CARNIVAL IN RENO, By John Moehring
Reprinted by permission / MAGIC Magazine 2001

It’s doubtful if a more intimate, atmospheric, and thematic magic show has ever been staged at a resort hotel. Describing Carnival of Wonder’s debut at the Flamingo Hilton in Reno, Nevada. (MAGIC, May 1999), Mike Caveny wrote: “It’s a world of a tightly woven tapestry of drama and theatrics, thrills and laughter, all bound together by a shroud of mystery that ultimately produces an unforgettable evening.” Those words still ring true as, two-and-a-half years later, the show plays on a stupendously grand stage, once proclaimed by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest.

Carnival of Wonders starring Kalin & Jinger is a theatrical experience that is simply sublime.

The word "sublime" is an adjective I’ve wanted to use for years, but, quite frankly, never really discovered a subject (most often a magic show) that I felt worthy of linking it with. If you happen to read to the last paragraph of this four-page story about the noble show-biz ventures of Mark Kalin and Jinger Leigh, you’ll find a dictionary definition of sublime. It’s there for a quick final reference…to see if you might also conclude that the seven-letter qualifier suits this show.

Just as Carnival of Wonders is sublime, it is ingeniously humorous, highly memorable, and downright bizarre. One of the most bizarre effects in the latest version of Carnival has to be the disappearance of a humongous airplane by a trio of performers portraying traveling magicians of a bygone era.

With a somewhat sly smile, producer/performer Mark Kalin says, “The last thing I ever thought I would be doing is vanishing a jumbo jet at the end of Carnival of Wonders.” Yet, adding the awesome illusion was the paramount to making the deal to move the two-year-old production from the squanky showroom of the Flamingo Hilton to the majestic theater at the Reno Hilton. “It’s a business thing. It gives the hotel something to ballyhoo.” The superhype of The Largest, Live, Nightly Vanish in the History of Magic! is prominent in media promotions for miles and miles around. Kalin claims that the show finally has “dominating feature.” I think that translates to “the trick’s selling lots of tickets.”

In retrospect, Mark says, “We always knew that the Flamingo Hilton was a stepping stone. They had a great little theater, and we had just enough budget to mount Carnival.” However, the hotel was plagued with management problems. It had been on the selling block for almost ten years. “It was a ‘C”-rated property, but we capitalized on that underdog thing. Our show brought more people to the hotel than they’d had in a long time. There was a resurgence in their revenues.”

Kalin and Jinger were only one-and-a-half years into their three-year Flamingo contract when talks and meetings were initiated with the Reno Hilton. “At the time, the biggest challenge was the fact the hotel did not want a production show.” They claimed to have lost untold sums of money on production show deals in the ‘90’s. After unsuccessful runs of shows with titles ranging from Arias to Nightbeat to Work that Skirt, hotel execs were convinced they should now go to a star or celebrity policy in the theater.

“Never before was I as prepared for a presentation as I was for this one,” Kalin recalls. Armed with script treatments, budget sheets, art boards, and even a working model of the theater and the stage, Kalin and Company, scene by scene, graphically showed how Carnival of Wonders would work in the showroom. “I knew that management was interested in other things for the theater, so we had to hit them with our best shot.” The proposed idea of vanishing the jet plane was saved for the finale of the well-rehearsed pitch.

“I had called Jim Steinmeyer and Don Wayne to help with the accuracy of the statement I made about the plane trick. When I told everybody in the room that this illusion would be ‘the largest, live, nightly vanish in the history of magic,’ I knew we had pushed the right buttons. You could sense the mental calculations going on, especially among the marketing and promotions guys.” From the moment the jumbo jet was thrown into the equation, the proposal to buy Carnival of Wonders took a quantum leap toward becoming a doable deal. But it would take time to hammer out an equitable contract. Carnival ran at the Flamingo through Christmas week of 2000.

“I don’t even know what you would call the final agreement that was reached. It’s basically a four-wall deal. We now have 53 employees. That includes every one of the performers, the stage and tech crew, house staff, even the bartenders and waiters.”

Constantly listening to the suggestions of Jim Steinmeyer (Carnival’s writer and illusion designer), Don Wayne (creative consultant), Joanie Spina (director and choreographer), and the ever-present Jinger (a little of all the aforementioned, as well as business manager, production coordinator, principal performer, and backstage mom), Mark Kalin has an obsession with messing around with the creative flux. Mark calls it working on the “work in progress.” However, when a producer keeps “changing the dynamics,” “tweaking the mood,” and “playing with the intimate chemistry” – just to throw in some of the Kalin jargon – it seems that the long-lost backroom boys’ term, “messing around with the creative flux,” sounds more mystical and meaningful.

In the newest incarnation of the show, there’s a “seamless” quality to the staging of the magic. An illusion that is themed for a scene just appears from somewhere. It’s probably rolled onstage on casters, but nobody notices. That’s because a magnificent painted backdrop flew in sometime, perhaps a moment or two before an assistant, sporting a new costume that blends with the stage setting, made her entrance. To wit, in the House of Horrors scene, the four-legged “Cremation” illusion is never questioned by the actors (or audience for that matter) as being anything more than a exquisite piece of thermostatically controlled Transylvania-dutch ballroom furniture.

The presentation of the “Table of Terror” – because of its tension-filled dialogue (written by Steinmeyer) and its cinematic-like direction (by Spina) – still remains the dramatic highlight of the show. Again, the flow of the scene and the staging of the escape illusion are seamless, akin to watching a scary dream sequence of a motion picture.

This fall, the team of Kalin, Jinger, Steinmeyer, Wayne, and Spina will be putting a new sequence into the show that promises to be different. Reckoning back to the show theme that ”all the world’s a carnival of life” Kalin says, ‘One thing we haven’t dealt with, if our show really does touch on all aspects of life, is death.” It has finally come time to shut up and get our feet wet. We are trying it out in September, and it will come at the end of the Tunnel of love sequence.”

Life and death, dreams and nightmares, thrills and laughter, and life’s little surprises, those are the things that Kalin says, “give us great directions to travel with our show.” What’s down the road for Carnival of Wonders? “Well, we have ah open-ended deal here. There’s a minimum guarantee of two years, which then gives us the opportunity to negotiate and stay longer, or move on.”

Carnival of Wonders has moved to a bigger venue. Moreover, the magical tour de force continues to realize its dreams of expanding far beyond the intimate paths thus far traveled. And, of far greater importance, the show will always be exploring the mysteries of life. What could be more sublime?

Sub•lime adj. 1. Noble; exalted; majestic 2. Inspiring awe or admiration through grandeur, beauty 3. [Colloq.] outstandingly or supremely such 4. [Archaic] a. elated, joyful; b. proud, lofty, haughty; c. upraised, aloft