With the ubiquity of CGI and AI, the world has lost some of its magic, its capacity to wow.
Prepare to have that sense of wonder restored by taking in “The Enigmatist,” a mesmerizing solo show by New York Times crossword constructor, magician and all-round genial nerd David Kwong.
Just how nerdy is Kwong?
If he asks for your first name — there’s lots of gentle, playful audience interaction — he’ll instinctively tell you what the letters would add up to in a Scrabble game. For instance, he’d say to me: “Glenn … with two Ns? That’s six points.”
He’s not showing off or being nosy. He’s just obsessed with such things. And without that obsession, that attention to detail, this two-hour show would fall apart like a house of cards.
Speaking of cards, they figure prominently early on in the show, as a sort of appetizer. Also on the menu are a piece of fruit that contains a juicy payoff and some sampling of the periodic table of elements (see? more nerdiness).
Throughout, he opens the show up to amateur puzzle sleuths in the audience by having them solve four puzzles — two in each act — with clues projected onto a screen at the front of the venue space at the former home of the Toronto Star. (If you know the answer, you stand up, and he asks you to explain how you solved it, to the amazement and appreciation of the rest of us scratching our heads.)
A couple of sequences stand out in this all-ages show. In one, Kwong takes the tiles from a Scrabble board, gets patrons to randomly choose letters for him and, a timer counting down two-and-a-half minutes, proceeds to build and connect words, including several 50-point-bonus “bingos,” his every move caught by a camera and projected onto a screen.
His pièce de résistance, however, is a full-sized crossword that he constructs on the spot, letting us see how they’re made, tossing out clues, dispensing bits of trivia and making the segment into a word lover’s smorgasbord that keeps on delivering goodies even after it’s completed.
While Kwong, wearing a tailored light grey suit, comes across as perfectly charming, he lacks the extroverted showmanship of someone like a David Blaine or Criss Angel. Then again, it would be hard to imagine either of those two Vegas stars sitting down to a game of Scrabble.
Perhaps it’s Kwong’s Canadian connection showing. His father lived in Toronto for a while and the magician considers the city his second home. Included in the show is an adorable photo of him as a child eating at a Chinese restaurant in Scarborough.
A few more autobiographical details — or personal details that illustrated how he got into the world of puzzles and magic — would give the show some emotional depth. He acted as magic consultant on the first “Now You See Me” film. And he even worked on one of the “Mission: Impossible” movies. No celebrity anecdotes?
Instead, Kwong recounts the story of the birth of cryptography in America through three figures. While full of fascinating detours — including a look at the collected works of one William Shakespeare — this narrative doesn’t add much to the experience.
Furthermore, the production values, including some cheesy piped-in sound effects, could be enhanced to make the show feel a bit more polished.
Still, you won’t be discussing the serviceable set or its lack of direction as you leave the theatre. You’ll be pondering how Kwong pulled off each one of his tricks. Pro tip: try to sit as close to the stage as possible to savour it all.
Producers Starvox Entertainment suggest arriving a half-hour early to solve four puzzles out in the lobby. This will help get you in the spirit of the show.
Whether you’re a puzzle enthusiast or just in search of a little wonder, “The Enigmatist” reminds us that real magic has nothing to do with pixels or computers. In fact, there’s no more wondrous thing than intellect and imagination, and Kwong has both — in spades.
