Antonio Diaz, who performs under the stage name El Mago Pop, is one of the world’s most popular magicians. And he really, really, wants you to know it. The marquee of the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where he’s currently performing his first Broadway engagement, features a laudatory quote from Forbes magazine — not one attesting to the magician’s brilliance or the spectacular qualities of his show, but rather “Highest-Grossing European Illusionist.” It’s hard to know who’s responsible for putting it there, his publicist or his accountant.
The boastfulness of this Spanish illusionist doesn’t stop there. Magicians are not generally known for their modesty or bashfulness, but Diaz takes it to another level. Probably about 15 minutes of his roughly 70-minute performance — standard for a Vegas showroom, but awfully short for Broadway — is taken up with cheesy biographical videos attesting to his massive popularity and featuring his private plane with his name emblazoned on the side.
We learn that he owns his own theater in Barcelona and that he’s just acquired a theater in Branson, Missouri that will be his U.S. base (joining the ranks of such esteemed international performers as Yakov Smirnov). The show’s Playbill includes a one-page description of his exploits, as well as another full-page bio which repeats much of the information. Yes, for all his international popularity Diaz is still largely unknown in America, despite some hit Netflix specials. But this feels less like an introduction than meeting a blind date who shows up with an entourage in tow.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Diaz is 37-years-old, but seems much younger, coming across like an overgrown adolescent happily performing for his fellow middle-school students. His verbal patter, which can sometimes be hard to understand because of his ultra-fast delivery, heavy accent, and thin, reedy voice, bursts with pride and enthusiasm for the magic he’s showing you.
His illusions lean toward the David Copperfield style, with large props and spectacular effects. He also does some close-up magic, such as card tricks that he performs in the aisles and that are shown in close-up on a large video screen. His sleight-of-hand capabilities are certainly impressive, as is his skill at juggling playing cards. (If you don’t think that’s difficult, try it.)
He performs mind-reading tricks as well, similar in style to Israeli magician Asi Wind in his current hit off-Broadway show except with much more bombast. Some of Diaz’s illusions are extremely old-school, such as tearing up paper and reassembling it, but he gives it a neat theatrical touch by pretending to be in a film being shown in reverse.
His heart, though, is in the large-scale illusions, including one in which he suddenly makes a helicopter appear onstage (someone should have told him that Miss Saigon beat him to the punch decades ago). He does some impressive aerial work with wires, flying around the stage as if auditioning for the next Peter Pan revival (he’s certainly got the boyish charm for it). But his principal trick, one which he performs in several variations, is to have one or more people, including himself, appear one moment in a large transparent cube and then suddenly reappear in another one across the stage. It’s a spectacular illusion, but one that wears thin with repetition.
He performs with six extremely thin, agile assistants and, if my suspicions are correct, enough plants in the audience to fill an arboretum. The show features the sort of lavish video and projection effects suitable for Vegas, or in his case, Branson, and a suitably pseudo-hip soundtrack featuring the likes of Morrissey, Bowie, and Coldplay.
Lacking the sort of self-conscious irony endemic to so many contemporary magic shows, El Mago Pop provides a reasonably entertaining magical diversion, especially for younger audiences who will best respond to Diaz’s boundless enthusiasm. More jaded viewers may come to resent the overblown and self-aggrandizing aspects of the production, which concludes a showering of so much confetti that you’ll probably be spending the next few hours removing the damn stuff from your clothing.
El Mago Pop opened August 20, 2023, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and runs through August 27. Tickets and information: elmagopop.com
