Travis Bernhardt will shatter your preconception of what a magician can do with nothing more than a deck of cards in two performances at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre.
A Single Deck of Cards is an entirely new show and is one that Bernhardt is excited to bring to the audience of Chilliwack on Nov. 1 and 8.
The show has a special meaning to him and has been an idea he has been sitting on, just waiting to bring it to life.
“The idea of a 90-minute show with nothing but a single deck of playing cards was ridiculous, but the idea stuck with me, I couldn’t shake it,” says Bernhardt. “It just sounded so difficult. Why limit myself this way? What about variety? How on earth would that work?
“But the challenge has been inspiring. I’ve been doing magic for 15 years, 11 of those as a full-time job, and the longer I do it the more I want that challenge. This show has already tested me in ways I didn’t expect, and I think people will like the results,” he adds. “It’s a show of card magic: some of it elegant and sophisticated, some of it… not. The show honours the roots of playing cards in gambling and fortune telling, but my connection to playing cards is primarily through the eccentric lens of the magician, and that’s ultimately what it’s about: what has my devotion to this perfectly ordinary yet perfectly strange little household item meant to me for the last 15 years of my life?”
Playing to sold-out houses at theatre festivals all across Canada since his start in 2008, Bernhardt has worked as the Magic Producer for YTV’s Tricked, as well as designing and writing routines that have appeared on America’s Got Talent. He has worked as a consultant on CBC’s Strange Empire, Fox’s Lucifer, and the USA Network’s Psyche, where he has crafted magic, and trained actors in sleight of hand techniques.
His expertise doesn’t stop at magic though. Bernhardt has been hailed as an intuitive and wildly talented performer for his improvised theatre shows.
A Single Deck of Cards is coming to the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Nov. 1 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Centre Box Office, online at www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca, or by calling 604-391-SHOW(7469).
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