What’s better than watching a good magic show?
It’s having the magician show you how exactly he does each trick. Then he performs it again, multiple times, and you still can’t figure out his secret.
That’s the concept for “The Unfair Advantage,” an intimate show that the brilliant Australian sleight-of-hand artist Harry Milas is performing 12 times a week at La Jolla Playhouse.
Milas performs amazing and flawless card and coin tricks, but that’s not what his show is about. Over the course of an hour, he teaches audiences how magicians, card sharps and mentalists cheat at casinos and games through manipulation, deflection, behavior and acute memorization skills.
Produced as an off-site event for the Playhouse’s annual Without Walls Festival, which returns to the UC San Diego campus April 24-27, “The Unfair Advantage” is one of the best WOW shows I’ve seen (and I’ve seen most of them over the past 14 years).
Getting into “The Unfair Advantage” does take a bit of magic. Tickets are scarce (there are still some available in April, and ticket-buyers are encouraged to check with the box office for returned tickets on the day of, or day before, each performance). Only 35 people can attend each show, because Milas does up-close magic. And finally, all attendees must sign an agreement to not divulge how he does his tricks. Since I signed the form, I’ll proceed with caution in this review.
Milas, 33, is an affable, soft-spoken and funny performer and he has structured his show around his own life story.
He discovered magic at age 10 when he purchased a copy of “Card Control,” a 1946 book by Australian vaudeville performer Arthur Buckley. Milas became obsessed with mastering the art of card tricks (and card cheating) and at 17 he tried his hand in a card game and got caught. That was the end of his foray into crime but the beginning of his mission to learn card gaming skills and, ultimately, share them with others.
Milas shares with the audience the secrets of how magicians can guess the cards people have secretly chosen from a deck, how to selectively shuffle cards, how to double-deal, hide cards, count cards and cheat at games like poker.
But audience hoping to learn techniques they can take to Vegas will be disappointed. As Milas makes clear, these are techniques he has been honing all day, every day, for decades, and in order to keep his skills sharp, he still practices every day.
His most impressive skill, besides a disappearing coin trick I’m still awed by, is one that took him 10 years to perfect. It’s a feat of mnemonics, which is an image, color and sound memorizing system he uses to learn the order of every single card in a shuffled deck in just over two minutes. It’s a phenomenal talent and it’s fascinating to watch his mind work.
“The Unfair Advantage” isn’t a sit-and-watch show. Audience are encouraged to ask questions, get out of their seats, assist with some tricks, clap, cheer and and stay afterward to chat.
One of the questions the 33-year-old Milas was asked after the show I attended was what he plan to do next. He said this show is his ultimate dream, and his joy in sharing it with people is absolutely no secret.
‘The Unfair Advantage’
When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 5:30 and 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 3, 5 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 1, 4 and 6 p.m. Sundays; through April 20. (Many shows are sold out, but check with box office for day of (or day before) returned tickets)
Where: Meet at the Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla
Tickets: $79-$89
Info: 858-550-1010
Online: lajollaplayhouse.org
