Magician Michael Austin combines wit and charm in a show of mental, visual and manual magic, billed as magic for grown-ups.
Magical Mind Mysteries comes to The VORTEX on Sunday, August 2, with Michael Austin taking the stage. It's a show that pulls from three different traditions—mental, visual, and manual magic—so you'll see a bit of everything: mind-reading, sleight of hand, and the kind of visual tricks that make you double-check what you just saw.
Austin has been performing for close to 50 years, and he doesn't fit the typical magician mold. He describes his approach as combining wit, charm, and a 'sleight' attitude with an eccentric, elusive logic to build magic of the mind, eyes, and hands. He put this particular show together during the 2020 shutdown, drawing on his performing experience and magical knowledge, and says most of it is entirely original. It's billed as magic for grown-ups, though he notes there's nothing offensive for children—just that the concepts and theories might get deeply absurd.
If you're used to the polished, high-production magic of a Vegas stage, this is a different animal. The focus here is on the performance itself—the wit and the charm—rather than the spectacle. It's a one-man show that leans into the absurdity of the tricks as much as the tricks themselves, so it's as much about the personality behind the magic as it is about the illusions.
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The VORTEX is at 2307 Manor Rd #2135 in Austin, and the show starts at 7 PM on Sunday, August 2. Tickets run from $15 to $39.
