This was posted on Wednesday, September 20, 2017 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Michael Carbonaro of truTV's hidden-camera show 'The Carbonaro Effect' is returning to Atlanta for his latest magic show but at a bigger venue than last year's Cobb Energy Centre. He has now moved up to the Fox Theater on Friday. (Tickets still available here.)
"I like to be upfront," he said in an interview earlier this month. "It's the same show. If you haven't seen it, come see it. But if you did see it, come and bring new people!"
There are differences in each show because he includes audience participation, so things can change moment to moment. And since he shot 60 episodes over two seasons of his magic prank show "The Carbonaro Effect" in metro Atlanta, he plans to bring some past participants on stage.
"A lot of people who come to my stage show are die-hard fans and secretly wonder if maybe 'The Carbonaro Effect' is done with camera tricks and actors," he said. "It's not. They come and watch it happen live."
He shot his most recent season in Chicago, which is set to air this fall. He said folks there are a little more emotional in how they react. "There was a politeness in Atlanta that I miss," he said. "They're often so kind, it sometimes gets in the way of the trick."
Carbonaro is excited to do the Fox Theatre, across the street from the Georgian Terrace, where he did a couple of tricks in his very first episode in 2014. In one, he leaves his car with a valet, enters the hotel, then reappears in the trunk of the car. "People literally thought I had dug under the Georgian Terrace to do that trick!" he said.
He recently won the first ever David Copperfield Prize. Copperfield himself called Carbonaro to give him the great news. "I thought I was being pranked," he said. "But it was real." The award is a giant towering crystal piece of glass that is almost invisible from different angles.
And with Halloween around the corner, Carbonaro is planning a live-stream reading of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.
"I love Halloween!" he said. "How I got into magic was through special effects and horror. I wanted to be a makeup artist and I used to buy supplies from a magic shop."
"Freddy Krueger was my ultimate hero," he added. "I tried to imagine myself as a hybrid of David Copperfield and Freddy Krueger."
TV PREVIEW
Michael Carbonaro Live!
7 p.m. Friday, September 22, 2017
$39.50-$150
Fox Theatre
660 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta
About the Author
