‘Actual wizard’ blends magic with mystery

Blindfolded and apparently disoriented, Vincenzo Ravina stabs a knife wildly through the air. Fifty-two cards lie face down, spread across the table before him.  

Getting his bearings, he finds the table and drives his knife into two of the cards. He throws the first card away, revealing the second one to be the four of clubs, the same card an audience member had drawn just a few minutes prior. 

Ravina stepped on stage Saturday night in Halifax to perform his show, Actual Wizard, for audience members at The Mousetrap, Good Robot Brewing Company’s backroom speakeasy. 

In his show, Ravina delivers a two-hour performance, combining magic with comedy and storytelling. Ravina says he strives to be more than what he calls an “off-the-shelf” magician, coming up with his own tricks and developing new methods of performing classic tricks. 

Ravina, who grew up in Halifax, became interested in magic at a young age. As a teenager, he performed magic tricks at talent shows and birthday parties. Taking a break from performing, he graduated from the journalism program at the University of King’s College in 2010.  

Ravina came back to magic in the last 6 or 7 years, which is when he started writing his own shows. 

In the new year, Ravina plans to take his show from Halifax to the province. Ravina will start by performing at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville on Jan. 25. 

Ravina, who used to do mainly private events, moved his act to public shows two years ago. Since then, he’s been regularly touring around Halifax. 

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said, adding that he started performing publicly in the city because he saw a void for magic performance. Ravina says he remains the only performer in the area who does public shows full-time.  

“I wasn’t sure if it would be a success,” he said. “But people have been regularly coming, regularly selling out the shows.” 

Dee Addario, an audience member selected for a card trick, was willing to believe Ravina, as billed, was an actual wizard.  

“I had faith that this was going to be magic,” she said. 

Ravina says audiences should expect weirdness from his onstage character, saying he developed limited magical powers after falling into the open grave of a dead wizard and getting some of the wizard’s beard hairs in his mouth. 

Ravina was selected to perform on The CW Network’s show Penn & Teller: Fool Us in 2020.  Earlier this year, he was invited to compete against other magicians on Canada’s Got Talent in Niagara Falls. He said performing for his “childhood heroes” on Penn & Teller has been the highlight of his career. 

Ravina said his favourite parts of his shows are the twist endings. Currently, that involves using the audience’s help to solve a fake murder. Ravina’s show does not rely solely on magic tricks but centres around comedic storytelling.  

“Being able to bring that storytelling to a magic show is what’s made it such a fulfilling creative endeavour,” he said. 

Audience member Andrew Reid Rich said he enjoyed the mystery of the show, saying the murder mystery was his favourite part. 

“I liked so much of it because there was so much I didn’t know,” he said. 

Ravina’s next performance of Actual Wizard will be at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax on Dec. 7. He will also host the Actual Wizard’s Mystery Parlor featuring Ian Stuart and The Understudies at the conservatory on Nov. 30.