Dreaming of a Dan White Christmas: The Magician at the Nomad Hotel

An intriguing invitation

Theory11's Nomad Magician Deck

Imagine, after receiving a mysterious invitation, that you are walking down New York's Fifth Avenue, festooned with holiday decorations, on a brisk December evening.  You step out of the night air into the vestibule of a luxurious hotel, the kind featured in film noir detective movies.  You're greeted -- in a sense -- by a barefoot, pretty young woman in a diaphanous white dress.  She doesn't speak, but moves, as though in a trance, handing you a few playing cards and gesturing toward a lushly carpeted stairway.  More cards litter the stairs, and the hallway above, leading you,  like a trail of breadcrumbs, into a Victorian-era parlor decorated with posters from the golden age of magic.  After a few minutes, a mysterious old man enters, moving slowly onto the stage.  After he types a short letter, he places it into a battered chest,  which he hangs from the ceiling.

And the show hasn't even started yet.

Welcome to The Magician, one of New York's hottest shows.  Tickets to the event literally sell out in seconds after being posted on the web.  (The only reason I got so see it is that my wife endeavored for months to get tickets -- they were an amazing Christmas present!)

The star at the center of this mysterious universe is Dan White, an eminently likable and remarkably talented performer.   Though he performs in a 19th-Century setting, lit with Edison bulbs, he's as 21st Century as they come - a cool, funny, hip, irrestistable young performer.  During the course of the show, Mr. White proves himself to be a powerful mentalist, an adept cardician and an admirable illusionist.  This seemingly intimate show -- set in a parlor-style setting with a small audience -- packs an oversized punch.  During the proceedings, Mr. White literally read my mind, correctly divining a personal fact about me that he could not have learned by any ordinary means.  Indeed, his method -- about which I can only speculate -- appears to have been so extraordinary as to recall the legendary effects of the great Max Malini, who went to unimaginable lengths to work miracles.

Dan White (center) together with your
 reporter and Linda, who got the tickets!

So what does Mr. White offer during The Magician?  Well, dear readers, that is where my story ends. I will not reveal the marvels that await those lucky enough to get tickets, as it would be akin to spoiling the ending of an intricate murder mystery.   Because what Dan White performs during this show is, by and large, like nothing you have ever seen.  There are moments when it seems like he's employing  a traditional bit of magic -- like, say a Bank Night routine or a Himber Ring -- but then this fine performer twists it into something so very marvelous that it defies every expectation.

And through it all, he remains so affable that he holds the audience firmly in his grasp.  There's none of the smarmy "I'm smarter than you" approach to magic that has plagued our art for generations.  If you want to get a feel for his style, take a peek at this video of Dan White working with Jimmy Fallon:

This is fun, fresh, different and utterly mind-blowing.  If you're in New York, just go.

Courtesy Kardify.com

And now to the cards!  There's a whole deck of them, produced by Theory11 specifically for the show, and available at the theater and online here.  The folks at Theory11 poured their considerable artistic vision and skill into this pack.  It may be the most sumptuous deck of cards you'll ever hold.  In the photos, you can see the unbelievable tuck box, a custom Ace, the intricate back design and the marvelous Joker.  Try to get your hands on a deck before they're gone.

Stage magic has experienced a kind of renaissance in the past few years.  A wave of offerings by a group of rising stars, such as Mr. White, Derek DelGaudio, Helder Guimaraes, Harrison Greenbaum and Derren Brown have injected energy, intelligence and originality into magic, revitalizing it as an art form in the digital age.   With performers like these out there, we can expect even more amazing things to come.

Harrison Greenbaum's Stuck on You!

There's just one problem with Harrison Greenbaum's magic performances: he's just so funny that you're likely to forget -- or miss -- the subtlety and sophistication of his conjuring.            

But more on that in a moment - first I need to cover today's unusual offering.  The item depicted here is not a throwing card.   It is is business card-sized, but it is not a business card.  As its purveyor would likely shout in a mock-enraged stage rant "It's a sticker!"  And so it is.  For collectors, such an item should be highly sought after, as it is so very ephemeral (fans tend to apply and discard stickers, making them rare).   Showcasing a sticker is unusual without being unprecedented here:  we featured a sticker on the Bamberg page.

