Naathan Phan, Hayden Allcorn Amaze All in Multi-Faceted Show, “The History of Magic: Part 1” 

Starting two weeks ago and performing through May 12, Naathan Phan and Hayden Allcorn are dazzling audiences in their new show, “History of Magic: Part 1,” at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Liberty Magic venue.  

Naathan Phan is no stranger to Liberty Magic, having performed “The Polymath of Magic” there two years ago. The audience was clearly happy to welcome the long-established magician back to Pittsburgh as part of a duo with his close friend and similarly multi-talented performer, Hayden Allcorn.  

Within Liberty Magic’s intimate venue (it only seats about 50 people per show), the whispers of anticipation took hold of the audience before Phan and Allcorn had even taken the stage. Despite the small occupancy, attendance was clearly high, as evidenced by the packed seats and lively chatter. 

As the lights finally dimmed, Allcorn and Phan took the stage and performed on the kazoo as they regally unfolded a newspaper, proceeding to tear it to shreds. Over the course of a short skit, they wordlessly unfolded the paper once again, completely intact.  They then wrote the time, 8:11, on an envelope and hung it on the wall behind them, promising that it would make sense later. 

The fast-paced show continued on, routine after routine tumbling out quickly before you had even wrapped your head around the last. Allcorn and Phan energetically persevered, never dropping their mile-wide smiles.  

When asked how he keeps such an upbeat persona, Phan shared that, “I think just being in front of the crowd does it. Y’know, as soon as I get in front of a crowd, I realize that it’s my job to bring that kind of energy to them. Whether or not it’s there, you find it.” 

The duo clearly enjoy their time on stage, as the audience was not the only ones heard chuckling. Passing banter back and forth, the pair never let the liveliness slip. Their youthful presence gave the impression they don’t take life — or themselves— too seriously.  

Throughout the night they performed a lot of magic tricks, such as the popular “Bullet Catch,”–which is just what it sounds like–but magic isn’t the only trick this pair had up their sleeves. At one point, they promised to recreate one of the magic shows performed on the Titanic. Before the climax of the anticipated trick, an audio clip of a ship crashing blasted throughout the room as they tumbled to the side of the stage.  Their show was riddled with moments displaying the pair’s love for other performance arts, like comedy and theatre. 

Phan showed his singing chops through a ballad about the plight of lesser-known magicians when magic was first coming on the rise.  Afterward, Allcorn gave a mischievous rendition of a song based on the phrase, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” which is often attributed to P.T. Barnum. The crowd was all giggles as he danced his way around an audience member seated on stage who had volunteered to participate and prove this theory.  

As the night drew to a close, Phan and Allcorn touched on the possibility that things we had once seen as magic could be made a reality by technology. This segued into their show-stopping final trick: teleportation and time-travel. I won’t spoil the magic, but I concur that the envelope bearing the time 8:11 did end up making sense by the end of this mind-blowing act.  

“History of Magic: Part 1” is more than meets the eye, and more than a magic show. Closer to what some may call variety show, Phan and Allcorn’s full range of talents was on display with the incorporation of comedy, theatre, music, stage-combat, skits and more into their impressive performance. 

Who’s to say those aspects aren’t part of the magic? Phan shared, “Magic, at its core, is a moment of impossibility. And that is a very wide-ranging definition because a lot of things can be impossible, a lot of things can be magical.” 

This duo has more moments of impossibility to come, as they will be putting on multiple performances of “The History of Magic: Part 1” at Liberty Magic, now through May 12.  Local university student discounts are available for select performances by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Check out more at: https://trustarts.org/pct_home/events/university-student-tickets. The Penn State University offer code for 2024 is: 2324PSU. 

 

Story by:  Ryan Matthew Amarantes (ala5924@psu.edu)