Just in time for the holidays, local magician Jeffrey Day presents his take on Christmas magic with his one-man-show magic routine, based on magicians and mesmerists of the 19th century, at Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum this Saturday.
Day knew that the Victorian-era house, which was built in 1871, would be the perfect setting to present the routine he’s been honing for years.
“Magic is older than dance or music,” he says. “It goes back much before then. And in the 19th century, it became very elegant. That’s when magic really, really changed. And I wanted to perform my show in a place that would be suitable for it. The Fontaine House is like no other stage I’ve ever been on, and it’s a beautiful place to perform this kind of magic.”
Kathy Kalagias
Oh, oh, oh, it’s magic!
Day will perform mesmerist and mentalist tricks developed around hidden magic found in books and manuscripts of the 19th century and the works of magicians like Ehrich Weiss (otherwise known as Harry Houdini), Harry Kellar, and Howard Thurston.
During one trick, Day will show his mind-reading talents using the 19th century book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as a medium to determine what word a volunteer from the audience is thinking. Between this and other illusions involving more mind-reading tricks and Chinese linking rings, Day says the audience may be able to step back in time, not only to the Golden Age of Magic, but perhaps to their days of innocence, as well.
“I think the audience wants that sense of wonder,” he says. “And magic takes them back to their childhoods.”
The Mesmerist by Jeffrey Day, Woodruff-Fontaine House Museum, Saturday, December 14th, 7-8:30 p.m., $50.