It was a Wednesday, early evening, and a portion of the 5000 block of N. Clark Street contained a line of people waiting to get into the doorway of 5050, the entrance to a remarkable entertainment emporium called the Chicago Magic Lounge. They were old and young, all different sorts and, perhaps, even differing political persuasions, but all eagerly awaiting to be amazed.
Many were there to see David Parr, a magician of immense talent and the Wednesday night headliner through September. Some were there because the venue is as eye-catching and delightful as any in town.
My colleague Chris Jones, a big magic fan, visited the place when it opened in 2018 (with Parr as a resident performer), writing that it was a “memorabilia-filled complex is a big upgrade in magic-dom for our town” and mentioning such charming and creative elements as the magic-related books, posters and artifacts, various performances areas …
There are, before the main act, magicians wandering among tables doing tricks. There are … Well there is nothing like this in Chicago or anywhere else I can think of and Parr is happy to be back. He knows Chicago audiences and they know him.
“Third time I’ve seen him,” said Sammy Nolan, a self-described “30-something paralegal from Lakeview” out with two friends. “He was just on TV. Did you see him?”
I did, as a matter of fact. He appeared in 2017 on the crafty and entertaining “Fool Us” program hosted by magicians/showmen Penn and Teller. His “Does This Trick Ring a Bell?,” which involved two decks of cards and a tiny bell, did indeed fool the hosts.
“I had been pitching ideas to the show for some time and, frankly, I was reluctant to suggest a card trick,” he says. “Think about it. Penn and Teller have probably seen hundreds, maybe thousands of card tricks.”
He is understandably happy that the pair selected his trick, happier still that they were fooled, and thrilled by the long road he is still traveling.
“It started with the gift of a magic set when I was 7,” he told me. “There was something so special about it all, pouring over secret information in my room. I was not alone though, since I would learn that for a lot of kids, say 7 to 14, times are turbulent and there is something about being able to baffle an adult, to have them say, ‘How’s you do that?’”
“It was not a symbolic power,” he says. “It was real power.”
And he was hooked. Within only a few years he was working, a pint-sized performer getting paid modest fees to entertain at libraries in and around his hometown of Milwaukee. One set of his grandparents lived in Evanston and frequent visits with them exposed him to the rich and active magic community here. “Chicago was the major hub,” he says, and will go on to mention such bygone practitioners as Jay Marshall, who operated Magic Inc., a North Side treasure trove of a store.
Parr became a practitioner of what is known as “close-up magic,” (also known as Chicago-style, says Parr), an intimate form of the art that was long performed at such places as Schulien’s, or Mr. C’s in Berwyn.
We both remembered what Marshall often told people who would ask him, “What is a magician?” Marshall would answer, “A magician is someone who never let go of the sense of wonder all kids have.”
In the same way that Chicago influenced Parr, so did it provide a nurturing and comfortable home for his talents. He, with a partner and on his own, performed the weekly show “The Magic Cabaret” at the Greenhouse Theater Center for a decade. He traveled the country, performing and lecturing. He told me some years ago, “As we all become more and more technologically sophisticated, and our knowledge of the world expands. Our hunger for the mysterious increases. And magic is able to give us that, that feeling of awe and wonder.”
Now, he’s back with “Magical Thinking” and he is more polished than ever.
Parr is not only a great magician but a polished storyteller and energetic “collaborator” with those he plucks from the cocktail-drinking, food-munching crowd.
“The state of magic is very healthy,” he says. “There is a renaissance going on and I say this based on what I observe when I travel and speak at conventions. I look out at the audience and increasingly I see the faces of an increasing number of women, people of color, young people.”
And he sees the same faces in the Magic Lounge crowd, all of them smiling.
“Magical Thinking” is 7 p.m. Wednesdays at Chicago Magic Lounge, 5050 N. Clark St.; tickets $42-$47.50 www.chicagomagiclounge.com
rkogan@chicagotribune.com