We introduced you to Andrew Pinard and his traveling show, Discovering Magic, last year, when he first came to Red River Theatres. This fall he’s back for more, with a ton of new shows ready to mesmerize. To tell the rest of the story, we’ll turn it over to our lovely assistant. Her name is Press Release.
Discovering Magic, the “mind-numbing, jaw-dropping, eye-opening” experience that takes audiences on a guided tour of the impossible and the absurd, is back for its second year. Using only the most ordinary of objects, accomplished actor, conjuror, puppeteer, storyteller, and award-winning performer Andrew Pinard brings the ordinary to life with the most surprising results. The only show of its kind in the New England, audiences have traveled from Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire to experience sleight of hand, con games, psychology, history, science, comedy, cognitive development, political spin, and more through the eyes of a “perceptual engineer” on his quest to explore distortion and guile.
While the day has changed (shows are now on the third Wednesday of each month through June), the goal remains the same: to give audiences a truly unique experience and insight into how remarkable human perception and interpretation can be. You can expect to see more of the things audiences have loved: different shows each month, cool perceptual experiments on the back of the program, magic history “moments” and The Mystery Box (giving audiences even more control over the show). There are also some exciting new things planned for the coming series. While we don’t want to give away all the surprises, there may (or may not) be: special guests, interactive mysteries, film clips of great performers of the past, online discussions with magic celebrities, lessons on con games and bar bets, mind reading, precognition and other fun (then again, this could all be a con – it’s a mystery)!
“Magic occurs when audiences are engaged emotionally and intellectually in a gentle tug of war between what is possible and what may be possible,” Pinard said. “I think of the experience as transcending reality. The main tools in my bag of tricks are imagination and expectation, both of which are provided by the audience. I look at each performance as an episode in a series. In our first year, I featured classic con games, historic magic and introduced audiences to some iconic performers that they may never have heard of, but whose work influenced me and thousands of other magicians. In the upcoming season, I have plans to introduce some new surprises in our quest to discover magic.”
All performances begin at 8 p.m. at Red River Theatres. For more information, call Red River at 224-4697. Tickets are $15 per person and are available online at redrivertheatres.org or at the door (limited seating available). For more information on Andrew Pinard please visit absomagic.com.
