Music, media and entertainment---how you want,
when you want, where you want.
«  
  »
S M T W T F S
 
 
1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31
 
 
 

A Young Magician Has Been Secretly Perfecting His Act for Years. Now He’s Ready to Make History.

Tags: texas
DATE POSTED:July 13, 2025
Eric Chien illustrationOne hundred and forty-three years ago, on a dimly lit stage at the Berlin national theater, a Bavarian carpet maker turned director named Max Auzinger observed something that would change his life—and the craft of magic—forever. During a rehearsal for a dungeon scene, he saw that an actor in makeup to play a Moor virtually disappeared in the darkness, so that only the performer’s eyes and teeth were visible. Auzinger was stunned. By using a black background and a black object or cloth, he realized, one could make props seem to appear, disappear, and even levitate. Three years later, in 1885, after perfecting revolutionary methods of concealment and manipulation of light and shadow, he performed for the first time as the character Ben Ali Bey.…

The post A Young Magician Has Been Secretly Perfecting His Act for Years. Now He’s Ready to Make History. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Tags: texas