Arthur Trace brings his artistic magic show to Beaver Creek

Magic forces us to wonder, an ability that lessens as the number of candles on the birthday cake increases each year.

“The ability to wonder is somehow lost in many of us as we grow older,” said Arthur Trace, the self-dubbed “Artful Deceiver.”

Renewing that lost sense is what Trace aspires to do with his show.

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As Trace sees it, magic is beautiful. That’s why his Twitter tagline is “Trying to create something beautiful.”

“A perfectly structured and executed trick should not only fool, but also inspire the mind to question everything it knows,” said the Los Angeles-based entertainer. “When the mind is incapable of finding a solution or answer, then it is forced to escape reality.”

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And really, as anyone who has had to take their vomiting cat to the vet the same day their spouse is having surgery and their child is cutting her third tooth knows, “reality can be a drag,” Trace said.

“So, as a magician I’m able to present mysteries that allow people to escape their reality and enter a world that works differently than the one they know,” he said. “And that is a beautiful thing.”

Trace brings his Artful Deceiver show to the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek on Tuesday. It’s the first time he’s performed in the area.

“I’m excited because, like many, I think Colorado is one of the most beautiful states,” he said. “Unfortunately, my travel schedule only affords me enough time to fly in, perform and fly out. I’ll have to come back and enjoy Beaver Creek when I have more time.”

Indeed.

‘HIGHLY INTERACTIVE’

Trace doesn’t have an ideal audience, but he does have an ideal venue — “small, intimate theaters,” he said — and the Vilar Center fits the profile nicely.

“I want to be able to see my audience and connect with them up close,” he said. “Smaller venues allow me to do just that.”

Don’t expect a typical magic show from Trace, who is more likely to incorporate an abstract painting into his show rather than a rabbit in a hat.

“It’s not illusions,” he said. “It’s not me coming out with an assistant and sawing people in half. I think that’s been done already. I take pride in creating a lot of the materials and props that are in the show. It’s very much an artful take on magic. Artful deception means magic uplifted to an art.”

Back to that abstract painting. In one act, Trace pulls objects out of the painting, transforming them from two dimensional objects into three dimensions, and then he reverses it, placing them back in the painting. The whole thing is choreographed to music, which is another component of Trace’s show, used to punctuate the magic happening.

“There’s a lot of humor in my show,” he said. “It’s highly interactive.”

In another act, Trace stops time — using an hourglass, that is.

“There’s a lot of physical activity going on in it,” he said. “(That act) has to be live, it doesn’t necessarily work on TV. In a theater … that’s where it’s meant to be experienced.”

Some show attendees are willing to suspend disbelief, while others are more challenging, “and require a bit more persuasion,” he said.

“That’s fine, if they want to challenge me in that respect,” he said. “Good magic will win that audience over. You have to want them to be along for the ride.”

Come January, Trace will appear on the series Masters of Illusion on the CW Network. It’s his third appearance, he said.

“Each episode of the series Masters of Illusion features a handful of great magicians performing their signature routines,” Trace said. “I can’t reveal the routine that I’ll be performing on the show, but tune in to the CW Network on Jan. 9 and find out.”

As with his magic, Trace likes to leave you wondering.