If the pretentious tricks illusions of Will Arnett's Arrested Development character GOB ever made you guffaw, you'll be rolling in the aisles in the Elephant Room, a wickedly funny three-man show currently levitating audiences at St. Ann's Warehouse—or "Stan's Warehouse," as one of the play's characters calls it. Unlike GOB, the slightly creepy magicians in Elephant Room successfully execute some seriously impressive illusions. But they do it while also skewering the geeky hermetic subculture of guys obsessed with magic (and '80s hair metal and the Dalai Lama).
The show takes place (sort of) in a Patterson, NJ rec-room basement, where self-serious illusionists Daryl Hannah, Dennis Diamond, and Louie Magic convene their "secret" society, mixing "the glory of a Styx reunion tour with the transcendental power of a 200-year-old Zuni shaman and a dash of trailer park ennui." Performed by Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle (all wear bowlers; machines machines machines) and masterful actor-magician Steve Cuiffo (he played Lenny Bruce at St. Ann's last year), Elephant Room is both a parody of and homage to the weird world of amateur magicians.
"This is our secret room where we hide stuff," Dennis Diamond explains by way of introduction, after a "ridiculous" amount of fog fills the room. "Little children built this room from the secrets they kept from their parents. Government Organizations wallpapered this room with secret documents... Adulterous lovers stuffed this sofa with their secret desires." And so on, you get the drift. Gradually we learn the secrets that drive these lonely men behind the magic, as bits of their biographies are revealed through a series of increasingly ludicrous yet dazzling illusions. It's a strangely exhilarating experience to guffaw with amazement. And under the deft direction of Paul Lazar, the show flies like dust in the wind in the mane of an airbrushed unicorn galloping along the side of a magic van. Get in!
The elephant must leave the room April 8th, so don't delay. Tickets start at $25, but you can also enter the "Virtual Rush" drawing for $20 tickets at the Stan's Warehouse website.
