Bunny and I went to see Michael Carbonaro [1] at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts [2]. Carbonaro is a magician known for his television show The Carbonaro Effect [3], a show in the vein of Candid Camera [4], where he performs magic tricks on unsuspecting people. We were not entirely sure what to expect for a live performance though.
The opening act was meh (a comedian who laughed at his own jokes, has a website at … um … “drunken … mumble … something dot … com?” Not very memorable) but Carbonaro was great! His magic isn't anything we haven't seen before—mostly standard magical acts (restoring a torn newspaper, some mentalism acts, turning a coin into a gold fish) but it was his presentation that made them work (the torn newspaper done as an example of déjà vu, having a tatoo of an audience member's name on his chest, using a child to color a quarter orange before turning it into a fish).
He also has a wicked, but family friendly, sense of humor that made the two hour show fly by.
And his use of shaving cream was unique. I've never seen that done and frankly, never thought of using it in that way.
Oh, what way? I'm sorry, you'll just have to see the show to see how he transforms shaving cream into something special and unique.
[1] http://www.michaelcarbonaro.com/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRdoAo1_RF0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBH1PpAu9UZ0Dkn6qGqGsmg