Harry Milas
Magicians aren’t supposed to tell you how they do their tricks. Harry Milas has a great way of threading the needle because he is able to differentiate magic and cheating at cards. Therefore when he attempts to show you how it is done, he is ostensibly not breaching any protocol. And even while he tells you what he is doing, it certainly feels like magic.
In his engaging Australian accent, Milas leads us through 70 minutes of his early years while working only with a deck of cards, with a brief foray into coin tricks. But most everything has to do with pulling the right cards from the deck at the right time. In the run up to the long and enjoyable finale, he explains how he is counting cards. With all 52 cards shuffled yet accurately placed in the mnemonic construct of his brain he is able to move the cards back into the order we first saw them, extracted from a fresh deck in factory order.
He’s happy to take questions throughout the intimate performance, and I particularly enjoyed our banter about Ricky Jay, a Simpsons episode set Down Under and the Coriolis Effect.
His sense of humility is well balanced with his obvious skill. By the end of the performance, he has convinced you that time will pass regardless, so why not devote yourself to something like learning how to count cards.
His patience in doing so has certainly paid off by the looks of astonishment in the folks lucky enough to be in the audience.
The production has sold out and been extended, current ticket information here.
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