mind-reading/mentalist act and Andrew Basso performing Houdini's famous water torture cell. Colin ended up guessing/naming people's birthdates, telling seemingly random people the name of the person they came with, and ending with a set of suggestions from people (asking for a celebrity, a city, and a household item) that ended up already being printed in the program! And Andrew's act of escaping while holding his breath (underwater, upside down, in full view of the audience) was nothing short of thrilling.
Other acts were well done, and it seemed a little bit like a family affair. Hobson was funny, coming off as everybody's favorite gay uncle, with a slick Las Vegas style of friendly charm and lots of innuendos. Kevin James was your other uncle, all around nice guy, showing off his magical inventions (including one that involves chainsawing someone in half.) Sperry was the punk rock cousin, very brusque and from New York, doing a set of sideshow stuff, being hilariously rude to a volunteer, and ending with a bird act that was very nicely done. Jonathan Goodwin was your sister's uber cool boyfriend. He did a crossbow act which included a blindfolded shot that nearly decimated his assistant.
Toilet paper routine by Jeff Hobson.
You have probably seen this before.
I said earlier that I wouldn't go so far as calling them the Cirque du Soleil of magic, because unlike Cirque there wasn't a lot of innovation going on. Many of these acts are classics. I've seen acts like these many times before, including a napkin disappearing act that Hobson did that we had literally seen at a birthday party about 3 months ago. But not everybody is as well-versed in magic as I am, and everything was well-performed and entertaining and causing amazement. Overall, I definitely recommend this show.
I do want to warn that there are some innuendos that will probably go over your kid's heads. There's a bunch of slightly more adult humor than the suggested age range 5-105 would warrant. Still, my 8 year old loved it, and I don't think he got veiled sexual references. At least, I hope not!
Here's their promo video: (please note that some of the performers and acts are different in this edition than in the video)
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Tuesday Feb 21 at 7:30 PM
Wednesday Feb 22 at 7:30 PM
Thursday Feb 23 at 7:30 PM
Friday Feb 24 at 7:30 PM
Saturday Feb 25 at 2 PM and 8 PM
Sunday Feb 26 at 2 PM and 7:30 PM
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for THE ILLUSIONISTS at the Oriental Theatre range from $16-$80. A select number of premium tickets are available for many performances. Group tickets for 10 or more are available by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St., 18 W. Monroe St. and 175 E. Chestnut), the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (800) 775-2000, all Ticketmaster retail locations and online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
In honor of Harry Houdini's birthday ( he would have been 142 years old today!), the children's history rock band the Deedle Deedle Dee's have released a new music video called Houdini, it features New York magician Cardone performing a straight jacket escape in Tompkin's Square Park, and Lloyd Miller (creative force of the Deedle Deedle Dee's) performing the song he wrote to celebrate the master magician.
Houdini was one of the top entertainers in the world, a household name, and someone who made his fame and fortune by mystifying others. One of the books I read called him The First SuperHero, and I can definitely see that.
When you watch the video, make sure to watch all the way to the end, there's some funny business after the song ends.
Here's some great books about Houdini available on Amazon, and below that some albums by the Deedle Deedle Dee's!
And here's a great site about Houdini, which is kind of the Internet Portal for all things Houdini:
