So.Cal Guide Review by Valerie Summers

Not a member of the Magic Castle but love magic?  Not a problem.  

Illusionist extraordinaire Ivan Amodei transports his audience into the world of magic each Friday and Saturday evening amidst the grandeur of the landmark Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The venue itself sets the mood for a night of elegance, music and surprises.  

Entering the hotel’s opulent lobby, filled with fresh flower arrangements, guests ascend a spiral staircase and enter into an elegant candlelit salon. At the front, a lavishly decorated stage sets the mood for something out of the ordinary.


The show begins as Cellist Irina Chirkova, wearing an elaborate Venetian mask and a knock-out crimson evening gown ascends to the stage and begins her enchanted accompaniment to Amodei’s evening of magic.  

Each show is different but the one I attended began with a voice over a loudspeaker choosing a member of the audience to go on stage. This time, a rather scruffy old man made his way onto the stage but magically transformed into the very handsome, elegantly tuxedoed Ivan Amodei.  

The evening was off to a wonderful start with the audience already surprised and chuckling. Not only did Amodei’s “bag of tricks” surprise and delight audience members, but his humor kept us laughing.
 The show incorporated a lot of audience participation with the choosing of numbers, letters, colors and cities around the world and offered surprises involving cell phones of audience members. This felt like mind reading….who knows?  

Spitting needles into specific designs on a delicious looking apple had the audience gasping. There were clever card tricks and Houdini-like performances, a bit of Einstein and the Rain Man.  Guests wondered about the Mona Lisa replica which graced the stage and it all became clear in the illusion created using the psychological aspects one of the world’s most famous works of art.


Ninety minutes flew by and the audience which this master illusionist captivated departed the magical space to re-enter the real world, enchanted and baffled by the ever changing evening of magic.

Read review on Valerie's site.

VC Star Article 2012

The illusions that magician Ivan Amodei packs in his powerhouse bag of tricks have a potent payoff after the bluff and bluster."All of them have a shocking ending that no one can see coming," Amodei said in an interview from his Somis home last week.

At that very moment, when audience members' mouths are agape and a hush has fallen over the room, Amodei also hopes his rapt captives learn something. He strives to create storylines with his tricks and illusions and impart meaning at the end, tossing out "time is really an asset" and "go with your gut feeling" as examples. All, he added, rolled in with comedic fun.

Amodei will pack some new mind-boggling tricks (and a few familiar faves) involving the mysterious Mona Lisa, shattered glass and spittin' needles when he returns to an old haunt, the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, for three "Intimate Illusions" shows Saturday afternoon and evening.

The Mona Lisa bit stems from a trip Amodei took to Paris. Struck by how Louvre patrons were entranced by the famous painting, he decided to create an illusion involving the work's psychological aspects, what he termed "the unspoken allure of the Mona Lisa." Yes, he added, it also comes with "a pretty shocking ending."

Like almost all magicians, Amodei declined to discuss specifics lest too much be revealed and besides, why spoil the anticipation? The glass shattering is part of one of his newest illusions, one that Amodei said plays off the ship-in-the-bottle puzzle. Except here, an iPod is in the bottle; the message on it that's played for the audience at the end will shock them. "I'm not going to say what it is," he added.

He's been honing the new illusions through his regular weekend gigs at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where Amodei also will be performing on New Year's Eve, his third one there.

Not only can he incorporate the Mona Lisa and smash glass, he's also known to spit needles at an apple. That one, he said, involves a storyline about the great escape artist Harry Houdini, whose genius relied in part on his ability to swallow a picklock and harbor it in his stomach. "He'd bring it up with his stomach muscles at the time of need," Amodei said.

His modern-day version involves more than five dozen 2-inch-long pins. Similarly, Amodei uses long tailor needles in a piece, an audience favorite, involving a spinning globe. As he spins it on his finger a la a basketball, he asks audience members for places in the world they'd like to visit. He then spits the needles at the globe — and they stick on the exact locations they've mentioned.

Ivan Amodei has conjured a new illusion involving the famous Mona Lisa painting and a myth about why she's smiling. Amodei, a Somis resident, said he wanted to examine the "deeply psychological aspects of da Vinci's great masterpiece." Sewing needles … iPods … cellphones — Amodei uses a lot of atypical props in his magic act, a list that even includes Scrabble tiles. So much for the rabbit, black hat and wand. And he has a cellist play during his shows, lilting the atmosphere with dulcet classical music, much of it Italian.

Amodei, comes to us via Sicily (his birthplace), but he has a bit of local homeboy in him if you stretch the term. When he was 2, he immigrated to Brooklyn with his hairdresser parents. At 5, he said, he began doing magic after a family friend taught him some tricks "and I was basically hooked from then on." "Magic was the constant," he recalled. "There was never, ever, ever a day without magic."

At 11, he got his first paying gig — $20 for performing for friends. During his late teens, he moved to Thousand Oaks. After finishing up at Thousand Oaks High School, Amodei got a degree in marketing and advertising from California Lutheran University. He now lives on a 30-acre lemon ranch in Somis with his wife and two kids.

He once wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but got bored with the mundane machinations of physics and such and wound up doing the thing he really loved. Among his other accomplishments, Amodei used to be a regular performer at the famed Magic Castle in Hollywood.

The coolest thing he derives from his artistry is the ability "to touch people in a way they never really thought of." Magic, he said, is a valid art form but hasn't been placed in that category because of connotations that it's only for kids and the fact that there are more amateur magicians than professionals. All the fun in his act aside, he is very serious about and proud of his craft.

"People can come to the show and go, 'Wow!" Amodei observed. "But it's beyond a magic trick and beyond blowing your mind. It's thought-provoking. It should be theatrical. And that can be translated into an intimate show for 500 people. You can interact with the performer, not like 'The Phantom of the Opera,' where you're just watching. And then you can't believe 90 minutes just flew by and you say, 'I was transported to another place, and I learned something, too.' "

Criss Angel’s Producer Reviews Intimate Illusions

Mr. Joe Monti, Network TV Magic Producer and Magic Consultant stopped by June 4th, 2011 and saw the show.

"For anyone wondering who will be the next great entertainer look no further…Ivan Amodei is here. Ivan has Hollywood good looks and a Mensa mind. He goes out of his way to be different, mind blowing & charming and succeeds on a grand scale! 

Having traveled the world 4 times and being the producer of the #1 Primetime Magic TV series in history, I know when I’ve seen a massive talent. Ivan Amodei should be seen LIVE now before a big TV network makes his intimate theatre show obsolete! Bravo Ivan, you're a rare talent that comes along once every few decades."

Watch Joe describe Season 6 of Mindfreak on AETV and the crazy stunts and illusions Criss pulls off. Watch Mindfreak if you get a chance. Great TV magic.