Photo by David Linsell
FROM: OpusOneReview
June 18, 2013 by Stanley Fefferman
Steve Cohen tricks you into feeling wonder-full. When he guesses that your last vacation was scuba diving in the Marquesas, or asks if the card in your pocket is the 4 of clubs, your doubts about him vanish, and instead of anwsering YES, you shout OMIGAWD!
Mr. Cohen calls his act Chamber Magic, because like chamber music, it is designed for a setting that is intimate and elegant, like the suite he rents in Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria where he performs regularly, or like the drawing-room of the heritage George Brown House in Toronto, where, dressed in a Saville Row morning-coat, Steve took possession of a small, well-dressed Luminato crowd.
It takes Steve Cohen and hour and a half to set up the room (with things you never get to see or find out about) for the dozen 8 minutes tricks that make up his 90 minute show of card tricks, coin tricks, objects that appear, disappear and multiply, mentalist tricks, and his signature “Think-a-drink.”
He’s got this kettle. Last night he poured, in succession, 5 drinks requested by members of the audience who drank, with pleasure and amazement: a Mohito, a Gatorade (blue), a Manhattan, a Cabernet (2006), and, get this, a chocolate malted milk. The audience totally gave it up for him. Steve also mentioned that if anyone wanted to purchase a kettle like his, they are available at Bed Bath and Beyond, in the “Beyond” section.
Impeccable skills, Steve’s impeccable skills, bouyant personality, and the elegance of his presentation are what make his close-up conjuring such wonderful fun. What Steve Cohen does is art because for a while, in his room, as part of his audience, the world feels golden with possibilities.