By Lily Janiak Sunday, December 24, 2017
Surely no type of artist has to spend more time convincing his own audience of his legitimacy than the magician does.
At Marrakech Magic Theater, at least, Jay Alexander has a parry at the ready for every imaginable thrust. No, it won’t compromise your masculinity to come onstage and make glancing physical contact with another man. No, he really can’t see through his three types of blindfold, one layer of which is black tape that’d peel his eyebrows off if he didn’t ChapStick them first. No, he’s not using a whole deck of the 10 of spades. That “would be stupid,” he said more than once at a Friday, Dec. 22, performance of his ongoing show.
But with his sleight of hand — and, in one slightly icky but no less cool instance, “sleight of mouth” — Alexander emphatically isn’t trying to make you feel stupid, even as he’s anticipated your every bit of skepticism. His mien throughout his card tricks, mind reading, number games and feats of extraordinary coincidence is that of a nerd with overweening enthusiasm — enthusiasm he only wants you to share. “It freaks me out every time,” he frequently offers after card tricks, only partly in jest.
Just descending the steps to the theater, which is in the lower level of Marrakech Moroccan Restaurant (whose appetizers and drinks are available for purchase preshow), is enough of an experience to pique your enthusiasm. Vintage posters of magicians past — “In mid-air Carter materializes a bowl of water weighing 150 lbs” — line the darkened stairwell and the walls of the lounge, which is all arabesque arches, stained glass lanterns and crushed velvet banquettes.
There, Alexander performs close-up magic (one-on-one tricks, sans the conceit of a stage) 30 to 40 minutes before the official show starts in a tiny jewel box theater across the hall. No party on Dec. 22 — be it preteen birthday revelers or middle-aged cocktail swillers — could outwit his ability to redirect attention away from the actual trickery. The way he rubs his forefinger and thumb together, with near-surgical precision, makes for a kind of hypnotic dance. The tiny undulation is so specific, so incisive, that your adult brain can rediscover, for just a moment, long-lost childhood fantasies that it might really be possible for the supernatural to possess a human hand.
In the theater itself, Alexander offers a glimpse into his process, explaining a few of the physical “tells” and psychological rationales that help him guess in which hand, say, an audience member might hide a ring. (One hint: When you’re assessing which way a liar’s face is pointing, “the nose knows.”) It’s a canny bit of openness, because as his effects introduce more and more variables, thereby making his guesses and coincidences more and more improbable, you have a slightly more nuanced metric for appreciating just how much expertise lies behind a deceptively simple maneuver.
Though Alexander’s patter occasionally becomes cheesy or repetitive — frequent testaments to his own artistry make you wish for less conversation, more action — a bit of vulnerability near the show’s end refreshes, especially if you walk into Marrakech Magic Theater with stereotypes about magicians. Magic, Alexander says, helped him overcome crippling childhood shyness resulting from a speech impediment and dyslexia. Is that magic (or meta-magic)? Maybe. But like Alexander’s show as a whole, it’s also the product of years of craft, persistence and ardor.
Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicle’s theater critic.
Magician Jay Alexander wrote the pandemic performing arts playbook
The star of Marrakech Magic Theater never stopped hustling, connecting and inventing
By Laura Fraenza, Special to The Examiner
Magician, comic, mentalist and rainmaker Jay Alexander has always been an adaptor and a hustler. He never stops working, never stops creating. When the world shut down two years ago, he remembers thinking, “I don’t know how long this thing is going to last, but I don’t have the theater. I’ve got to keep working.’”
Alexander sat down to learn Zoom and downloaded the software programs a virtual show would require. He tried not to look back, even though he had performed seven shows, four nights a week for three years in his gorgeous jewel box of a venue that was once a speakeasy: the 35-seat Moroccan-themed Marrakech Magic Theater, a few blocks from Union Square.
Jay Alexander’s “Mind Tricks Live!” was a hit as soon as it opened in 2017, becoming #1 on TripAdvisor’s nightlife listing and retaining that spot when the show reopened last June. Every night, Alexander greeted guests with up-close, sleight-of-hand magic while they enjoyed pre-show cocktails and Moroccan finger food provided by the historic Marrakech restaurant next door.
Two weeks into quarantine, the entertainer invited people who’d seen him at the Marrakech to join him on screen for a free evening of magic. To his surprise, over 160 people from all parts of the world showed up.
“Many were people who came to the theater, saw the show and had this incredible time on their vacation in San Francisco,” Alexander said. “Now they were stuck at home, kind of freaked out, so they felt like they could relive their vacation in a fun way, watching the show virtually.”
Alexander discovered a unique intimacy while entertaining remotely.
“In the theater, I only see the first two rows of faces,” he said. “For the first time, I was getting a glimpse of everyone in their homes, with dirty dishes piled up in the sink and kids and dogs running around in the background.”
Alexander also brought together over 100 magicians on Zoom from small theaters throughout North America and Europe, so they could try to figure out how to survive whatever was next. Each faced the worry of having to shut down.
Shawn Furquhuar, a third-generation magician and two-time World Champion of Magic who runs the Hidden Wonders Speakeasy Magic Experience outside Vancouver, jumped at the chance to commune.
“Having us all connect allowed us to commiserate together,” Furquhaur said. “It’s inspiring — we talked about everything from new tricks to great ideas for marketing.”
It’s been two years and the magicians are still gathering weekly.
