SALEM — Salem native, magician Evan Northrup, appeared Halloween night on the television series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” to showcase his signature style of magic, blending storytelling and illusion.
Northrup’s magic education started on the streets of Salem, where he was inspired by street performers’ abilities to dazzle audiences and hold their attention. This would push Northrup to study abroad in college and travel around Europe as a street performer, learning what it takes to create a trick that keeps audiences entertained.
“Growing up in Salem, I remember every Halloween we would have an incredible band of street performers come through,” he said. “I always wanted to be able to do that — to get people to stop and pay attention. It always felt like a pure form of performing, because anyone who’s stopping to watch your show is there because you’re doing a good job.”
Setting himself apart from other magicians, Northrup uses storytelling as a means of engaging with audiences and bringing a theatrical flair to his performances.
“I’ve always been a storyteller at heart, from Boy Scout campfires up through moth-style storytelling on stages,” Northrup said. “For magicians in particular, there’s something about storytelling that is so impressive — because there’s nothing else. Magicians can usually hide behind their props, but with storytelling it’s just you directly in front of people, and your words. It’s very vulnerable in that sense.”
During his time on “Fool Us,” Northrup performed one of his favorite card-swap tricks, taken from a full art heist-themed performance from his “Mind of a Magician” monthly series. The concept of an art heist-themed performance was born from an audience suggestion, showcasing the skills of misdirection and manipulation that are essential to both magicians and art thieves alike.
“At the end of the show, I would pick a theme suggested by the audience out of a hat, which they would then see at the next month’s show,” Northrup said. “It was a way of learning about show development and defining my own artistic voice, because you have to be more authentic when it’s somewhat improvised — there isn’t enough time to create a whole script and choreography in a month, but that one just really clicked and felt very clear.”
While Northrup explained that he rarely gets nervous before big shows, he admitted it was “pretty terrifying” to perform on a popular TV show of this scale in front of a live studio audience.
“The stakes felt so high,” he said. “You get one shot, because they don’t let Penn and Teller know who is going to walk onto stage until the moment you do. You only get one chance, and you’re managing the live audience while trying to remember all of the things that the crew suggested to you during your 15-minute tech rehearsal, and there’s so much to remember.
“At that point, you just need to shut the brain off a bit and trust that the muscle memory you have embedded in yourself will carry you through,” he said.
Making the situation all the more stressful, after completing his initial tech rehearsal, the crew asked if they could flip the mat displaying the prop map of the “museum” 180 degrees so the overhead camera could film it.
“It may seem like a small change, but suddenly everything that I had practiced every day for months had been flipped,” Northrup said. “Props that were coming from one side of my jacket now made more sense to come from the other side.”
Although Northrup explained that a lot of his magic methods are out-of-the-box, the one he brought to “Fool Us” was an interpretation on a classic card trick method, resulting in him being fairly unsurprised when Penn and Teller managed to figure out his technique.
Returning to New England, Northrup relaunched his touring heist-themed magic shows, beginning last September with a performance at the Crane Estate in Ipswich.
Northrup now lives in Lynn, but still sees Salem and its artistic community as his “creative home.”
“I’m just so thankful for the team,” he said. “I had heard so many horror stories of various talent shows making magicians into jokes, and sometimes we bring it on ourselves, I totally get it. But everyone on this team, from the producers to the microphone, makeup, and logistics people all working in tandem — everyone was just so positive and encouraging.
“While the exterior of the show is this competition among magicians, I think the real heart of it is this collaborative endeavor to show the world better magic, and it was nice to be a part of that,” he said.
The full appearance on “Fool Us” can be found on Northrup’s YouTube page at bit.ly/3XtKaAO
Michael McHugh can be contacted at mmchugh@northofboston.com or at 781-799-5202