Alyx Hilshey performs a magic act on “Penn and Teller: Fool Us” in April.
(Provided photo — Alyx Hilshey)
LAKE PLACID — Adirondack-based magician Alyx Hilshey is performing four shows at the Olympic Center this winter. Hilshey said this collaboration has been more than a year in the making and that a place with the concept of miracles at its core was a fitting venue for a magician.
Hilshey, who has lived in Lewis for several years after moving to be closer to her in-laws, is a nationally-acclaimed magician who has recently sold out shows in Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago. She has a regular guest spot on the Washington D.C. comedy show, “The Magic Duel.” Hilshey made magic her full-time career in 2021 and came into the national spotlight when she went onto CW Network’s “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.”
Hilshey’s “Miracles & Mystery Comedy Show” will be in the Edelweiss Room at the Lake Placid Conference Center at 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The second set of shows will be Feb. 21 and 22. Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/yckjphr5.
Hilshey has been performing magic shows since she was 7 years old, having learned her first trick (a coin trick) from her grandfather.
“I kept doing shows like all through my childhood, but nobody told me that I could do it as, like, a job,” Hilshey said. “I thought that was just for David Copperfield.”
Alyx Hilshey, right, performs at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles.
(Provided photo — Alyx Hilshey)
So, she went to college for engineering and worked as an engineer designing mining equipment. She eventually returned to the University of Vermont for a master’s degree in electrical engineering and taught at Penn State Altoona for five years.
All throughout, however, her magical side-hustle stuck around. She would perform table-side card tricks when she worked as a waiter and later was asked to perform at company parties. Prior to beginning graduate school, she spent a summer doing shows on Church Street — an outdoor pedestrian mall — in Burlington. She got a permit and within 25 minutes, she had made $50 from two short shows. That summer, she ended up doing about 800 shows on that street.
Since deciding to make magic her full-time job, Hilshey has traveled around the world to study with respected magicians, such as Tom Stone, a magician from Sweden. She is constantly honing her technical skills and looking to improve her performance.
“I’m a lifelong student. I have to always learn, and I have to always get better,” Hilshey said.
–
Testing the waters
–
Miracle Entertainment is the name that has emerged for the Olympic Regional Development Authority’s non-sport offerings. In the past, non-sport entertainment was a prominent feature of ORDA’s programming, said ORDA Director of Communications Darcy Norfolk. However, after the major renovations in 2022, those kinds of events fell by the wayside.
The Jim Breuer performance in December was the beginning of a move towards additional entertainment offerings, Norfolk said. Breuer’s performance sold out the venue with 675 tickets and Norfolk said they recieved a lot of positive feedback.
Next year, Norfolk said the center has a number of comedy events lined up, in addition to other genres of entertainment. They are in the process of figuring out what types of events the Lake Placid audience, including residents and visitors, are most interested in. Norfolk said this is key from a business perspective, because people coming to Lake Placid for outdoor recreation need additional options.
“We’ve become a very future-proof vacation spot,” Norfolk said. “Even if the weather does not agree, we have so many other options and now we’re just adding another one.”
Hilshey said she is known for being a performer who can appeal to all ages, so she said the Olympic Center shows are guaranteed to be fun for the whole family. Although she is a magician primarily, she also works comedy into her routine. She pulls funny stories from her own life, such as her experiences raising children, and leverages them to broaden the appeal of her shows.
A key element of magic, Hilshey said, is misdirection.
“One of the best types of misdirection is laughter,” she said. “If people are laughing for a minute, you can get ready to create some really awesome mystery in that misdirection.”
