Though he grew up in Rensselaer, Kevin Spencer has taken his “Theatre of Illusion” around the world. “I travel most of the time,” Spencer said in a telephone interview Jan. 12. “I just got back from five weeks of touring in Europe.” Spencers Theatre of Illusion, sponsored locally by Biomet, is coming to the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults, and $5 for students 18 and younger. To order tickets, stop by the WCHS PAC box office from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, or call 574-371-5040. The box office accepts Visa, Mastercard and Discover by phone. “Our show is such a non-traditional approach to magic,” Spencer said. He saw his first magic act on television when he was 5 years old. At 8, his parents bought him his first magic kit for Christmas. Spencer kept doing magic through high school and college, but it was just a hobby. He earned his degree in clinical psychology. Spencer saw Doug Henning perform at the Holiday Star Theatre in Merrillville while Spencer was still in college. Henning was very popular at the time, and different than the other magicians of the day, Spencer said. The others were dark, but Henning was bright and colorful and light, almost a hippie. “He made magic respectful again,” Spencer said. “I decided then that was what I wanted to do.” He set out to do a different kind of magic show. It’s the “Theatre of Illusion,” he said, because it combines his love for theater and illusion. Spencer doesn’t like magicians who try to play “gotcha” on their audiences or try to “fool” their audience. He said a magic show should be about making audiences believe in the impossible. His shows are put together with elements of theater and rock concerts. Magic is the medium that moves it along. “I try to do things that are a little bit different,” he said. Spencer tries to recreate old magic tricks in new ways, or create all new magic tricks. One of the illusions that he does is walking through a concrete wall. Houdini did the trick in 1914, and did it in his shows for a short time. Then Houdini stopped doing it and no one knows why he stopped. Since then, Spencer said, no magician has attempted to do that trick. “We recreate it, but in a different way for the 21st Century,” Spencer said. When audiences arrive to the show, they can check out the eight to 10 concrete blocks. During the act, a member of the audience is invited on stage to investigate the trick further. While the audience member holds on to the brick wall, Spencer walks right through it. Spencers Theatre of Illusion is very interactive. “One of my favorite parts is using people from the audience. They don’t have to worry about being made to look like a fool. I will treat them with respect. I want to bring them up close and personal so people can ask them after the show what happened,” Spencer said. There are two kinds of people who come to his shows, he said. One type of person will just want to sit back and watch the show and be entertained. The other type is the person who tries to figure out how each trick is done. Both types help make the show more enjoyable, he said. “If you love David Copperfield,” Spencer said, “you’ll love our show. David Copperfield is a really good friend of mine.” To put on the show, Spencer and his wife Cindy travel with a crew and 40 tons of equipment. It takes seven hours to set up for the two-hour show, and 1-1/2 hours to tear it all down. Besides the walking through a wall illusion, Spencer said his show does the kind of things people expect magicians to do like cut people in half. He pulls his body right through a whirling fan. Some of his illusions are tricks he’s picked up from around the world. “You will see a lot of stuff you’ve never seen before. Even if you don’t like magic, you will enjoy this show,” Spencer said. “We put this show together with adults in mind, but it’s very family friendly.” Spencer is able to use his magic to help others.In 1984, the Spencers founded the “Healing of Magic”, a program that takes them to hospitals and rehabilitation facilities to teach simple magic tricks to victims of stroke, spinal cord and head injuries, learning disabilities and other maladies. The day before the Spencers’ show at the WCHS PAC, the Spencers will bring their “Hocus Focus” program, an offshoot of “Healing of Magic”, to WCHS to work with the special needs students. “Hocus Focus” uses simple magic tricks to help special needs students develop cognitive, motor and social skills, Spencer said. It is done in a fun way. The programs were born out of a car accident Spencer had. The doctors wondered if he would ever walk again. He spent a year in therapy and found it to be boring. He asked his therapist if there was a better way of doing it. Eventually, he came to realize that learning magic tricks could accomplish the same thing in therapy. Since people will practice magic tricks over and over again, it also is more fun than putting pegs in holes. Now, Spencer said, more than 2,500 rehabilitation centers around the world make use of his programs. For more information about Spencers Theatre of Illusion, visit online at spencersmagic.com or www.youtube.com/spencersmagic
