He’s planning a variety of tricks and effects for the show. There will be mind reading, card and optical elusion effects and a rope routine, he said.
“I try to structure my show like an Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles or David Lynch film — you just don’t know what’s going to happen next,” he said. “I try to keep an air of mystery ever present.”
That edge-of-your-seat quality is just what the Alex Film Society was after when they decided to book his act for its spooky Halloween show, film society President Randy Carter said.
“We wanted to do magic but wanted it to be Halloween-themed — a dark and sinister mood — and that’s Rob’s specialty,” Carter said.
Zabrecky studied with Max Maven, a magician who performs around the world and is a consultant for TV shows.
“I think he’s blossoming, maybe some kind of a dark blossom, but he’s really grown to understand his character to the point that now it’s really thorough and everything is cohesive,” Maven said. “He’s a very nice guy as well. That’s the bonus part.”
A couple of Zabrecky’s routines are choreographed to music, and he also incorporates movement and elements of dance. He works without an assistant, but portions of his act involve audience participation.
The allure of performing magic for him is stumping his audience, Zabrecky said.
“It’s fun for me because for the duration of my show I get to take people out of their heads and take them into my imaginary world,” he said. “I get the opportunity to walk my audiences down hallways and passages and then pull the rug out from beneath their feet.”