Alexander has been figuring out how to thrive since coming to The City on a San Francisco Art Institute scholarship. It was the halcyon days of the mid-80s when it was easier to live the life of a starving artist.
Two years in, he left school to pursue his passions, supporting himself by making flyers for beloved and now long-gone music venues like Nightbreak and the I-Beam. Alexander also performed magic at kids’ birthday parties on weekends, something he’d done since middle school in his hometown of Houston, where his love of magic began.
At 11, his grandfather took him to see Doug Henning, the long-haired hippie in tie-dye with a broad grin and gentle nature. That day sealed his fate.
“Doug Henning took you on a journey doing magic tricks with things like different colored silk scarves and feathers,” Alexander said. “When you watched him, you believed his magic and the childlike wonder he created.”
Soon after seeing Henning, Alexander joined Houston magician Wayne Raeke’s youth magic group, The Joker’s Wild Junior Club, spending hours every week in training. At 14, Alexander was the youngest ever to win the Society of American Magicians Gold Medal of Honor.
The work ethic he learned under Rieke drives him, but it’s Henning’s sense of wonder that Alexander brings to each performance.
“I stand on the shoulders of the many magicians who came before me,” he said. “Some trained me, and some I just watched, studying everything they did. … I just wanted to work, so I said ‘yes’ to everything.”
Alexander spent almost four decades saying “yes” as an in-demand performer traveling the world and making magic for rock stars like the Rolling Stones and U2 and for companies like Google and Pfizer.
Running his live theater show has been a dream fulfilled. Audiences of mostly locals are coming back slowly to the Marrakech. Lately, international tourists have appeared; most seem to be from Australia and Canada.
Alexander attributes his success partly to his aim to be in touch with every person in the room.
“My place is small enough that in the experience, I can control every aspect of the night. From the second they walk in until the second they leave, I can take care of them,” he explained.
In-person custom magic is also returning. Weeks ago, Alexander showed up at Salesforce Tower for his first live corporate event for a company welcoming its employees back to the office.
“It was uplifting and felt very safe. Everyone who entered had just had a rapid COVID test,” he said.
“Great art comes out of the hard times,” he continued. “The City has constantly been in transition, so you either learn to work with it, or you get stuck and hate everything about it.”
But Jay Alexander is not one to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes when it comes to the difficulty of artistic pursuits.
“I used to say, ‘Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life. Now I say, ‘Do what you love, and you’ll work, very hard, every single day of your life, but you’ll end up loving it.’”
IF YOU GO:
Marrakech Magic Theater
Where: 419 O’Farrell Street, S.F.
When: 90-minute shows, 6:30 and 9:00 p.m. Thursdays-Saturday, 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Contact: (415) 794-6893, sanfranciscomagictheater.com
When Jay Alexander was 11 years old, his grandfather took him in their hometown of Houston to see the famous Canadian illusionist Doug Henning. Alexander was enthralled by Henning’s magic tricks and showmanship.
Not long after the show, Alexander’s grandfather bought him a Hocus Pocus Magic Set, which included the usual paraphernalia: a cup and balls, ball and vase, a deck of cards, and a booklet of how to perform 101 magic tricks. Alexander, who describes himself as a terribly shy kid who also dealt with a speech impediment and dyslexia, devoured the book, reading the instructions over and over until he mastered every trick.
By age 13, Alexander took his show on the road, entertaining at his mother’s shoe store and children’s parties through high school. He hasn’t looked back since. The timid Texas kid grew into a world-class entertainer who wows audiences at his 45-seat theater near Union Square in San Francisco.
When Jay Alexander was 11 years old, his grandfather took him in their hometown of Houston to see the famous Canadian illusionist Doug Henning. Alexander was enthralled by Henning’s magic tricks and showmanship.
Not long after the show, Alexander’s grandfather bought him a Hocus Pocus Magic Set, which included the usual paraphernalia: a cup and balls, ball and vase, a deck of cards, and a booklet of how to perform 101 magic tricks. Alexander, who describes himself as a terribly shy kid who also dealt with a speech impediment and dyslexia, devoured the book, reading the instructions over and over until he mastered every trick.
By age 13 Alexander took his show on the road, entertaining at his mother’s shoe store and children’s parties through high school. He hasn’t looked back since. The timid Texas kid grew into a world-class entertainer who wows audiences at his 45-seat theater near Union Square in San Francisco.
“Magic was something that made me feel special and gave me more confidence because I knew something that people didn’t,” Alexander says. “I didn’t know what it would take to make a career of being a magician but was lucky to have a supportive mother and grandfather who wanted me to be an artist.”
Alexander, now 51, has spent the better part of three decades performing on cruise ships around the world, appearing on morning talk shows, and entertaining for local corporations, including Apple, Google, and Wells Fargo. His impressive private client list includes Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak, the late Robin Williams and the Rolling Stones.
In 2017, he bought the Marrakech Magic Theater, on the lower level of the Marrakech Moroccan restaurant on O’Farrell Street, where he entertains four nights per week. Entering feels a bit like tumbling into Aladdin’s lamp, especially in the theater-adjacent lounge decked out with flickering lanterns, velvet banquets and arabesque archways.
Alexander’s latest feat was a move to a houseboat in Sausalito last year after having raised his family in Novato for 17 years.
“A sense of community was really important to me when I was looking. I was intrigued by the history of Sausalito’s floating homes and the various artists that have lived there. And I find a creative spirit still lingers,” he says.
