”Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!” Just Not the Harry Potter Kind

Audience member follows Asi Wind’s instructions to raise her arm.

The 14-year old magic show, New York’s longest running Off-Broadway one, provides almost two hours of wit and tricks every Monday night at Theater 80 St Marks* from different magicians. On Monday, July 18, R.J. Lewis, Master Lee and Asi Wind performed to much appreciative laughter. Fear was a factor, too, for audience members who volunteered, in losing their money or worse.

Audience members enraptured. Third from left: Scott Barton, 21.

“I thought for some chance, he [Master Lee] might hurt me, yes. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but you know, he didn’t, and I had a great time doing it, so it all worked out,” said Scott Barton, 21. Barton participated in the Blindfolded Sword Demonstration (without the blindfold this time), in which Master Lee had him hold a cucumber to his crotch while standing and sliced it in half.

Apart from this PG-13 act, however, the show contained a mix of traditional magic tricks as well as more contemporary ones. Classic tricks included Chinese linking rings and the scissors and string trick by opening act Lewis who kept the audience compelled with his one-liners and energy. Closing act Wind was mesmerizing, transitioning from seemingly impossible trick to trick effortlessly and seamlessly.

Master Lee kept things unpredictable and more comedic than magical, with his juggling feats and twist on the Board Break trick. The MC David Corsaro and three other magicians who kept the magic flowing during the intermission ensured the show went smoothly, demonstrating sleight-of-hand close-up magic.

Discussing the future of magic in general, founding producer of Monday Night Magic and President of Magical Nights Inc, provider of the show, Michael Chaut said, “You’ll see magic become, as it has over the last number of years, more shocking and more real, and very strong. So the people will experience it harder and more quickly.”

If that is the case, it is no doubt that many will be lining up to see Monday Night Magic well into the future.

Audience member looks on in wonder at the finished Mona Lisa puzzle.

*Starting August 1, 2011, Monday Night Magic will move from Theater 80 St Marks in the East Village to Manhattan’s famous Theater District at the Theatre At St Clements (423 West 46th St., between 9th and 10th Ave). Shows will continue to be at 8 PM every Monday.