Artist in Residence
David Parr
Join award-winning magician David Parr for a guided tour of his collection of magical curiosities. David has gathered his favorite artifacts and stories to share with you in this sixty-minute show of mystery and magic. Every shelf of David Parr’s Cabinet of Curiosities offers an encounter with something weird and wonderful. Each object has a story — some strange, some spooky, some amusing, and all of them amazing.
Which curiosities will be featured in tonight’s show? There’s only one way to find out: pick a numbered tag and that will lead to the next mysterious item on the shelf. It might be a macabre toy from 18th-century France. Or a golden goblet from a dinner party in Renaissance Italy. Or maybe a treasured book from David’s childhood. Some objects look deceptively ordinary — an old deck of playing cards, perhaps, or a spool of silver thread. But in David Parr’s hands, they come alive with magical possibilities…
Magic fans will recognize David from his appearance on the hit TV show Penn & Teller: Fool Us. There, his magic was put to the ultimate test in front of the cameras, a live audience of hundreds, millions of TV viewers, and two very savvy Las Vegas magicians. (Spoiler alert…) David fooled their faces off and not only took home the coveted Fool Us trophy, but also won a guest spot in their live show at the Rio hotel!
Before opening his Cabinet of Curiosities, David created and costarred in Chicago’s longest-running weekly magic show, The Magic Cabaret, which was chosen by the Travel Channel as one of the top nine magic shows in the nation!
When David is not busy mystifying audiences at the Chicago Magic Lounge, he can often be found haunting other atmospheric locations: performing sleight of hand at Hollywood’s prestigious Magic Castle, or doing original shows such as Haunting History at the Evanston History Center or The Magic Hour at the Brumder Mansion in Milwaukee.
In the hidden world of magicians, David is best known for his theatrical performing style and for his writing and teaching skills. He has published several highly regarded books for magicians, been a technical consultant to theatrical productions, presented at academic conferences, and provided guidance and instruction to magicians at lecture appearances across the United States. For a decade or so, he was a featured columnist, proofreader, and copy editor for MAGIC Magazine, the world’s top magic journal. His thought-provoking writings about the art of magic have also been featured in publications in Germany, France, Australia, Denmark, and Sweden.
