La Jolla Playhouse set to stage tricky standalone WOW show

Australian magician Harry Milas will present a sold-out run of his sleight-of-hand theatrical event “Unfair Advantage” at La Jolla Playhouse. (David Hill)

PUBLISHED: February 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM PST

Harry Milas is a veritable magician with a metaphor.

“What I’ve created,” he says of his one-person show, “is like the trunk of a tree. At every one there are different branches that go in different directions.”

This Australia-born Milas is also a magician, period. That show he’s created, “The Unfair Advantage,” is an hourlong, sleight-of-hand theatrical event in which he demonstrates with dexterous manipulation of playing cards how cheaters and con artists do their nefarious thing. He also teaches his audiences — 35 people at a time — memory skills and bits of magic with cards.

He estimates he’s done hundreds of shows at this point, including a residency at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, his first-ever U.S. engagement. The second, beginning Tuesday, will be at La Jolla Playhouse in a stand-alone WOW (Without Walls) presentation.

“It’s a privilege,” he said by phone from his hometown of Sydney, “to have a scrappy magic show and being able to take it to somewhere like La Jolla. I couldn’t be more excited.”

Milas, 34, says “The Unfair Advantage” is “a reflection of having started with a deck of cards in my hand when I was about 4 years old.” By the time he was 17, he added, he was able to count cards and honed the ability to mask his emotions, to keep a poker face.

“I found this ion very young,” he said, “and I’ve been doing it my whole life. When people ask me why, I tell them my show is about gambling and my history in the gambling world, but what it’s really about is practice and devotion. Everything that I do in the show — everything — is attainable. Each person who watches me is capable of doing it. It’s about what you’re going to devote your time to.

“The challenge is less about getting it right; the challenge is about sucking at it for a long time.”

What sorts of people come to his shows?

“It’s kind of a mix,” Milas explained. “It’s relatively common to have a bit of a boys group come along in their polo shirts who in their heart of hearts are hoping they might get something from me they can go away and use at a casino. But while you do learn everything about how to cheat at cards, when people leave that’s not exactly what they’re talking about.

“What’s getting people’s attention the most is that I memorize a deck of cards in every show. A lot of people are interested in refining their memory.”

Milas said he’s most gratified by another kind of audience takeaway.

During his Steppenwolf run, he recalled, “A lady came back with her husband and said the show had inspired her to return to school and start her Ph.D. There’s great magic in the show, but there’s also a message about empowerment and self-fulfillment that seems to be connecting with people.”

“The Unfair Advantage” show is not one that finds Milas onstage performing sleight of hand before a distantly seated audience. Patrons instead are sitting all around him while he performs. “I’m right there with them,” he said, “and because questions are encouraged, what people find is that they’ve got a chance to talk to someone who’s spent 30 years thinking about this. You don’t get to talk to a lot of people who dive that deep.”