Review by Karen Topham, ChicagoOnstage, member American Theatre Critics Association. Photo by Chicago Magic Lounge.
An evening spent at Chicago Magic Lounge is pretty much guaranteed to be a great time no matter who is performing. Because most performances are one-offs by some of the best talent around, though, it’s difficult to make specific recommendations. The Lounge does something different on Wednesdays, however, as its Signature Show provides a single magician the opportunity to craft a show that will play every week for a few months. Its newest headliner is a 22-year-old who is one of the biggest up-and-coming names in magic circles, Trent James, who is filling the intimate Blackstone Cabaret every week with a show that his immediate predecessor, Carissa Hendrix (aka Lucy Darling) says made her angry because “he’s just too good.”
James is a sincere young man whose magic is extraordinarily polished and whose genial humor is welcome, though he understandably needs some maturation in some of his audience interactions. On January 15, when I saw him, there seemed to be a bit of uncertainty in his banter, as if he expected reactions that he was not getting; he needs to learn how to roll over those moments more seamlessly. However, there was nothing at all insecure about his skills as an illusionist. Whether using cards, objects, or audience responses, James’ visual “lies” proved highly entertaining and more than a little bit mystifying.
Even in bits where he appears to be letting the audience in on his secrets, James finds ways of putting one over on us. (Of course he does: he’s a magician who brazenly tells us he is lying; we should take him at his word.) And a trick that might seem to be over could well end up being just the set-up for its most incredible element, though an act that opens with a brilliant costume quick-change alerts us from the start that we should take nothing for granted.
During the course of his nearly hour-long set, James shows us a wide variety of bits that trade on misdirection, humor, and the ability to elicit awe. He does shadow puppets and makes the shadows appear to freeze in place after he removes his hands. He does some silly ventriloquism that somehow morphs into one of the evening’s most indelible moments: a feat of “mindreading” and prestidigitation that begins comically and ends up leaving everyone flabbergasted as they try to figure out just how he pulled it off. He pulls things out of an empty sack that an audience member suggests. He does a trick involving a combination of pickpocketing and intertwining his arms with a volunteer’s that ends with a completely unexpected and stupefying twist. And all the while, his charm and apparent openness are so disarming that we are easily taken along for the ride.
James is a young man still honing his craft and his act, and that is a frightening thought: what this guy will be capable of as he gets older and even more self-assured is impossible to guess, but I’d say he has what it takes to become one of his generation’s foremost practitioners of the art of illusion. I’m not alone in that assessment: he has been named Most Promising Young Magician by the Millbourne Christopher Foundation, an honor that in the past has gone to such luminaries as David Copperfield and Penn & Teller. This is someone whose career we should watch closely, and you can see him right now every Wednesday night. Why wouldn’t you?
Trent James: Pure Lies is now playing at Chicago Magic Lounge, 5050 N. Clark, Chicago, IL, until Mar 25. The show runs approximately 60 minutes; there is no intermission. Check the website for specific dates, times, and tickets. Find more information about current plays in our front page recs and attheatreinchicago.com.