Close-up magic with Curt Miller's The Conjurer

If you have never been to a magic show where you can actually see the cards, Curt Miller is the person to see. His show, 'The Conjurer: An Intimate Magical Experience', is built around a private vintage magic theater with only 36 seats, and it runs about 90 minutes with a five-minute intermission. The whole point is the proximity: the magic happens centimeters from your eyes, and at one point the audience gets to perform a trick themselves. It is a clean, family-friendly show that leans on close-up magic, clean comedy, audience interaction, theatrical lighting, music, and video to build the atmosphere. Doors open 30 minutes before the start, and the show recommends arriving at least an hour and a half early if you want to dine first, since food is not included in the ticket price. Most venues have food and drink, and many people arrive early to eat or bring a drink from the bar into the theater. Everyone walks away with a packet of free souvenirs and four playing cards that come into play during the performance.

The man behind it is a Houston magician and illusionist who has been working the craft for more than 25 years. Miller started magic at age 10 in Indiana and had business cards by 13, later spending five years as the resident sleight-of-hand magician at the well-known Magic Island, where he performed for corporate clients and celebrities. Since then, he has appeared on The Disney Channel, played to more than 100,000 people at his annual big show at Moody Gardens, and worked with companies like Amazon, ExxonMobil, and Coca-Cola. His celebrity list reads like a casting call: William Shatner, Christopher Lloyd, Henry Winkler, Gilbert Gottfried, Perez Hilton, Sinbad, and John Cleese, with whom he collaborated on the short film 'Doing a Card Trick for John Cleese'. He has appeared on the cover of M-U-M, the international magazine of the Society of American Magicians, and his TikTok videos doing card tricks for the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, and John Cleese have passed two million views.

As for where to catch it, the show moves around the Houston area. The next run lands in Pearland at the Hilton Garden Inn Houston-Pearland, with a show on Friday, November 6, and a double bill on Saturday, November 7, with a 1:00 pm matinee and a 7:30 pm evening performance. Earlier stops in the series included the Houston Marriott Sugar Land in February and the Marriott Houston-Heights in January, and new dates are added monthly, so it is worth keeping an eye on the schedule if you are planning a night out. It is the kind of show that works as well for a date as it does for a group of friends, mostly because it is hard to find magic this close up. For tickets, info, or to see when the next set of dates drops, you can reach Miller at 713-721-6618 or curt@curtmiller.com, and his website and social media keep the current schedule up to date.