El Magnifico

El Magnifico, the magician at the center of the show bearing his name, reminded me the villain you’re supposed to boo every time he appears in an old time American melodrama. He wears a top hat, a cape, white gloves and a penciled on mustache. He sports the self satisfied grin of a man entirely too sure of himself but is saved from insufferable arrogance by the ridiculousness of his tricks: He uses a magic wand to make his own foot lift off the ground and to suspend his own hand in mid-air – and by his caring attitude toward his assistant, a woman who is at last ten months pregnant. He conjures a slice of pizza from his case of tricks and, in one nifty instance, a jar of pickles from his hat. Such gestures are genuinely sweet. They show a measure of affection and history between the two.

The parentage of the baby is under some dispute. El Magnifico claims it as his own. The assistant, flirting shamelessly (she is sucking on a pickle), claims the father to be a member of the audience. And there are times when the magician can be incredibly insensitive. Performing a trick, he lifts her off her feet and drags her around the stage, almost inducing the baby’s birth. He gets back in her good graces by presenting her flowers pulled from her sleeve. Other tricks include…well, to be honest, there was a lot happening in the shows fifteen minutes but the final trick involves a rather frisky stuffed raccoon and I can promise you at least one animal was hurt and damaged during the performance.

Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Engel and Hilary Chaplain as El Magnifico and the assistant respectively, are excellent in what amounts to magic show gone wrong. Engel plays the titular magician as a well intentioned buffoon who lives to show his talents and willing to do whatever it takes to demonstrate and be appreciated for his amazing skills. Chaplain makes the most of the Assistant’s “condition,” manipulating the act and the magician when necessary. She knows when to be coy with the Assistant and has no problems dropping her knowing façade to dive into the ridiculousness of the situation.

In fact, it’s this willingness to look foolish that makes these two such a good pair. Engel and Chaplain are hams in the best sense of the word: they possess the ability to charge into the comedy and to balance it with the wisdom to know when to go with the sometimes silent and highly charged consequences.

El Magnifico had it’s final performance at the Festival on September 11, 2008. Both are based in New York and this is a work in progress whose development I look forward to tracking. Future productions can be found on the following websites:

1) Hilary Chaplain's website

2) David Engel's website