At Liberty Magic in the Cultural District through January 14t, 2024
By JESSICA NEU
Stand-up comedy and professional magic are unique skills that require years of practice to perfect their craft. While many of us believe that we are funny enough to be a stand-up comedian or strong enough to be a magician, those who are talented enough to perfect both are pretty rare.
Pittsburgh native Michael Misko is one of these rare talents who is as hilarious as he is talented. Misko’s show, I Laugh in the Face of Magic!, is the latest residency at Liberty Magic and played to the fullest crowd I have seen thus far for an opening night residency.
Misko’s show is four-fold. There is his scripted stand-up routine that he cleverly weaves throughout the show to keep audiences laughing the entire time. He tells jokes throughout the show, and his humor is a blend of aggressive, raunchy, and wickedly intelligent, which stylistically offers a pleasant ebb and flow to the performance.
Second is the comedic improv element, based on audience participation and reaction, making his show unique each night. No audience member is safe from being called upon to answer a question, participate in the show, or even called out for not laughing at a joke. It is within this improvisational realm that Misko’s personality shines. He connects with the audience on a personal level and is among a small subset of performers who can make an insult funny instead of cringy.
Then there is Misko’s ability to make magic almost satirical. How often have we seen a magic trick and rolled our eyes or found the trick and delivery to be subpar or corny? Misko opens up that notion and offers audiences a space to laugh about magicians’ sometimes-overdone tricks. Misko also cleverly uses comedy to explore the intersection of magic and the impossible. He questions how amazing it would be if a bouncy ball traveled out of the cup it sat in on stage, rolled down onto the ground, only to travel up and land in an audience member’s pocket, only to conclude by saying, “of course that would be great, but that’s not possible.”
I Laugh in the Face of Magic! is an honest exploration into the art of magic that adds to Misko’s likeability as a performer. Misko is undoubtedly talented but also does not take himself too seriously.
Finally, not to be lost in the humor and satirical approach to magic is the fact that Misko is a genuinely gifted magician. He performs tricks using ropes, an audience member’s wedding ring, and playing cards that are part sleight of hand and part illusion but always result in the audience’s amazement and disbelief. As mentioned earlier, each trick integrates the three styles to keep audiences laughing and engaged as they try to predict Misko’s next move.
Misko asked if anyone in the audience happened to have a $100 bill on hand, which, oddly enough, I did. I offered him the money with the promise I would get it back in full by the end of the show – I got my exact $100 bill back at the end of the show; it just reappeared in a more “fruitful” manner.
Misko capitalizes on the deep personalization of the show in its closing. He tells the audience about his grandfather, who introduced him to magic at a young age. His grandfather always amazed him by making a marble egg disappear and reappear. Misko then attempted to replicate the trick with his grandfather, pretending to be amazed. When his grandfather passed away several years later, the magic egg was, in fact, the only heirloom Misko’s grandmother parted with at the time of his death. This egg served as the catalyst for Misko to begin practicing magic to the point of mastery. Misko then brings audiences to the present day, where he shares his gift with his two young daughters. The beauty in this vignette is that Misko shifts the focus of his story away from his talents and discusses how his daughters find magic in the mundane of the everyday. As a video reel of Misko and his family plays in the background, he talks about how his daughters discover magic by splashing in rain puddles, kissing their dog, and blowing bubbles.
Misko concludes with a beautiful trick while serenading the audience with a song from a popular Disney film. To quote the late Walt Disney, “magic is as wide as a smile, and as narrow as a wink, loud as laughter and quiet as a tear, tall as a tale and deep as emotion. So strong it can lift the spirit. So gentle it can touch the heart.”
Michael Misko’s show fulfills all of the above for a truly magical, thoughtful, and emotional experience.
TICKETS & DETAILS
Michael Misko in I Laugh in the Face of Magic! has performances from December, 6th to January, 14th 2024, at Liberty Magic, a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Tickets at https://trustarts.org/production/87229/list_performances
Categories: Show Previews
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