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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Multiple illusions: Seven magicians share INB stage

Kevin James is the guy who got into magic as a kid, when he saw a show of what he realizes now was pretty standard material.

“It just sang to me,” he said. “For me, as a 10-year-old who had never seen anything like it before, a magical world opened up. It wasn’t a passing phase. … It hit me hard and fast.”

Magic became not only a hobby, but a vocation. He put himself through college doing “magic bartending,” he said. He moved to L.A. after leaving school and worked to create a stage act that people wanted to see. It took time, but it eventually clicked. He’s gone on to develop illusions for David Copperfield and have long runs at the Crazy Horse in Paris and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He was a contestant on the second season of “America’s Got Talent.”

Now he’s coming to Spokane this weekend as part of the magical supergroup known as the Illusionists.

The Illusionists are seven world-class magicians, each with a different persona. James is the Inventor, with his fondness for gadgets. There’s also the Anti-Conjuror (Dan Sperry), the Manipulator (Yu Ho-Jin), the Escapeologist (Andrew Basso), the Trickster (Jeff Hobson), the Weapon Master (Ben Blaque) and the Deceptionist (James More).

The show started as a three-week run at the Sydney Opera House. “We had no idea it would be this successful,” James said. “For us it was a three-week gig.” They’ve gone on to perform as the Illusionists on Broadway and London’s West End.

The appeal, James said, is the chance to see seven top magicians all doing their best stuff in one sitting. “So rather than see one performer for two hours, like Copperfield … where you get the same vibe the whole show, here it’s like a big smorgasbord,” he said. “If you get into something you don’t like, three minutes later there will be something you do like. It’s a very fast-paced show. Very high energy. Funny, too.”

James said he’ll do four or five bits in a show, all created by him, and he aims to find an emotional hook for each one. “One of them is shocking. One of them is really sweet. One is nostalgic,” he said, then pauses before chuckling. “I change the weather in the theater.”

That’s quite a story arc from his childhood days, when he learned magic the old-fashioned, pre-Internet way.

“It was me and six library books,” James said. “I was the only one checking them out over and over again.”

The nearest magic shop was an hour away from his small Michigan hometown. He begged his parents to drive them there. “It was an amazing old magic shop that was started in the 1930s. It has the creaky floorboards and the musty smell. They had magic posters, old time lithographs that old-time magicians used to use to promote their shows. … And walls of books.”

The shop hosted a yearly convention, and his patient parents would take him every year. He made lifelong friends there, including with Jeff Hobson, who is the Illusionists’ Trickster.

“Hobson … is super funny, and he’s consistently making people cry with laughter,” James said.

The Illusionists is not a kids’ show, but it’s kid-friendly, James said.

“Kids will dig it and it’s something grandparents can take their grandkids to, and enjoy it. But don’t expect Ho Ho the Magic Clown out there,” he said. “It’s a beautiful, fun show, high energy … and magic transcends all barriers.”