Media

January 2, 2004, Enjoy! Entertainment Guide

“He’s All In Your Head”

Mentalist beings unique magic style to Center for Performing Arts, by Rebecca Rothbaum

Alain Nu likes to play mind games. A magician who traffics in a brand of illusion known as “mentalism,” Nu has made a career out of mind-reading, hypnosis and seemingly moving about material objects through the sheer power of thought.

Beginning Thursday, he brings his “Extra Sensory performance” to the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck for a four-day run.

This marks Nu’s third performance at the center, but his first solo appearance there. This time around, audience members can expect to see fewer traditional magic tricks and more of what Nu does best – work the crowd, said Center board chairman Andy Weintraub.

“He’s such an engaging personality, the best stuff he does is just talking to the audience,” said Weintraub, who himself is a magician. “That’s what the show is: Alain center stage, interacting with the audience.”

Nu went further, saying that show changes with each new audience.

“It’s not the same as a magic show in that everything is pre-scripted and pre-choreographed,” he said. “Part of it is about the willingness of the audience to make happen what they want to make happen. It’s my job to make that fun for them.”

Seances in the basement

Nu has developed his style over the last 20 years, ever since he began performing professionally at the age of 18, abandoning a college degree in communications for what he felt to be his true calling. (At the age of 6, he was performing magic tricks; by 13 he was dabbling in the occult, holding seances with his friends in his parents’ basement.)

The gamble seems to have paid off. Nu, who calls Maryland home, performs at least 200 days of the year, including regular stints at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Other gigs include performances for former First Lady Barbara Bush and Vice President Al Gore. More recently, he was invited to perform at George W. Bush’s inaugural banquet.

“He’s really beyond tricks,” said Allen Eisensen, a magician from Woodstock who is probably better known by his stage name, Just Alan. He has performed alongside Nu and watched his shows. “When you watch his shows, you enter into that make-believe space and that’s what magic is all about.”

Nu works by keeping the flashy stage craft that is a staple of so many magic acts to a minimum. His only props are a table and chair and a handful of ordinary objects, which he says helps to highlight the extraordinary nature of his feats. His “lovely assistants” are the audience.

If all of this sounds a little creepy, take heart. Nu said he strives to make his show “very lighthearted.”

“It’s a journey and an exploration of mystery,” he said. “It shows the ironies of the mind, how it works and how sometimes mystery can alter perception.”

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