David Parr and an audience member
Chicago Magic Lounge Presents DAVID PARR’S TIME TRAVELER Review - The History of Mystery and Magic
TLDR: Magician David Parr combines two of his greatest passions, magic and history, in his original act Time Traveler. As Chicago Magic Lounge’s fall artist in residence, he pairs each of his illusions with a story or tidbit from a different time period, showing off his mastery of our traditional Chicago-style sleight of hand magic.
David Parr and audience members
Commanding The Room
As always our night out at the Chicago Magic Lounge starts at the front bar for a cocktail and bar magic. This evening our magician at the bar is Deven. He makes the rounds to the patrons at the bar, entertaining them with a classic trick or two before his pre-show set at the center of the ring. Bad puns and groan-worthy jokes are in abundance for his set and afterwards we are primed and ready for the main show.
This time, our Wednesday night magician is David Parr for his act entitled Time Traveler. On top of a table sitting center stage are scrapbook and memorabilia boxes, each with a date on their front label. 1600s. 1800s. It seems there’s a box for every century. Parr makes his first appearance calmly walking out on stage with a glass Coca-Cola bottle. He places it on the table, slowly and leisurely taking his time with his intro, making sure we’re paying attention to his words and the bottle itself. He slips it into a seemingly empty brown paper bag and with one quick gesture crumples it into a ball. There’s no shatter, no broken glass. But he tilts the bag and out rolls a toy, one of those prizes you’d get from a quarter vending machine.
It’s the perfect introduction to Parr. He’s calm, cool, and collected, not in a rush to get his words out and lets us take our time to observe exactly what he’s doing. He’s a seasoned and practiced performer and he sets that as the tone for the rest of Time Traveler.
David Parr and audience members
Everything Aligns As It Should
Parr’s second great love after magic (or perhaps tied for first) is history. For each trick, he pulls one of the boxes from the table while telling us an interesting event from that year. He tells us about the Winchester Mystery Mansion and calls an audience member up to show how even in spirit, it will always align everything to the number thirteen.
He takes us back to the ancient Egyptians and shows us one of the very first magic tricks ever performed. Though that one at the time apparently involved a live bird and this one luckily just involves a paper one.
He’s a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and pulls out a copy and reads audience members’ minds from one singular word they read from the book.
When he gets to the box labeled 2012, he shows us the trick that catapulted him to fame when he appeared on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us, where he did indeed fool them with the “Deadman’s Hand.”
Though the theme of his show is “time traveler” with each illusion themed towards different time periods with history behind them, the real backbone of his show is true Chicago-style magic - the sleight of hand. Each illusion is deceptively simple, but he makes sure everyone in the audience can see exactly what’s happening on stage with an overhead camera. And even though we can see every single move he makes, we still don’t know how he does it.
David Parr and an audience member
The After Party Thoughts
Parr was kind enough to come say hello after the show, so I gave him my honest reaction right in the moment - it was, and I quote, fucking fantastic. When magic and illusions have been your career for this long, it shows in your act. All of his illusions were so simple and yet we still could not tell how he dealt himself and an audience member the same exact hand of cards or how he made a lightbulb in a glass light itself up. Those are the kind of acts that you want to see because you know it’s an illusion, but you can’t prove it so you just have to believe.
For those that aren’t fans of history or if you’re looking for someone that may actually travel through time, then Parr’s tie-ins and up-close illusions might not interest you that much. However, for those that are looking for an engaging night of magic and disbelief, David Parr’s Time Traveler would be a great fit for you!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
When
Now through December 16, 2026
Where
Chicago Magic Lounge
5050 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60640
Runtime: 1hr 45min, no intermission
Tickets
$44+
Tickets can be purchased through the Chicago Magic Lounge website
Photos
Sarah Elizabeth Larson
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