Monday magic shows enchant weary students

Mondays are mean, anxiety-inducing days—especially for Columbians, and especially now. In approximately two weeks, Columbia students will attend their final classes of the semester. In three weeks, that bone-crushing, fire-breathing, (potentially) GPA-blighting beast that is finals will appear, destroying students’ sleep patterns and general sense of well-being. To remind students (including myself) that Mondays do indeed possess some redeeming qualities, I scoured the city in search of some beginning-of-the-week entertainment, and boy, did I strike gold. Allow me to introduce you to a whole new world, one in which Mondays are a beacon of hope, instead of an emblem of evil. I’ve found a fantastical Monday you can believe in.

Earnest and unabashed belief in magic is encouraged during childhood—parents feed their kids captivating fairy tales, urge them to leave snacks for Santa Claus, or report sightings of the tooth fairy. Then we grow up, grow cynical, and become completely disillusioned. Monday Night Magic, New York’s longest-running off-Broadway magic show, recreates and refines the enchantment so often lost during the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

Walking into NoHo’s Bleecker Street Theatre, home of MNM, I was a wee bit skeptical. I wondered what the audience would be like. Could card tricks and sleight of hand sustain my attention for more than a few minutes? Once inside the cozy auditorium, I assessed the fellow spectators—a few families turned up for the show, but most of the crowd was composed of adults. Jocular host Jamy Ian Swiss welcomed us, provided a brief introduction to MNM, and performed a few clever tricks of his own before introducing seasoned sleight-of-hand artist Michael Chaut, founding producer of MNM. Urbane, with a delightfully wry sense of humor, Chaut’s personality was as engrossing as his presentation. Throughout his performance, Chaut would act as if he were going to dismantle the magic involved in a particular trick to explain how it worked, then wow the audience by taking the trick to another level, confounding any sense of understanding we believed we’d gained.

Comedian, magician, and balloon sculptor John Cassidy followed Chaut. Cassidy was hilarious—actually, beyond hilarious. With his protuberant eyes and crazy antics, this act was gut-busting, laugh-so-hard-you-cry funny. Recorded in Guinness World Records as the world’s fastest balloon sculptor, Cassidy offered some of the wildest balloon creations to the audience—I’m talking stripper-on-a-pole, alien-on-a-bicycle balloons. One poor preteen who eagerly accepted the stripper balloon was brought on stage and tortured (to the audience’s amusement) for 20 minutes. With his scarily wide eyes, Cassidy urged the kid to reach inside a bag “full of candy,” and the kid—suspicious and hesitant—extended his hand toward the bag, then forcefully retracted it when a small blast of fire emerged. Seriously, Cassidy seemed borderline insane (and I mean this in the best way possible). He blew up a balloon with his nose. You must Google this man.

The final performer was Rocco, a conjurer with a Mediterranean charm (despite the fact that he was born in Jersey). Relying only on a small lighter, Rocco transformed cigarettes into so many different items—marshmallows, sticks of spearmint gum, and various other edible substances. I was flabbergasted.

After the show, I went to dinner with Chaut and another audience member (a lovely singer/songwriter/social worker with whom I instantly bonded over our shared Midwestern roots). Shortly after our arrival at the Noho Star, a couple other entertainers joined us for dinner—two members of the Ringling Brothers Circus: the second-youngest ringmaster to work for Ringling, and a Brazilian woman who dances with elephants. It was, unequivocally, the most interesting Monday evening I’ve ever had.

Bleecker Street Theatre is located at 45 Bleecker St. Discount tickets to MNM cost $34 and are available until 24 hours prior to show time. Regular tickets cost $39. Visit mondaynightmagic.com and subscribe to the MNM mailing list to receive a complimentary ticket.

Nneka McGuire is a Columbia College junior majoring in creative writing. The Fun, the Fantastical, and the Freakish runs alternate Fridays.