Magic entertains – can
it also transform us?
As a professional
Magician, Actor and Storyteller I often hear my San Francisco Magic Parlor
guests remark they considered magic as entertainment “just for the kids.”
That’s before they
attended a performance of “Magical Tales of San Francisco” in our Magic Parlor
theatre. Our magical mission is to bring a sense of Wonder and Enchantment –things
lost to many of us since childhood– to San Francisco Bay Area residents and our
city’s visitors from around the world. All the grown-up locals and tourists!
We live in an
increasingly difficult and challenging world. In the past few decades the
frantic buzz of instant communication bombards our senses from the moment we
wake until we climb into bed.
Every horror, atrocity,
tragic story, and example of appalling government or corporate behavior –circling
every inch of the globe– instantly appear before our eyes.
Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo, Television, Hulu, electronic billboards …even
the phones in our pocket relentlessly bombard us with heart twisting stories
and painful graphic images.
Even a few years
ago this was not the epidemic it is today. Every morning the assault becomes
more pronounced. There are no signs of letting up… only escalation.
Faced with this incessant
input of “reality” stress levels, blood pressure, panic and depression soar. Addictions
to food and alcohol numb the global media input, but to our detriment.
What does this have to do with MAGIC?
As adults we desperately
need to believe in the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus again… far,
far more than our children. We have a societal and primal desire to recapture
that innocence of Wonder and Enchantment. There’s dedication to recapturing an appreciation
of the Impossible– as grown-ups– and experience the innocence we felt as
children.
We need a quiet vacation–
if only for an hour or so, to relax, regroup, and sooth our jagged nerves. Allow
our walls of defense, cynicism, dread, maybe even panic, to dissolve into
relaxation and openness. Put our deadlines and responsibilities behind us.
In our Parlor …Magic becomes… Magical!
When first entering
the San Francisco Magic Parlor you are transported to the early 19th Century. Our
whimsical theater evokes old San Francisco and a gracious and leisurely era
called La Belle Époque –the beautiful time– a brief moment in history when
wealthy Europeans dined at Maxim’s and frolicked at Moulin Rouge. A moment remembered
as a renaissance of art, music, theatre, and culture.
As you turn off
your cell-phone and surrender to the Parlor’s ambiance –flickering candle
lamps, French bistro music, perhaps a glass of wine– all those things that intruded
on your day and kept your mind racing begin to retreat. You’re able to “make believe”
that time has reversed.
We are not a “traditional” Magic Show.
No. There is no
parade of “tricks” for you to puzzle over, no garish boxes hiding fake props,
no jibes or insults from some smug magician. We strive to create an atmosphere
where the Magic is real. Where the Impossible is possible. The warm feelings of
Wonderment, Amazement, Enchantment are not meant to be questioned …simply
accepted.
Our presentations
transport our audience to another world —called Imagination— on this journey revealing the Truths of the
Heart, while Magically entertaining your senses.
During “Magical
Tales of San Francisco” conjurer and teller-of-tales Walt Anthony is truly your
host, you become a guest in his personal Parlor… you become friends with his
other guests. The performers request your participation, you are asked to enter
a realm of astonishment –just as you did as a child– and honor the gift of
Magic once again.
The San Francisco
Examiner describes the San Francisco Magic Parlor theater as:
...A cozy and
charming place where history and imagination meet: Anthony serves up saucy
vignettes about some of The City’s most infamous historical figures...
Were is Your Magic?
Only when you
leave for the parking lot or chat with friends after the show, perhaps then –but
only then– the practical side of your brain will kick in. You may wonder how
something or other was done. If the haunted stories you heard are real (they
are!) Or maybe –just perhaps– you’ll bring some of the magic you experienced home
with you. Out into your “real” world of work and taxes and taxes and traffic.
You’ll claim the night’s magic as your own to brighten the lives around you. That
is our hope: that you leave the San Francisco Magic Parlor, but still retain a
little of bit of our magical realm.
As your host I
want you to: Believe in Magic all over again! Half-way into our second year at the Parlor I’ve
learned most of my guests choose to “make-believe” with me. Not to sound too
woo-woo… I’ve learned for both performer and audience there is a soothing –maybe
a healing– that can happen. Communication between us that allows the Magic to
live and thrive side by side with the stressful, unpleasant, damaging aspects
of life.
Please join our Magical Journey.
I invite you to
visit our Magic theatre, located in the historic 100 year old Chancellor Hotel Union
Square, and leave the rational world behind. Block out Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo, Television, Hulu, electronic billboards …even the
phone in our pocket. All that extra noise.
I and my hosts at
the San Francisco Magic Parlor want to welcome you to our special world and to embrace
the wonderful. You see as it says in the book 1001 Arabian Nights: “People need
stories more than bread itself… they tell us how to live… and why.”
OUR WEBSITE:
OUR BLOG:
FACEBOOK: (“Like” us!)
WHAT:
San Francisco
Magic Parlor’s “Magical Tales of San Francisco”
WHERE:
The Chancellor
Hotel Union Square, 433 Powell Street, San Francisco, CA
WHEN:
Thursday / Friday
/ Saturday at 8:00 pm
TICKETS:
www.SanFranciscoMagicParlor.com
Reservations Highly Recommended
 | |
| Walt Anthony, Conjurer and Teller-of-Tales, | welcomes you to the San Francisco Magic Parlor |
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