'Amaze' Off-Broadway review — Jamie Allan delivers mystery, memoir, and magic for all ages
Read our review of Amaze off Broadway, a magic show co-created and performed by Jamie Allan that's inspired by his childhood and how he became a magician.
The 1980s movie posters and Radio Shack commercials that invite you into New World Stages promise nostalgic gimmicks — at first glance. Luckily, magician Jaime Allan’s Amaze, directed by Jonathan Goodwin, has a potent trick up its sleeve: sincere storytelling, which sustains him even when the enchantment fizzles.
A one-man show that follows Allan from his years playing with a Fisher-Price magic kit to his growth into his profession, Amaze doubles as a memoir and a family-friendly intro to magic for youngsters. He anticipates that attendees will be eager for traditional pop-up spectaculars, and there’s room for a motorcycle conjured out of thin air, but his presentation is also about the philosophies of patience and wonder. Magic is, after all, also a meditative discipline.
Dropping wry ad-libs with his mischievous grin, he’s an amiable figure to the kids fortunate enough to come up on stage. Although talkier portions between magic acts lag, parents would appreciate Allan's tributes to his late mother and father, who nurtured his passion. Cynics will find it mawkish, but he delivers the optimistic idea that supportive parents are the most important ingredient for magic lovers.
Even if magicians' “secrets” are just mechanics, Allan asks dreamers and skeptics alike to let the mysteries be. Act 1 delivers plenty of twists in expectations (a disappearing assistant act has a bonus payoff) paired with engaging audience participation (be prepared to throw a rubber brick around). The act ends with a silkily choreographed levitation-walk wrapped in emotion as a tribute to his late mother. After this dazzling visual, the mesmerizing shrinks into the minimally impressive in Act 2, such as a garden-variety card act set to “Shape of my Heart.”
Allan deploys a last-minute surprise at curtain call, which is technically impressive and theoretically jaw-dropping yet deflated by crammed payoffs. (And due to taller people standing in front of me to exit the aisles, I had a difficult time seeing it.) More smoothly executed, it would make me squeal and clap in delight among the gasping children, but it instead hit as a superfluous tap of the '80s-nostalgia button.
Jamie Allan’s Amaze summary
Shipped over from London's West End, Jamie Allan’s Amaze is a magic show with comedic quips and illusions and 1980s iconography. But it’s also his coming-of-age memoir of his journey from a kid dreamer to a full-fledged magician. His showcases in Amaze run the gamut from levitation, a multimedia “digital magic” act, stringing a ribbon through supposedly impenetrable glass panes, disappearing his assistant, card tricks, and mentalist math. Additional performers on stage include Natalia Love as a featured artist, Natalie Gerene as magic crew, and illusion manager Justin Gentry.
What to expect at Jamie Allan’s Amaze
You'll be greeted by walls slathered with posters of '80s films like Star Wars, Labyrinth, E.T., The NeverEnding Story, and Ghostbusters, plus two side screens playing '80s commercials. Audience members can volunteer to write a childhood toy on a card and slip it into a hat that gets shelved until the grand finale, and a separate segment involves everyone's participation using their phones.
The set design by Damien Stanton is modeled after the attic of his parents' pub, where the young Allan practiced his magic. Tucked in a side corner is a shelf of nostalgic toys, books, and additional props. A computer-generated background frequently depicts posters of his magic idols, intermittently projecting family photos and home videos. An onstage camera, operated by an assistant, transmits a close-up live feed of select acts.
What audiences are saying about Jamie Allan’s Amaze
The audience review aggregator Show-Score currently has six ratings of Amaze from theatregoers, averaging to an 88% approval score, with dominant descriptions of the show including: “Delightful, Funny, Entertaining, Clever, Great acting.”
- Show-Score user Ray of Light calls the show a “sweetly sentimental autobiographical storyline.”
- Show-Score user Joe 5217 praised the “intimate card tricks.”
- “I did enjoy his stories and if he were a peer I was meeting for the first time, I'd have been like, 'Oh, that's so nice.' All in all I thought it was cute, but the energy was low, and the show felt like a slog. But I did like that so many people around me were delighted.” - My +1 at the show
Read more audience reviews of Jamie Allan’s Amaze on Show-Score.
Who should see Jamie Allan’s Amaze
- Allan name-drops other titan magicians, like Penn & Teller and David Copperfield, and muses about magic history and literature, so fans of magic will appreciate this gateway into the magic profession.
- Amaze is a family affair for parents and kids to appreciate together.
- Magic-goers familiar with Allan's previous work on shows like Illusionarium and Magic Immersive may like to see him in Amaze.
- Even skeptics at Amaze can appreciate Jaime Allen’s fundamental philosophy that wonder and mystery are still part of a magician’s modus operandi.
Learn more about Jamie Allan’s Amaze off Broadway
I appreciated Amaze more than being enraptured. It sustains itself on healthy doses of surprises as its novelty fizzles out in Act 2, but parents and kids may spend worthwhile quality time at the sentimental show.
Photo credit: Jamie Allan in Amaze. (Photos by Danny Kaan)
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