With a year-ending successful run in 2023 with The Pirates of Prestidigitation, Ron Giesecke brings his storytelling/sleight-of-hand chops back to perform what has been essentially a concept show—one that centers around the Christmas season.
In 2002, he was sitting on his living room floor, with a facsimile copy of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and wondered if it was possible to tell the whole story with a single deck of cards.
“For some reason, I had a poetic urge that day,” he says. “And as is the case with my creative hits, this thing was fleshed out and in nearly complete form in two hours.”
The routine, Apologies to Dickens was sold as a manuscript in the magic market, to some acclaim.
“I occasionally see my name in bibliographies,” he said. “And I have it on good authority that the guy who made the Statue of Liberty disappear might have it in his library.”
Ultimately, he contends that the only real place for the routine is the stage. “It was intended to be seen, not talked about,” he says. “And there’s a moment that will leave the audience gasping in disbelief if I sell the moment.”
Thus the show at hand: In Search of Christmas Past.
“I’m basing the show on Ebenezer Scrooge, who walked through a three-fold redemptive process that made him whole again. And part of that was a walk down memory lane.”
Giesecke’s show promises some new material, with some directly correlating to the subject at hand: his magical childhood memories of Christmases gone by, and his hope that the future holds the same for others in the same way.
Appropriate for all ages, though it may be sophisticated for small children.