Carbonaro: Lies on Stage

Friday night, May 16th Frank and I attended a magic show at our local Bankhead Theatre titled Carbonaro: Lies On Stage. Per Bankhead Theatre publicity

America’s favorite trickster, Michael Carbanaro, is coming to The Bankhead ready to thrill audiences and conjure up concoctions of unbelievable magic. Best known as the star of “The Carbonaro Effect” on truTV, he has been a magician since youth, he studied experimental theater at NYU and conjured fame with his hidden-camera magic on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, and appeared on shows like “30 Rock,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “CSI Miami.”

We had seats up close to the stage, D1 and D3, as shown by the dots on the seating chart. Surely with seats this near we would be able to spot some of the secrets behind the "tricks". Nope. Not so. Our great view yielded us no insights or advantages enabling us to figure "How did he do that?".

The show was absorbing, about 90 minutes with no intermissions, but atypical of what I would expect of a magician. He did not pull any rabbits out of a hat. He did not saw anyone in half. He did rejoin ropes cut in a multitude of pieces and a perform a few pick your card type illusions. Much of the enjoyment came from his ability to engage the audience with his non-stop narration and endearing antics. At times, it seemed the time to set up a trick was a bit too long, but his banter was fun to watch and hear. There was a great deal of audience participation, so the show time passed quickly. Frank and I both grinned and scratched our heads at some of the "lies" like mind reading, invisibility, helium filled balloons that go up and down, and repeatedly appearing and re-appearing gnomes.

It was a fun, low-effort excursion on our part and I am glad we went for the evening. To get a feel for the type of "lies" and "bulls**t"" he is know for, check this YouTube link for a few examples of the Carbonaro Effect. The video is a mash up of severals pranks from his television show and worth watching for a few giggles. It is just possible that after the first set-up, you will go down the rabbit hole and laugh your way through at least some of the clips. The expressions on the face of each of his marks are priceless.