By Matt Robinson, Contributing Writer
Photo/Submitted
BOSTON – In this era when reality is often too scary to face, the attraction of illusion and artifice can become stronger.
This may be one reason why the popularity of magic shows is on the rise. In Boston, one of the most popular is presented by Steve Kradolfer, who is one half of the comedy and magic show “Four-Handed Illusions” It has been running for 10 years and has been consistently selling out at the historic Hampshire House in Boston.
A return to live performances
During the height of the pandemic, when getting close to people was often not possible, many magicians took their acts online and were able to share their tricks of the trade up close and personal with people all over the world.
Now that people are coming back out of their shells, live shows are once again becoming a popular pastime.
“As technology changes in miraculous ways on a daily basis,” Kradolfer suggested, “seeing a live magic performance is so organic and so grounded in reality. I prefer my audiences forget about their screens and devices and just ‘let go’ and enjoy!”
When not performing above the place where everybody knows your name (the bar known to millions of fans as “Cheers”), Kradolfer also performs at the equally legendary Magic Castle in Los Angeles and has even been magically transported to MagiCuba in Havana.
“I perform as a solo artist as well,” Kradolfer noted, recalling an even wider range of performance venues and thousands of more mystified fans.
Childhood inspiration
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He grew up watching Doug Henning on television and once got to go trick-for-trick with David Copperfield. But when asked who got him started in magic, Kradolfer mentions a name that he admits to not knowing when they first met.
“I saw my first live magic performance in Holland,” he recalled, thanking his Dutch dad for the privilege. “At the age of six I travelled to the Netherlands with my family to celebrate my grandparents’ 25th wedding anniversary. There was a relative at the party who was walking throughout the hall doing the same two amazing tricks!”
Though others may have seen the redundant routine as boring, Kradolfer was mesmerized.
“I followed him around the party for hours watching him do these same two tricks,” he said.
In addition to learning the tricks, Kradolfer also learned the power of magic.
“I didn’t understand a single word he was saying,” he admitted, “but that didn’t matter at all. Simple magic tricks can be understood regardless of any language barriers!”
Moments of wonder and disbelief
As a result, Kradolfer has been able to take these two tricks (and many more) to venues around the world and enjoys the same stupefying success his mysterious relative had all those years ago.
“Being awestruck is universal,” he observed. “There isn’t a culture in the world that doesn’t share this phenomenon.”
In addition to working in any place, Kradolfer also maintains that magic takes people back to a universal time.
“There’s a sort of giddy, child-like feeling of not quite understanding what your own eyes are showing you. Kids feel this all the time, but as we grow older, most of that goes away.”
Breaking into the business
Perhaps this is why his intimate performances at the Hampshire House continue to attract the area’s most erudite entertainment seekers and why a fellow magic fan offered Kradolfer the opportunity to perform publicly nearly 30 years ago.
“In the mid-1990s,” he remembered, “a customer of mine [at the magic shop where I worked] approached with a terrific opportunity. He had a space in the restaurant he worked at and wanted to know if I’d be interested in having a weekly magic show there.”
That weekly gig in Cambridge turned into a 20-year engagement that came to represent the main magic meeting place in Massachusetts.
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A two-man show
“It was after one of these shows in 2013 that my now co-producer and performing partner Joel Acevedo came to me with the idea of doing a two-man show,” Kradolfer recalls. A decade later, the dynamic duo is still at it and still packing the Hampshire House library show after show.
“The show itself is something we are extremely proud of,” Kradolfer stated, describing the comfortably upscale and intimate vibe of the show, which includes a pre-performance gathering in the nearby bar and a chance to debrief with other amazed guests after the two-hour show is done.
As there is no raised stage, each audience member has a clear and close-up view of what Kradolfer and Acevedo are up to. And yet, just as with Kradolfer and his Dutch relative, most leave the show just as gobsmacked as he did all those years ago in Holland.
“I love being fooled,” he admitted. “It doesn’t happen nearly enough for me these days, but I really appreciate it when it does.”
Kradolfer is apparently not alone in this sense of wonder and desire to maintain it. It makes sense that he is still doing what ignited this wondrous flame within him all these decades later.
“I’ve never tried doing anything else but magic,” he maintained, “and cannot even imagine having a different job. I love what I do!”
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