San Francisco Fringe 2016
Mysterium Show
Keith Boudreau & Erica Valen, Mysterium Productions
Genre: Magic
Venue: Exit Theatre
Festival: San Francisco Fringe
Low Down
“The Mysterium Show is an invitation to a wild and delightful celebration of the supernatural – an opportunity to experience the strangest excitements and explore the boundaries of possibility. The Mysterium resurrects the spirit of magic and leaves all traces of the familiar behind!”
Review
Keith Boudreau and Erica Valen lead you into the mysterious and astounding! They take it in turns to perform their feats of magic and illusion, collaborating on the outstanding final act.
Erica enters slowly in her long dark velvet dress, she is elegant and effortless as she works with a scarf, pushing and pulling it gracefully into an intriguing outcome. Already, the first few minutes of the show are fascinating.
Keith, in pin stripes is dapper, charismatic and personable as he welcomes us as ‘mystery seekers’ and proceeds to tell an interesting story as he maneuvers some thread and then gets a bit geeky. He establishes an easy rapport with the audience who is ready for the unexpected. Sleight of hand follows and ends with panache!
Integrating images, lights, clever use of projections and curious sound effects into their excellent visual storytelling, these two performers weave us under their spell! Boudreau’s tone is sincere and engaging as he cleverly tells his stories producing coins, cards or surprises with flair.
Valen returns to introduce the meaning of several Tarot cards and does a reading onstage, her soft voice is slightly muffled by the musical underscore, but we can understand what’s happening and how impossible this seems. It’s amazing! Now she is in her stride and offers more – however, to tell you would spoil the outcome for those going to the show later, so you will just have to trust me on this!
Boudreau asks if it’s possible to see into the future and goes about exploring this concept and a few others. As in most magic shows one or two audience members are invited to participate and each time the results are astonishing!
The show is well written, well performed and presented on the large stage. Together with the mystery there is humor and ample suspense. They earn the respect of the audience, which is why the audience is deeply engrossed and participants are eager to take part. Boudreau and Valen know their stuff, are highly experienced and quickly establish a series of steps constructing each moment with each volunteer that does not miss a beat. Boudreau and Valen are an interesting team who use every moment to its theatrical advantage as they create their visceral illusory world.
The Mysterium Show is creative and imaginative; it builds very well, delights, surprises and entertains. Both magicians, Keith Boudreau and Erica Valen are flawless! Their show is different from other magic shows because of their original detailed stories that they create around each element of their show. While we may have experienced one or two of the illusions before, they go further, offering a refreshing new way of presenting them as well as some inexplicable feats. This show is highly recommended for those who enjoy wondrous illusion!