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Magician Ricardo Rosenkranz has the right prescription for a magical show
Physician Magician Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz has right prescription for magical entertainment, now playing at The Royal George Theater
By Aaron Hanania
The Rosenkranz Mysteries is a magic show hosted by Physician Magician, Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz. He is a physician who fell in love with magic at a young age. A truly unique combination. Rosenkranz has performed on the hit show Penn And Teller Fool Us. He is also an avid member of the magic community. He balances his performances with his active medical career.
What makes this show at the Royal George Theater in Chicago so unique is the style of the show. Rosenkranz uses magic to tell the audience various messages and views on certain subjects. One prominent idea is how medicine and magic go hand in hand in the healing process.
Through twelve scenes, Rosenkranz uses each trick to help exemplify a given topic. For one instance he uses the famous rabbit duck to show the concept of paradigm shift- one cannot “unknow” what they already know. So when you see the rabbit, and are showed the duck you cannot unsee both.
Rosenkranz begins his show with an illusion that represents his life literally piece by piece. He tells the audience what inspired him to become a magician, and describes various instances in his life that alter his puzzle and his solutions to recreating the perfect picture frame.
As his show takes place in Chicago, one particularly interesting segment was one based on the Bang sisters. They were psychics who uses portrait painting to “connect” with spirits. They were trying to convince people while taking their money. I overheard audience members mentioning that they liked the real world hometown connection.
One other very thoughtful detail was in homage of the late Eugene Burger. Rosenkranz looked to Burger as a mentor. In June of 2017, Rosenkranz diagnosed Burger with cancer sadly, a fight that he could not overcome. Rosenkranz performs a special trick, in Burgers honor, involving a spool of thread and a small flame, a trick that Burger created. This segment is based around one of Burgers famous quests, the quest to solve the capital M mystery.
What makes this show worth attending is the mesmerizing mood and tone. These tricks tell a story and allow the audience to actually walk out of the show with new thoughts other than the typical “wow how did he do that” mentality.
This show is not Rosenkranz’s first at The Royal George Theater. In 2016 he did many shows that were wildly popular so much that he added more shows and came back two years later.
The setup of the magic show is rather intimate, the audience is very close to each other and the stage. This show is in a Cabaret style which is similar to a banquet, the audience is at small tables in an arc shape around the stage. For this show the tables are more coffee table size and there are four chairs around a table. There are also regular play style seating behind the tables. Regardless of table or regular seating, the view is very good as you are close even if you are in the last row.
For me having been to a fair share of magic shows ranging from Las Vegas headliner, Criss Angel to local party magicians, I have seen almost every type of magic.
What Rosenkranz does is so unique, no other magician shares his life’s work, and messages with the audience while doing magic. He has truly mastered the art of entertainment as he captivated the entire audience, ranging in age from young children to senior citizens, for the 90 minute show. Part of this has to do with his delivery of the stories, his pacing and emphasis on certain words and details allow the audience to imagine the picture he is painting with words, allowing for a personal connection during the show.
After the show he greets you as you leave, but the quality of interest he shows towards each person is amazing. I could tell he genuinely enjoys what he does and loves meeting people and talking with them about his show.
Tickets range from $50 for the regular seating to $75 for the table per person seating, but the cost is totally worth it. You walk out with so many messages and concepts that you never expected to be in a magic show. And in my opinion, that is magically priceless.
The Rosenkranz Mysteries at the Royal George Theater, 1641 N Halsted St, Chicago. Shows are on Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. For ticket information visit www.TheRoyalGeorgeTheatre.com.
(Aaron Hanania is a high school student, writer and musician. He can be reached on his website at www.Aaron411News.com.)
“I share music with my audience because music is a way for me to share my thoughts or views on a concept in a different form,” explains Aaron, who has been playing drums for more than 15 years.
"My writings take the readers to the ends of their imagination and document news and feature events in sports and everyday life."
His first album is titled "Deep Space" and was released in October of 2019.
Aaron is also a budding standup comedian who has performed several times to packed audiences around Chicagoland and the host of the online program the "It's Not So Late Show" which is broadcast on YouTube and available on most popular podcast sites including iTunes and Spotify.
His writings include features, news and opinion commentary. His videos address issues that young students address everyday.
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