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Close-Up Magic Gets an Up-Close Venue in Brooklyn

Close-Up Magic Gets an Up-Close Venue in Brooklyn


One latest Friday night time, a hidden door on the rear of Art of Play, a curiosity store in Brooklyn Heights, swung open and theatrical smoke wafted into the shop. Two dozen folks had been ready for this second, passing the time by dealing with the shop’s menagerie of optical illusions, wood puzzles and magic-adjacent objects. Now, they filed via a brief passageway and right into a tiny room with three rows of benches and standing room for just a few folks within the again.

Soon, a German magician named Denis Behr, 44, dressed all in black and about as tall as an N.B.A. ahead, took a seat at a desk in entrance of the viewers. For the following 80 minutes, he placed on a completely flummoxing demonstration of sleight of hand, utilizing only a deck of playing cards and a little bit of goofy, anarchic wit.

At one level, he appeared to trigger two playing cards, each signed by a spectator seated to his left, to fly invisibly throughout the desk right into a pack of playing cards held by one other to his proper. After this impact sunk in there was applause, then a whole lot of murmurs of the what-just-happened selection.

“Something to consider,” Behr mentioned, unhelpfully.

It was late November, and Behr was one of many first performers at 69 Atlantic — the identify of the theater in addition to the tackle — a brand new venue for close-up conjuring. New York City is within the midst of a magic increase, with long-running residencies (Steve Cohen’s “Chamber Magic Show” on the Lotte New York Palace, Dan White’s “The Magician” at 281 Park Avenue South, Noah Levine’s “Magic After Hours” present at Tannen’s Magic close to Herald Square) and multi-performer evenings (“Monday Night Magic” in Greenwich Village, “Speakeasy Magick” within the Flatiron district and “Standup Magic” in Williamsburg).

If 69 Atlantic has a distinct segment, it’s importing A-listers from around the globe who in any other case would by no means be seen right here. They are too massive for cameos in a revue however lack the profile for lengthy solo runs. Plus, these maestros want what has lengthy been lacking from town and what 69 Atlantic lastly supplies: an 18-seat setting so intimate it verges on claustrophobic.

“What’s particular is to be within the presence of a performer who’s demonstrating inconceivable issues just a few ft away from you,” mentioned Adam Rubin, who co-owns and runs the theater together with his spouse, Temis Galindo. “People who’ve mastered this artwork type are vanishingly uncommon.”

Rubin, 41, is a former promoting govt, a someday magician and a full-time evangelist for delight and awe. He left the promoting world in 2015 after success as a author of kids’s books; certainly one of them, “Dragons Love Tacos,” spent greater than 400 weeks on the New York Times best-seller listing. He moved to Spain and commenced combing the continent for artisans making issues “on the intersection of magnificence and surprise,” as he put it.

A couple of years in the past, he referred to as Dan and Dave Buck, twin brothers and magicians who had turned their love of card flourishing, a.okay.a. cardistry, into Art of Play, which, on the time, was a web-based enterprise promoting high-end taking part in playing cards. Rubin needed recommendation on beginning a brand new firm. The brothers had one other concept. Come work with us.

For their first full-scale retail spot, they settled right into a 130-year-old constructing throughout the road from the place the Brooklyn Queens Expressway empties onto Atlantic Avenue. The inside was a dilapidated mess, and much bigger than Art of Play wanted for its whimsical wares. This features a battery-powered forged iron-hand, the fingers of which thrum on a desk, a chirping automaton wood chook, decks of playing cards and a glowing lightbulb that spins and levitates above a block of wooden. (Credit magnets and electrical energy).

There can also be a big number of restricted version taking part in playing cards, with backs that includes Smokey Bear, a “mini-flea” circus and the Alfred Hitchcock traditional “Vertigo,” to call just a few. And should you’re in search of elaborate contraptions that carry out nonessential duties, by all means, look right here. The retailer affords a Party Popper Machine, a $950 gadget manufactured from purple metallic and an assortment of gears that yank out party poppers with the press of a button.

Rubin and the Bucks realized that even after this in depth stock was meticulously laid out on cabinets and in glass instances, the shop had further house. And they knew precisely what to do with it.

“Dave and I traveled the world all via our 20s and 30s as skilled magicians and cardists,” Dan Buck mentioned. “We obtained to make mates with a whole lot of magicians and see completely different kinds, and now it’s like, right here’s our likelihood to share these guys with the group.”

The theater opened in October with Eric Mead, a magician primarily based in Aspen, Colo., who not often performs in public and is thought for impeccable sleights with cash and playing cards. Coming points of interest embrace Dave Williamson, the fiendishly misleading great-uncle of American magic in Yellow Springs, Ohio, who realized his craft from Twentieth-century masters like Dai Vernon and Ed Marlo. Ondrej Psenicka is coming, too; a Prague magician, he stumped Penn & Teller 3 times in a row on their present, “Fool Us,” prompting Penn to threaten to punch him within the face. (He was principally kidding.)

Shows are booked via May. Generally, there are two an evening for 2 weekends in a row, on Friday and Saturday. Tickets begin at $75 for standing room. Wine is included within the worth of the ticket, as is astonishment.

“I went with my husband to look at Eric Mead, and he did issues like transfer a coin from beneath one hand to a different, which doesn’t precisely sound loopy,” mentioned Emma Straub, an writer and the proprietor of the Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic, in an interview. “But while you’re that shut, it feels magical, if not miraculous.”

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Written by EGN NEWS DESK

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