A second aspect of this keepsake also renders it unusual for its inclusion here: it makes no mention of magic.  Accompanying the genial portrait, the front reads "This is Harrison," followed by two notations "He does comedy" and, on the reverse "He likes you too."    The reverse lists a variety of social media references which have become so very important for contemporary performers, (which we'll examine in a subsequent post about Jeff McBride) particularly one that, like Mr. Greenbaum, offers more than 600 performances per year.  

And just like this collectible, Harrison Greenbaum defies easy categorization.  As a visit to his site, harrisongreenbaum.com, confirms, Harrison defines himself primarily as a comedian, which is where, unquestionably, he developed his performing chops. According to his bio, he began performing stand-up comedy while studying psychology and English at Harvard (a fact he often cites self-deprecatingly as part of his performances). A summa cum laude graduate, Harrison was the co-founder of the Harvard College Stand-Up Comic Society.  And he is a superlative comedian, featured on NBC's Last Comic Standing and America's Got Talent.   

Make no mistake, though, his conjuring skills are equally impressive.  Clues to his magic pedigree can be discerned from his bio -- he won an award at Harvard for his magic book collection.  Indeed, he maintains a separate magic website which includes the following magic credits:

Harrison offers his vision of the Mental Epic by Hen Fetch.

"As a magician, Harrison was named one of "today's best" by Newsday and tours around the world as one of the stars of The Illusionists: Direct from Broadway, the biggest selling magic show in history. The most requested performer at Monday Night Magic, the longest-running- Off-Broadway magic show in New York, Harrison has also performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, the Mystery Lounge in Boston, and was one of only 30 magicians chosen to perform at the International Festival of Magic, Illusion, and the Unusual in Louisville, Kentucky. He is also the proud winner of the Senator Crandall Award for Excellence in Comedy, given out annually at Abbott’s Magic Get-Together in Colon, Michigan. Harrison is a counselor at Tannen’s Magic Camp and has been an advisor to the Society of Young Magicians in Boston and New York for almost a decade."

At a recent performance at which he was the headliner, Harrison offered sophisticated, complex and beautiful magic pieces, accompanied by his frenetic comedy.  His set included some classics, such as his unique twist on the Mental Epic, a flawless and funny newspaper tear, a bizarre and hilarious add-a-number routine and a celebrity prediction that still has me scratching my head.  His effects were thematically linked in a nuanced way that nearly escaped my notice amid his razor-sharp wit, performing energy and gales of laughter.

At one point,  Harrison unleashed a sticker upon a particularly quirky audience volunteer (a man who claimed to be from Australia, Los Angeles and New York, and who proved incapable of describing his very strange job).  The spectator was clad in a tee shirt featuring a portrait of a snarling tiger.   The performer produced a sticker, peeled it and pasted it over the tiger's face.  "There, see, now it's not so scary!  My sticker helped," he quipped, in a tone of faux-derision, but belying the performer's efforts to not break out laughing.  "It's a picture of me, not of that scary tiger!"

After the show, Harrison let me in on his plan -- which he has since shared with his fans via a posting -- to have his fine portrait made into a lapel pin, and was choosing between the following designs:

Harrison explained that these can be produced at a modest cost.  When they come out, I'll want one!

I first encountered Harrison at Monday Night Magic, a permanent magic venue founded by my friend Michael Chaut.  In creating Monday Night Magic, Chaut was able to accomplish what others -- including top performers from magic's heyday like Houdini and Carter the Great -- could not: he established a permanent venue for magic in New York City.  Monday Night Magic has been running for more than two decades, powered by the energy of performers like Greenbaum.  Just a note to those in or around New York City, and those planning a visit -- go see Monday Night Magic.  If you check the schedule, you might catch Harrison Greenbaum there!  You won't regret it!

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Postscript - December 2017

After sharing this post with Harrison, he kindly send me one of his new pins, hot off the press (and, in his words, that's assuming that lapel pins are made on presses!).  It's a terrific keepsake.  Take a look:

The card on the left is a business card on which the pin is mounted over his face!  Thanks again, Harrison!