Susan Granger’s review of “Asi Wind’s Inner Circle” (Judson Theater Off-Broadway)
If there were a pantheon of psychic entertainers, Asi Wind would be in the top tier. His 75-minute, one-man show “Asi Wind’s Inner Circle” has played for several months Off-Broadway and will no doubt continue for many more.
The intimate setting, resembling a small Greek amphitheater with a large, round table at its center, involves each member of the audience as soon as they take their assigned seats, writing their full names and initials on the blank back of the black-and-red playing cards that Asi will use throughout that performance.
Opening with a monologue explaining how he left Israel and changed his name to become an authentic New Yorker, Asi’s low-key charisma charms and totally disarms the audience. Those who are seated around the center table periodically shuffle and mix the cards as Asi calls out various audience members’ names to be participants.
According to Asi, how we respond to the sound of our names is of great importance, as he proceeds to identify various people whom, presumably, he’s never met before. Obviously, each show is different since the composition of the audience changes – but his remarkable ‘effects’ remain the same.
Asi’s hero – master magician Harry Houdini – understood that it’s not enough to fool people with magic. You have to make them care. “A playing card has information on it but – to most people – the diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades mean nothing,” he candidly explains. “But if you put your name on that card, suddenly it has significance. It’s not a card. It’s a person.”
At one point, an audience member is asked to leave the theater and go across the street to Washington Square Park to ask a random passerby for a number – any number – up to 30. When the audience member returns – after some adding and subtraction – Asi guesses the number.
I’ve seen many ‘close-up’ card magicians but none compare with Asi Wind’s simple, elegant, absolutely undetectable sleight-of-hand. He has even fooled Penn and Teller!
Bottom Line: “Asi Wind’s Inner Circle” is awesome and has been extended to September 3. It’s well worth the trek to The Gym at the Judson Theater at 243 Thompson Street in Manhattan.