For the uninitiated like I was, just entering the Chicago Magic Lounge on a chilly Wednesday evening was a thrill. Via a secret door, the faux-laundromat entry gives way to a luxe theater both steeped in history with posters of illusionists past and very much alive with a small army of close-up magicians working the […]
Tag: Chicago Magic Lounge
Silent film at the Davis, Sudan Archives, and more
Magician Paige Thompson takes over the artist-in-residence slot at Chicago Magic Lounge (5050 N. Clark) with her show A Paige in Time, opening tonight at 7 PM and running Wednesdays through 12/21. Thompson combines autobiography with sleight-of-hand to illustrate the moments “that have motivated her to pursue her passion and fuel the inspiration for her […]
Fantastic beast
When Luis Carreon takes the stage at the Chicago Magic Lounge, he’s pure old-school vaudeville, an elegant throwback in silver-toed boots and a tuxedo subtly imprinted with crushed velvet roses. He swoops around the stage to the beat of swirling music, spinning gold from fire and pulling rose petals from a fluttering deep-purple handkerchief. It’s […]
Poetry, radical love, and snacks
Another slate of both online and in-person events for this weekend and beyond. For anything that makes you leave your house, please be smart and check both the weather report (hello late winter and early spring Chicago with your fickle ways!) and the venue’s safety restrictions (to mask or not to mask, tis one of […]
Heights of illusion
The sight is already a bit of a tell: steps away from boutiques, antiques, bars, and restaurants, a cramped and dingy laundromat with no hot waft of Breeze or Bounty stands unattended, garments whirling entropically, no clean to be achieved. A pink phone with no dial tone, a bell with no service, and yet an […]
October is golden
The Reader turns 50 today, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate our golden anniversary than by checking out some of the events that give our city (and surrounding areas) a cultural glow and make us happy to be here. Cheers! Fri 10/1: Fall is here and Pride has returned! This weekend […]
August abundance
The torpor-inducing temperatures seem to be cooling down, so it’s a good time to get out and about. Here are some mid-August events worth looking into. Fri-Sun 8/13-8/15 (and through 8/29): High school can be fraught, as so many teen dramedies have taught us. School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play, Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy […]
Pure Lies gives us magic with a touch of malarkey
Trent James lights up Wednesdays at the Chicago Magic Lounge.
Some of the best entertainment in the city this week is at Potter & Potter’s automata auction
Wind ’em up and watch ’em make magic.
It’s 1893 all over again in “Sean Masterson’s Timeless Magic”
The acts are up close and personal, but the magic feels real at the Chicago Magic Lounge.
The Incredible Jan Rose and Alba transform magic into a women’s game
The two magicians headline the Chicago Magic Lounge this month.
Step inside David Parr’s Cabinet of Curiosities
The magic goes beyond what you see onstage.
The resurgence of magic in Chicago is no illusion
A survey of Chicago magic’s illustrious past, reemergent present—and the woman who could be its future
A brief, wondrous history of Chicago magic
New York had Broadway. LA had Hollywood. Chicago had magic.