El Mago Pop

You may have never heard the name Antonio Diaz, as I hadn’t before going to see “El Mago Pop” at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Friday. The 37 year old holds impressive credits, which the show begins with highlighting in a series of prerecorded news clips, comic book strips, and skits. He has multiple netflix series and a personal theater in Spain where he crafted his Broadway debut. Starting the show with this intimate look at how he got to become the highest grossing illusionist in Europe made the audience fall in love with him before he even came into the theatre.

Once the projector went up and Antonio began his stage magic, I was hooked. Each trick was clearly planned to the slightest movement, but he still maintained a charismatic stage presence. The tricks consisted of large moments with fire and disappearances on the stage, as well as many smaller illusions, often performed in the aisles of the audience with a live feed camera projecting them to the seats who couldn’t get a close view. I was skeptical if the audience included plants for the “random” participation but the man seated next to me was completely shocked to have his watch taken on stage, thrown into the fire, only to reappear on his wrist in the audience.

The more intimate illusions including audience interaction were definitely where Antonio shined. The larger scale productions, like him flying around with no visible ropes, were less impressive due to a knowledge of how staging can work. There was no trick where I completely understood the mechanics of how it was done and multiple times where my jaw was on the floor with what he achieved in apparent randomness. My only wish was for a longer show, with the run time including multiple prerecorded moments only falling at an hour and ten minutes. What he accomplished in that time, and what he’s achieved over the course of his career that was retold through El Mago Pop, was nothing short of magical.