Magic was made last night at the opening of “The Illusionists” at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. With a large screen reflecting what was going on the stage so you wouldn’t miss a trick, (no pun intended).

 The show started off with a very funny Jeff Hobson, known as the Trickster, who could put Liberace and/or Ru Paul to shame with some of his very funny lines. (He starts off in the Playbill describing himself as ‘the only natural blond in the show’. He bounced jokes off audience members, even involving some in his tricks, always with a smile on his face and putting one on those all over the theatre.

Dan Sperry, the Anti-Conjuror, who has appeared on “America’s Got Talent”, combines the macabre with his magic that at times can be a little hard for the children (and me!) to watch but you couldn’t take your eyes off of him.

Kevin James, the Inventor, takes the old ‘saw a person in half’ tricks and bring it into the 21^st century plus how many magicians do you know who can make it snow in Miami?

Yu Ho-Jin, the Manipulator, starts with a scarf and turns it into so many different card tricks that even if you could figure out how he just did that one he is on to another.

Ben Blaque, the Weapon Master, using a crossbow slices a piece of paper across the stage along with busting balloons, hitting a small bull’s-eye with many arrows, sometimes held in an assistant’s mouth, but it is his shooting an apple off his own blindfolded eyes through a Rube Goldberg’s sort of set up that made many in the audience gasp.

Colin Cloud, the Deductionist, does a mind boggling mind reading set that will just have you shaking your head in wonder.

Last, but not least, is Andrew Basso, the Escapologist, was the only disappointment to me, not that what he did wasn’t entertaining or didn’t keep you puzzled as to how he did what he was doing but there wasn’t a Houdini-like escape from a water tank or from hanging upside down in the air from the ceiling of the stage, acts for which he is known all over the world.

There are seven magic assistants and/or dancers giving the show a little unneeded Las Vegas glitz and there is some very loud music but nothing distracts the audience from the acts.

The world of magic and wonderment for all the audience is when Kevin James takes a very young girl from the audience and lets her help him make a folded piece of paper dance and changes it into a paper rose and then a real rose. It takes you back to a time when you believed in magic and “The Illusionists” makes you believe again.

The show runs 2 hours, fifteen minutes including a 20 minute intermission.