The simplest way to put it is also the best: Derek Hughes is good. He is, in fact, almost unfairly good: he’s both witty enough and good enough at magic that he could easily let either half of his show’s equation rest on the laurels of the other, and yet both are equally great. Watching Hughes perform in Bag of Tricks, the latest show to grace the small-but-mighty stage at Downtown’s Liberty Magic, is the prestidigitation equivalent of a really great album: no filler, all hits.
A short introductory video pulled from Season 10 of America’s Got Talent (when Hughes was a finalist on the show) covers the basics of his life story: during recovery from major surgery at the age of 10, Hughes received a magic kit as a get-well gift, and the rest is history. Describing a magician’s path to the profession is a fairly standard way to start a show, but in Hughes’s case, it stands in juxtaposition to an extraordinary performance that follows. The show is tightly written, with a through-line provided by a retelling of the story of Humpty Dumpty written by Hughes himself. The tricks flow into each other seamlessly and effortlessly, guided as much by Hughes’s magical abilities as by his natural ease on stage and keen sense of improvisational humor.
Hughes was particularly graceful in his interaction with the audience—which, on the evening I saw Bag of Tricks, was boisterous in a way that could easily have gotten out of hand. Hughes instead masterfully used the energy to the show’s advantage. His audience volunteers never came across as mere props, but were instead truly incorporated into his act. This is due in no small part to the fact that Hughes uses his humor to put everyone in the room at ease, and not to make a power play.
But make no mistake: Hughes is in control the whole time, and thank goodness he is. I won’t give away the specifics of individual tricks (though a quick YouTube search would reveal the general idea to anyone interested), but two phrases used throughout the show give a sense of its tone. Hughes’s refrain during the evening is the magic of “turning a no to a yes”—of making something impossible happen, of changing minds, of revealing the latent potential of a situation. In order to achieve this alchemy, Hughes creates a second through-line in the show, a trick he calls his “commitment to our astonishment.” There’s no doubt about either part of that phrase: Hughes has the panache of a performer who must work his tail off, off-stage, to make things look so effortless on-stage—and “astonishment” is certainly the right word for what the entire audience felt as a result.
Hughes has created a show that is not only a great piece of magic but a great piece of theater in general, truly elevating his art. His run at Liberty Magic is largely sold out, but if you can snag a ticket, I can’t recommend enough that you do so: it’s a chance to experience the pure joy of a master of his craft sharing that mastery with warmth and wit. (And if you can swing it, this is a great time to try a Skeleton Key VIP ticket, which gives ticketholders access to an additional mini-performance and Q&A after the show—once you see what Hughes can do on the main stage, you’ll want to see the encore.)
Bag of Tricks runs through Sunday, February 16th. Tickets can be purchased online at the Liberty Magic website.
Laura Caton grew up as a military brat and has lived in six states and two countries, but considers Pittsburgh her adopted hometown. She moved back to Pittsburgh in 2017 after four years of working in theater administration in New York City. When she’s not writing about theater, she can be found translating German novels, watching anything that bears even a passing resemblance to a Nora Ephron movie, and reading omnivorously.
Categories: Archived Reviews