Champions of Magic: Holiday Spectacular . December 27, 2025 to January 4, 2026, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre.
Four young children, fascinated by the magic of Vegas where airplanes disappeared and tigers were tamed, grew up and got together to create a magic ensemble show, and since 2013, they’ve been honing their craft to create a full 90-min show where magic, along with their personalities, openness, and charisma, has ensnared their audience through high-energy, endearing entertainment.
This year’s Holiday Spectacular tour had a week-long run at the Bluma Appel Theatre, each show packed with all-ages, from little children in full-geared Christmas costumes, to grans in their sturdy winter boots. And the house’s enthusiasm and focus on this foursome weaving different narratives along with continuous magic tricks, made this a very special experience.
Young & Strange
The Young & Strange duo met at age 8, has a great stage dynamic — like that goofy high school duo, always up to amuse and bemuse their friends at any, and every opportunity. Their ongoing sleight-of-hand tricks with green and red lights added much fun throughout the show; these magically appearing and disappearing lights, one of the oldest tricks, was truly charming. When they sparred with one another — whether it be jovial verbal punches, or small tricks, the audience reciprocated with genuine laughter and enthusiasm.
In fact, this may have been the biggest and the most important part of the show — the human connection.
First Half
Liberty Larsen, a fourth-generation magician of the Larsen family, famous for the Magic Castle and the Academy of Magical Arts in Los Angeles, joined in as a gentle witch in a dark forest, becoming a woman gently telling her family story — initially through a child’s eyes surrounded by illusion and tricks — and now, as a grown seasoned performer, entertaining the audience with deft hands and house-of-card tricks.
Her participation in grand illusions — being ‘taken away,’ disappearing, being magically sawn in half in a mystery box — was of true old school charm.
Fernando Velasco — a specialist escapologist who became the youngest to perform his own take on ‘Houdini’s Water Torture Cell’ — was especially busy in the final acts, performing many tricks on the clear box sawing illusion (known as ‘Crystal Sawing’).
One of his tricks, performed with three collected rings from the audience, magically linking and then unlinking them, was particularly entertaining, especially with a live roving camera on the participating audience members, revealing their surprise and joy, in close-up, of Velasco’s wizardry.
Starting with some sleight of hand, a pingpong machine gun and group psychic manipulation, the foursome got the audience involved right away with their signature high-energy, audience participation opener, with a great finish where a randomly selected audience member was presented with a gift, for choosing a sequence of seemingly impossible matching numbers.
From there, the show was divided into different chapters, featuring a variety of magic themes and distinctive atmospheres, created through careful lighting and sound effects. Mentalism, cardistry, grand illusions and escapology were all part of the program, and their references to the megaproduction of Vegas magic shows revealed plenty of nostalgia and old-school charm to the older audiences who would remember them vividly — David Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy, and many more.
Second Half
Especially charming was the audience participation Christmas party right after the intermission — four audience members were invited to join the stage.
Each had a trick set to perform: Larsen magically painting an upside-down Chaplin, and Strange (who kept winning all the interesting drinkies, leaving his guest with orange juice after orange juice) was particularly entertaining.
Magic shows, like many other performance arts, occupy a bizarre place in this 21st century. There are so many videos and online explanations of how illusions are created. There are so many sources to learn little hand tricks, and virtually any magic kit can be bought online and delivered right to one’s own door. And, there are so many surpassing-real-life screen effects, done so well, to a degree of hyper-realism — so what makes us continue to come back to the theatre, for these old-school shows?
Live shows are suffering — all theatres and performing houses are struggling to get their audiences back. Magic shows, unlike traditional concerts or theatre plays, have become a truly minor interest. However, the delight of the audience — in particular, the participating boys where one of them was mysteriously transported up, and presented from the balcony, accompanied with bright lights and golden confetti — such joy cannot be replicable in any other way.
It happens in the house, with everyone participating, and investing in it emotionally.
Final Thoughts
The Champions of Magic: Holiday Spectacular, was a fantastic show, with genuine warmth, a mix of good old illusions from mentalist tricks to the sword cabinet (this time, done with a cardboard box and bunch of sticks) then all the way up to polished, fast-revolving big sawing jaws, and back to good humour and a constant element of comedy.
When we are thriving for zero-fault, never-fail, sleek, better-than-life experiences, the foursome brought us the joy of being there, and the joy of trusting your performers.
Talking about how the trick works is not the point. Letting them take us to (nearly) unbelievable illusions, and being part of the excitement of each successful execution, is such a lovely experience.
In this digital ‘magic’ world, if you ever get the chance to to see real magicians and illusionists, please take the time, and go, and return to the times where we allowed ourselves to be taken away from reality, with a real sense of wonder.
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