Pick a magician, any magician; Illusionists bring variety to magic show

Do you believe in magic, magic, magic (repeat magic four more times)?

The magical ensemble of the Illusionists hopes to make you a believer, seven times over. The show brings seven accomplished magicians in to perform two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 24-25, at Gallo Center for the Arts.

“The Illusionists: Live From Broadway” takes the troupe’s popular New York show to the road. The production has been amazing audiences across the globe since 2012. The concept is simple: Bring seven talented magicians and illusionists with various specialties and skills together and watch the – you guessed it – magic happen.

Show emcee and performer Jeff Hobson said what makes make the production different is the variety it offers audiences.

“You can call us the Avengers of magic; we all have our specialty that is quite different from each other,” Hobson said in a recent phone interview with The Modesto Bee. “It’s not three guys doing big illusion tricks. Everyone has their own style. There really is no star of the show.”

Hobson’s Avenger power is as “the Trickster.” His act brings some levity to all the derring-do.

“When things get too dangerous, too awe-inspiring, I say ‘Hey, folks, I am back! Hey, folks, I am here!’ ” he said.

With Hobson as comic relief, the rest of the magicians bring their own strengths to the stage. They are Dan Sperry, the Anti-Conjuror; Kevin James, the Inventor; Ben Blaque, the Weapons Master; Colin Cloud, the Deductionist; Andrew Basso, the Escapologist; and Yu Ho-Jin, the Manipulator.

“It’s a balance. It’s a balanced chaos. You run the gamut of emotions in the show,” Hobson said. “We have, like, one of the best guys in the world for sleight-of-hand with cards. You also have the danger of Andrew Basso, the Escapologist, cheating death every night. You get all these emotions in our show you don’t find in an ordinary magic show.”

The show, which has been a huge draw on Broadway, has been part of a wave of widely popular magic shows from everyone from duo Penn & Teller to David Blaine. But by providing more figurative and literal bang for the audience’s buck, the Illusionists are bringing all the razzle-dazzle of the Great White Way to stages across the country.

The high-tech show includes video screens, choreographed dancers and an original score. It even makes magic veterans such as Hobson want to sneak a peek. At each show, 15 to 20 members of the audience are picked to participate in the acts.

“All the time, we have to admit we sneak out in to the house and we’ll sort of watch from the side or watch the screens,” Hobson said. “(The audience participation) is the best part about this show, and even we still don’t believe it sometimes. People say that couldn’t be; that it must be a setup. But no one is set up at all. That’s the magic of it.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Pick a magician, any magician; Illusionists bring variety to magic show."