Amaze Magic – Designed to Delight

Nov 18, 2025 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston

Amaze Magic, Jamie Allan’s one-man magic show at the New World Stages, provides a connection with our inner child, the place where amazing things happen. Allan describes two types of people who go to magic shows: the dreamers who accept the underlying concept of magic and the sceptics who do not. Allan’s performance challenges skeptics to pause and appreciate the wonders of magic.

Amaze

The show opens with Allan asking why? What brought us to the theater that evening, concluding it was not by chance, we were intended to meet, and demonstrating this with a series of predictions (locked away in plain sight throughout the show). Jamie’s performance and skill truly did Amaze.

The performance is steeped in 1980s nostalgia, shaped by classic sleight-of-hand tricks inspired by disciples of Cardini (Richard Valentine Pitchford), a Radio City Music Hall legend. Jamie performs elaborate illusions, levitations, and even conjures a full-sized motorcycle on stage, in addition to demonstrating his skill at performing traditional mentalist acts.

Amaze

Rooted in Storytelling

Allan’s performance is lower-key than most magicians. He is soft spoken and warm, with a twinkle in his eyes, conveying a feeling of intimacy, joining him in his den, filled with memorabilia, listening as he shares his childhood dream of becoming a magician. This works well in the intimate 200-person venue at the New World Stages.

His story revolves around his family history. Allan grew up on the road with parents who were performers. His father was bandleader Alan James Nicklin for Second City Sound, and his mother was Kay Kennedy, a popular singer. They established roots, purchasing a local pub, which is where Jamie found a mentor and a captive audience.

Jamie’s love of magic began with a Fisher-Price Magic Set, which was on stage and integral to the last trick. Childhood toys are a recurring theme, with the walls adorned by 80’s posters, as commercials played on a TV screen. Before the show began, we were asked to write our name and childhood toy on a card, which was put into a pail that sat on a high shelf until the final reveal.

Other classic toys used in tricks include a Rubik’s Cube and Jigsaw puzzles, his mother’s favorite. His repertoire includes sophisticated and silly card tricks. Books were important. Jamie was a nerdy kid growing up in the 80s, who preferred to read in his attic room rather than play sports. On the shelves were some magic books his mother purchased from an estate sale, along with a top hat. These props guided the show forward as he explained their deep significance, explaining how they would be connected. Coincidence? We think not.

A Performance That Will Amaze

Everything about the performance was family-friendly, although some references to the 80s, like a time before iPads, which was the trick that started Allan’s career, were dated, as was the reference to the VHS machine. Even the books gave the feeling of being authentic antiques.

Amaze

Assisting him on stage are Natalia Love, Natalie Gerene, and illusion manager Justin Gentry, aka Natalie 3. Some shows are scheduled to be performed by the talented understudy Harry De Cruz, with a script adapted to accommodate a similar family style of storytelling.

The pace of the show was inconsistent at times, with some segments longer than necessary, while the more astounding illusions felt too brief.

Cameras were used to provide full visibility for card tricks, giving the whole audiance an unrestricted view. Amaze includes full audience participation, including children in many of his sequences. He makes a point of involving the entire audience, reiterating the connection we shared and the uniqueness of the magical experience; in fact, strangers were drawn into conversations, discussing what they had witnessed. Allan’s magic delivered on its promise to amaze.

Jamie Allan earned his reputation fusing magic with technology (which in 1995 was an iPad), launching his career on the BBC. He appeared on ‘Penn and Teller: Fool Us,’ and starred in the West End show ‘Impossible’ and toured in the UK and US in ‘iMagician.’ Jamie is thrilled to fulfill his dream of presenting this very personal show at New World Stages.

Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs (1-5) it pays to buy (rather than make) to see the play, show, film, book, or exhibit being reviewed.

Amaze Magic received 4 Challahs

Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes, including one intermission

Due to popular demand, Amaze has announced an extension through April 13, 2026.