Enter the World of a Magician’s Mind with ‘Six Impossible Things’ (The NoPro Review)

by Kathryn Yu
Kathryn Yu
•
November 6, 2018
•
4 min read

Joshua Jay’s magic show at Wildrence plays with the possibilities of the form

This can’t possibly be happening, I think to myself.

There’s an object in my hand.

It’s doing something that I, intellectually, know to be physically impossible.

But I can feel it doing the not possible thing.

The magician Joshua Jay has conjured an amazing trick. One that has the entire room gasping and trying to rationalize what is happening.

Each one of us has our own version of The Impossible Thing. We’re reacting simultaneously, as we each hold The Impossible Thing in our hands.

How is he doing this?

This is literally impossible, I think.

And yet, there it is. In the palm of my hand.

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The Impossible Thing.

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

It’s hard to describe Six Impossible Things without giving too much away. In fact, what I’ve already written could be counted as a spoiler by some. But what I will say is that this magic show is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before: six magic tricks but delivered in a very unusual way.

Imagine a magic show but without the stage. Take it outside of a traditional theater space. Shrink down the audience to a very, very small size: a mere twenty people. Have the magician perform magic inches away from the audience: up close and vulnerable and under scrutiny. We are in his space; he is in ours.

Now turn this magic show into a site-specific, promenade experience: one that relies on winding corridors and multiple spaces supporting the story. Each sleight of hand trick or card trick that Jay does during the show is tailored to that specific room. I’m reminded of the statement that any time you tell a story and move a participant through space and time, it begins to feel more like a journey they’re on, as opposed to something they’re just passively observing. The audience in Six Impossible Things moves from room to room between scenes and even the transitions themselves hold a bit of magic; there are subtle changes between tricks that only the keenest of observers might notice.

“It is, to my knowledge, the first magic show where the content is created around the environments,” says Jay, who prefers to describe the show as “experiential” as opposed to “immersive.” One of the spaces I find myself in is a cozy living room and kitchen, perfect for a magician’s retelling of learning his first magic trick at the age of six. And one of the other spaces feels like stepping into a real-life children’s book, the walls covered with a series of whimsical murals by famed artist Serge Bloch — murals which turn out to have more secrets than obvious at first glance. It is here where we hear tales of authors and explorers and learn how you can turn an everyday colander into a starry night sky. (But that’s not all. There’s a third space where magic is performed. And, well… you’ll just have to visit the show to see it.)

Like all magic shows: it is interactive. Six Impossible Things could not happen without audience participation. The show needs the audience in order to happen. “If you’re doing magic alone, you’re just practicing,” says Jay. And Six Impossible Things is different every single night, which is something that many immersive and interactive productions strive for but often never quite reach.

And if you go (and you should go), do make sure you pay attention the first time around, because this show does not allow repeat visitors. Jay knows that he’s got a single chance to impress the audience and no trick ever lands quite the same the second time. That initial moment of surprise can never be recreated. And due to the size of the show, the creators would like as many people as possible to experience it, which I heartily applaud. It’s also refreshing to hear a creator embrace these constraints and not rely upon a second visit as a crutch to truly understand what’s happening.

The six illusions and stories presented in Six Impossible Things are wondrous and entertaining, but don’t necessarily all connect with one another; so don’t go into the show expecting a single narrative thread throughout. But there’s a significance to a magic show that’s less about spectacle and more about storytelling and connecting with individuals, as they move through a designed environment.

Six Impossible Things is like peeking into a magician’s mind. We are traveling inside Joshua Jay’s head and we are surrounded by his world of memories and illusions. You won’t find any disappearing elephants or levitating people here, but what you will find is intimate, charming, and full of wonder.