Kyle Littleton (@Littletonmagic) was in The Parlor of Prestidigitation and performed a wonderful act that truly fooled us but more importantly entertained us. His approach to Magic is unique and his skills are amazing. He has appeared on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us and although he did not fool them he did entertain thoroughly the pros and their audience.  (Visit Mr. Littleton’s Twitter feed for the Fool Us clip here).

We were flattered to be brought up on stage as an assistant in his final routine. Although we stood but a few feet from him, we were not able to have any clue how his effect was done.

And we like that. A great magician, in our opinion, is one who truly fools and entertains.  We doubt that he needs our endorsement to be considered one of the up-and-coming great magicians in our but we’re here to give it anyway. His style is relaxed, self-effacing and kind.  Even his jokes fit nicely with what he is performing — this is a skill we would love to learn one day.

Just a few feet away from Mr. Littleton’s theater is the Palace of Mystery where we saw Dale Salwak perform the classics of magic in a classical style.

We can’t think of the last time we saw The Zombie Ball performed much less with the ability and beauty of Mr. Salwak.  He was introduced as a man who performs tricks in seconds that have taken years to perfect and the description was accurate.  Here was a true professional performing the effects we have all attempted to learn and failed.  He produced cards, split fans, coins and other items with grace.  Some of the lay members of the audience that night were awed by the performance.  To them it was a first time seeing these classics.  We were awed in seeing effects done so often, poorly, performed so incredibly well.

The Magic Castle is back and chocked full of great magic perfect for all ages of performers and audience members.

We love being fooled almost as much as we love sitting next to someone uttering “No Way!” as the effect comes to its amazing conclusion.  Mr. Littleton and Mr. Salwak brought both experiences on a truly magical night.

By the way, we weren’t able to find an unprotected version of Mr. Littleton’s image and so we’ve included an image of a magician having the same effect on his audience a few years ago.