While there is no making people disappear or sawing of an assistant in half, illusionist Ivan Amodei’s show “Intimate Illusions” at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel does offer a lot of mind-boggling acts.
His show weaves his own original illusions while combining a unique “magical” experience that’s humorous, but also dazzles with a live cellist in an elegant candle-lit atmosphere.
Amodei said he set out to create a different type of illusion show.
“I talk about inspirational things like facing your fears, overcoming obstacles, and what are the most important things in your life,” Amodei said. “I talk about finding your destiny. It’s a really unique show because people walk away with more than ‘He fooled us.’ It’s like ‘Wow, I learned something today’ as well as enjoyed magic. It’s all wrapped up into a very entertaining evening.”
Audience participation is a big part of the show.
In one illusion, he starts by talking about whether audience members believe their fate is in their own hands and whether the decisions they have made in their life have affected where they are today.
After selecting an audience member (the show is limited to 100 guests) to join him on stage, he presents a glass barrel containing at least 10,000 scrabble tiles.
After he has the audience member shake the barrel then reach in to remove a handful of tiles and put them on a tray, the illusion begins to take place.
“I ask them if they believe the same thing: Which is, wherever they are, to make a choice to go to school, or to move to the state, or whatever choice they have made happens to be where they are today,” he said. “Through the tiles we try and prove it is in fact true.”
After a moving the scrabble tiles around the tray, he is able to create the message in the tiles that reads “do you believe.”
After the person says yes, Amodei then does another quick shuffle of the tiles to spell out their first and last name (which he asked when they first walked up on stage).
“There will be the exact the number of tiles they’ve taken out and exactly their name, not one tile more or less,” Amodei said.
In another trick, he swallows more than a hundred two-inch steel pins – all with white pinheads except for one that’s yellow, one that’s red, and one that’s green.
He is able to bring the three colored pins up one at a time in the order chosen by audience members, before bringing up the remaining white pins in spectacular fashion – you’ll have to see the show to see how.
Amodei is now in his fourth year of performances at Beverly Wilshire Hotel – he recently celebrated his 400th show in October.
With more than four hours of material and new illusions being created all the time, he said he is able to present a different show every time.
The Beverly Wilshire Hotel is located at 9500 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.
The show is held most Saturday evenings at 7 pm and 9 pm with a run time of 90 minutes.
General admission tickets are $65 (front-row tickets are $75), which are available by calling 866.811.4111 or visiting www.ivanamodei.com.
