In & Of Itself (2020)

(On Cable TV, March 2021) One of my pandemic hobbies has been to learn a lot more about magic — specifically, the tricks of the trade, advice to magicians, elementary card tricks (including how to cheat) and the basic elements of most magical performances. You don’t need to be worried about me being a pest the next time we meet — I don’t have the patience, the training time or the drive to become even an amateur magician. But learning about how the tricks are performed has led me to one big conclusion: Magic is not as much about the trick as the patter surrounding the tricks and the atmosphere in which people want to believe the trick. There won’t be a better illustration of this as In & Of Itself, a filmed version of the intimate off-Broadway show that Derek DelGaudio performed 552 times (we’re told) in Manhattan from 2017 to 2018. Calling it a magic show is both true and appropriately deceptive because DelGaudio creates an elaborate narrative frame around the dozen illusions he performs, and does so with disarming charm, getting closer to his audience in order to pull the rug from under them. A superior card trick is placed within the frame of a biographical episode in which he’s warned about the dangers of appearing to cheat at cards. A prodigious feat of memorization is placed within the frame of defining identities for ourselves. It’s a heady mix of philosophical references, storytelling, personal recollections delivered in a raw manner, a sense of continuity from show to show, and creating an electrifying atmosphere for the live audience that translates surprisingly well to the screen. (Director Frank Oz, who helped stage the live show, effectively uses duplicated footage from several shows in order to give screen audiences an idea of how the same effect played out over several performances.)  It’s all very effective, largely because of everything surrounding the illusions — I’m relieved that DelGaudio isn’t a cult leader, because I could recognize several of the techniques used to manipulate small audiences into fast intimacy and frenzies of belief. Still, as a show, it’s quite a show. The painstakingly crafted illusions are delivered effectively (even in throwaway bits, such as the visual shocker at the very end) and while I suspect that I know how many of the tricks were performed in a general sense, that takes nothing away from what remains a great performance piece.