Lindenhurst magic show for grown ups is LI’s ‘best-saved secret’

The woman did not glimpse content. Moments earlier, magician Bobby Torkova had borrowed her ring and produced it vanish into slender air. Flashing a “What, me get worried?” look, he moved on, building a walnut, an egg and a lemon vanish. Reaching into a bag, he discovered the lemon. Slicing it, he brought forth the egg, which he cracked to reveal the walnut. You see where by this is going — within the nut was the ring, fantastic as new.

It is all element of the enjoyable at “Parlor of Secret,” a magical night held the fourth Sunday of every thirty day period at South Shore Theatre Practical experience in Lindenhurst. (The August demonstrate has been canceled thanks to scheduling problems, so the future day is Sept. 26.)

“It’s Long Island’s best-kept solution,” suggests creative director Deborah Cascio Plezia of the clearly show which is been running more than 7 many years other than a break for the pandemic. “Individuals love it, they eat it up,” she adds, noting that the 40-seat theater is almost always sold out for “Parlor of Secret.”

THIS MAGIC Minute

The creation acquired its start off when her partner, Ted Plezia — a magician who goes by Thaddeus when undertaking — and numerous colleagues resolved they needed to do some thing alongside the strains of the extended-running “Monday Night time Magic” in Greenwich Village.

An first weekend with a number of other magicians was a huge achievement and they have been off, putting on reveals that incorporate magic in its numerous kinds, from card and coin methods to mentalism and road magic. At the July demonstrate, Plezia, who began executing magic when he was 12 increasing up in West Hempstead, served as host and did his own temporary set (a humorous flea circus) ahead of introducing the two other performers.

With so numerous magicians passing via New York, the Parlor has been in a position to appeal to talent from all above the globe including Francis Menotti, who did a challenging word trick the night time in advance of performing it on the CW exhibit “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” The Lindenhurst viewers was fooled even superior, so were Penn and Teller.

Above the several years, the clearly show has formulated a considerable fan foundation, spurred on by the level of popularity of magic on tv exhibits like “America’s Obtained Talent.” Carol-Lynne O’Pray of West Babylon seldom misses a functionality: On top of being entertained, she claims she loves supporting a regional organization. “You’re in no way disappointed,” she suggests.

For Tom Facchiano, it’s all about “making an attempt to determine out how they did it,” nevertheless he admits he hasn’t been able to consequently considerably. The Massapequa Park resident preferred the June clearly show so significantly that he returned in July with 11 mates.

AN Smart Audience

The audience is associated every single stage of the way, frequently called on to lend a ring, take a look at the toughness of a rope or decide on a card. Ted Plezia stresses that no one particular in the audience is ever ashamed and most are keen to participate. “It’s quite unusual nobody wishes to come up, they want to occur out and perform,” he states.

Even though Plezia believes magic provides the audience again to their childhood, this event is supposed for adults, although not mainly because of inappropriate product. July headliner Eric DeCamps notes that the ideas are extra esoteric than all those in a children’s show. At its greatest variety, he suggests, “magic is not just a craft, it’s an art form.” And really do not dismiss the feeling of surprise, says Torkova, taking the audience “out of their every day lives.”

DeCamps shut the current exhibit with an illusion he’s been doing work on for some 35 yrs, a difficult trick in which 3 cards chosen at random by the viewers in some way exhibit up below a glass dome. This form of shut-up parlor magic calls for pondering on the aspect of the folks seeing, he says. “The higher the intelligence of the viewers,” he claims, “the more the magic operates.”

But DeCamps is also sensible. “If I could do actual magic, I would not be here ideal now. I’d be sitting on a pot of gold.” His part, he claims, is to support individuals accept the illusion. “And if I do it correct,” he thinks, “it is magical.”

By Barbara Schuler
Special to Newsday
@schulerb

Barbara Schuler is Newsday’s theater critic, reviewing openings on and off Broadway as nicely as on the Island.