Expect magician to conjure something special for Knoxville audience
By Zac Fallon
It’s not just a figment of your imagination: One of the most popular magicians in the world will be in Knoxville this week when Michael Carbonaro brings the live version of his theatrical stylings to the Civic Auditorium on Friday, Nov. 15.
The newest season of truTV’s hidden-camera magic series “The Carbonaro Effect” premiered earlier this month. In it, the show’s namesake star takes up a position at a business, usually posing as an hourly employee. There, with a deadpan delivery, he demonstrates before unsuspecting customers close-up magic miracles, afterwards dismissing them as new technology or ignoring them completely. Ahead of Friday’s Knoxville appearance, BLANK was able to chat with the illusionist to find out how a hidden-camera TV show translates to a live performance.
Carbonaro explains how he addresses the glaring difference between performing magic for unsuspecting passersby in a public yet controlled environment and in front of excited ticketholders in a setting where he already is the focus. “It’s something that people want to see in person,” he says, simply. “Magic needs a live outlet.”
And that live show tries to capture the same energy as his TV show. Carbonaro says that there is at least one trick in the same familiar style of his TV show, just so the audience gets a chance to experience it firsthand. Even without the element of a hidden camera, “you get the same energy with audience participants,” he says. “They still don’t know what’s coming, and I never know just what they’ll do.”
Carbonaro has been pleased with the people attending his tour thus far. “The crowds are really inspired,” he says. “There’s such diversity amongst the audience,” he adds, noting that all age groups have been well-represented. He genuinely seems almost giddy, too, at the thought of being the first live production that some of his audience members will see: “Families watch [the TV show] together, then come to the [live] show.”
The magician also seems excited to break the TV barrier between himself and his skeptical fans. “As a performer today – especially with magic – you need television, but with magic and television there is complete distrust,” he says. “Even die-hard fans want to see if you can do this for real.”
When asked to briefly define the art form, Carbonaro replies, “Magic is believing something you hoped was possible but knew was not.” Questioned about the favorite part of a performance, he excitedly says that it’s “seeing people experience that ‘magic moment.’”
Carbonaro assures me that he and his crew have worked hard to make sure that this show is one that the whole family can enjoy. To that end, he says that it is not as high-stakes as it once was. He relates the story of a past performance of a trick in which he hid an upright knife inside of one of several paper bags. He then eliminated the bags one at a time by slamming his hand down onto the table, crushing them.
“And I messed up,” he sighs. “And I had to get stitches, and I don’t do that trick anymore.”
It is important to note that this won’t be just a magic show. In the course of our short conversation, Carbonaro hints at elements of improv, animal handling and even some otherworldly live sculpting. An experienced variety performer, he labels himself an entertainer rather than trying to pigeonhole himself into a smaller, more limited role. When he comes through Knoxville, he’ll be flexing all the muscles he’s built up over a long and successful career.
To that point, although Carbonaro is best known as a TV magician, he’s no stranger to live entertainment in general. He studied experimental theater at NYU, where he specialized in makeup effects. On Halloween of this year, he took to Facebook Live to deliver a dramatic recitation of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” seemingly from memory and with remarkable precision.
“This tour is a great chance for people to learn a lot about me,” he says, keen to explore other avenues that lead to similar projects. “I want to expand on my love of theatricality,” he says when asked about his future plans.
One of Carbonaro’s first substantial breaks came in the form of a recurring segment (“Magic Clerk,” on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”) that began in 2003. The bits eventually led to “The Carbonaro Effect” being pitched and then created as a standalone series, now in its fifth season.
When asked if he has any advice for young magicians who might want to follow in his footsteps, Carbonaro, without missing a beat, says, “Performance is a kind of seduction, a relationship between you and the crowd.” For his response to be so automatic and more like a warning than advice, it would appear clear that Michael Carbonaro isn’t just a TV magician and that Knoxville is in store for something special on Friday night.
Tickets for the 7 p.m. all-ages show start at $37 and are available through ticketmaster.com or at the box office.
