- In this edition of "ARTEFFECTS" the art and razzmatazz of a big magic show.

- [Kevin] We have 20 illusions, seven showgirls, over a hundred costumes, pyrotechnics, lasers, lighting, video effects.

It really is a show of grand finale.

- [Beth] An impactful mural festival.

- It's very encouraging.

Just a great sign to see, you know, a relatively small town that's embracing the arts in such a way.

- And dozens of young dancers from across the region hone their craft in downtown Reno.

- Dancers will typically come to a festival and be completely wide-eyed.

- It's not about being the best dancer, it's about getting something out of the class.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "ARTEFFECTS."

(upbeat jazz music) - [Narrator] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Meg and Dillard Myers.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS."

In the corner of Keystone Square in Reno lives a building with deep history known as The Theater.

This is the home of Magique, a big show featuring magnificent costumes and grand illusions.

The magicians are also the theater's owners.

They renovated the entire space and built it into the venue it is today.

They found a way to take their large show, which played in casinos and cruise ships, and put it onto a limited stage without losing any of the show's, well, magic.

(funky music) - Magique is a big production show.

We have 20 illusions, seven showgirls, over a hundred costumes, pyrotechnics, lasers, lighting, video effects.

It really is a show of grand finale.

We really give an experience of a lifetime here.

(gentle music) So I'm Kevin and this is Lord Caruso.

We're the magicians in Magique.

Caruso is the mysterious one.

He's the one that levitates and makes the girls disappear and cuts them in half.

I'm more the fun one.

I engage with the audience.

I do a little audience participation and a lot of times we work very well together 'cause we're so exactly the opposite on stage.

Magique is our life's work.

We started here in Reno as street performers back in the early '90s.

Of course, COVID knocked everything out for all entertainers.

We actually started delivering food with Uber Eats and happened to pick up food next door here to the Indian restaurant.

Drove by this theater and saw it was for lease.

We had two months to remodel this place and Caruso and I did it ourself.

We did everything from the floors to the walls.

We installed all the theatrical equipment.

As it turns out it's the best thing we ever did.

When we finally opened Magique here it really was the highlight of our career to fit our big show in such an intimate venue.

(upbeat music) The challenge about the show we're doing here in particular was twofold.

One, we were very adamant about not wanting to cut anything from our show that we've been doing.

And we did open a little late, but it's true we didn't cut anything.

The show we're presenting here is exactly the same that we did on the big huge stages at the casinos and performing art centers.

The difference is this room is so much smaller and it's basically surrounded.

So all the illusions had to be rethought so they could be performed with people looking behind them, with people looking down on them.

To design a new illusion for a space like this is a lot different than designing an illusion for a giant stage or an arena, or even designing an illusion that's meant to be shown on TV.

We don't do a lot of closeup magic in this show.

There's not a lot of card tricks or small sleight of hand.

We are more into the grand illusions because then we can bring all our cast out in their costumes and add different layers to the magic itself.

So the way we design illusions might be different from other magicians because we have a lot of other elements to play with and a lot of times those are the things that we think about.

And then the illusion that nicely fits in with that.

(audience cheering and applauding) Everything in this show is one-of-a-kind handmade.

Some of our illusions are classic, but we even had those redesigned whether it's the actual physical design, or the way we perform it.

So everything is very unique, every costume in our show, and we have well over a hundred costumes in our show here at The Theater, every one of them was handmade by Lord Caruso.

He takes a lot of pride in making sure that the costumes are in perfect condition for every performance.

This show runs 100% automated.

We don't have a lighting or sound technician at all.

I press enter on a laptop before the show starts and everything runs automatically.

I write the soundtrack myself.

Everything in the show is custom edited so it fits perfectly with what we're doing on stage.

There's over 1,500 lighting cues and video and laser cues in the show that are precisely executed.

I programmed all that myself.

That was quite a challenge considering the same show that we do here when we did it in the casinos took a minimum of 12 stagehands and technicians.

Sometimes if it was Union up to 40, and here we're doing the exact same show really and we have no technicians at all and just one stagehand who pulls the curtains and moves the props and helps us all backstage.

When the audience watches our show, I'd like to think that they're entertained long before they're deceived.

Our goal isn't to deceive anyone.

The magic is meant to spark imagination and have you spend a little time thinking about what's possible and what's not possible, and incorporate those ideas into your own life not with an illusion on stage, but just the way you approach other things.

Even if it's just the fact that they saw that a couple guys from Reno has turned this into their life's work and career, I hope that inspires the next generation because it certainly can't end with us.

It's all designed to reach different elements of people's imagination.

If you're not really into the magic than we have all the razzmatazz and the costumes.

There's just so many things in our show to get people to forget about what's going on in their world for an hour and a half and really absorb something unique.

(audience cheering and applauding) - Learn more about Magique and other productions at The Theater at wethetheater.com.

And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

Harry Houdini, the famous magician known for his incredible escape act is actually just a stage name.

The name Harry Houdini was carefully crafted and inspired by other famous magicians throughout time.

What was Harry Houdini's original born name?

Is the answer, A, Robert Houdin.

B, Erich Weisz.

C, Harry Kellar, or, D, Joseph Rinn?

Stay tuned for the answer.

Up next, we head to the downtown area of Miami, Oklahoma, to experience "Mural Fest 66."

Since 2017, this mural festival has given artists the opportunity to express themselves in a big way, and it has reinvigorated a small town in the process.

(gentle music) - Hello, everyone, local broadcaster Michael Woodruff.

Here's your forecast.

Calling for today sunny with a high near 75.

Perfect weather for Mural Fest coming up at 10 o'clock here in beautiful downtown Miami.

It's a free event for the entire family, so come on down.

They're gonna be here 'til about five o'clock tonight, and while you're doing that, well, you can continue to listen to some great music here on KGLC 100.9 FM Radio on the Route.

(funky music) - [Jessica] We're in our fourth year trying this.

2017 was our first try.

This year we will have 11 new murals put up by 10 artists from around the state and myself, and then one mural painted by local artists.

So 12 new paintings.

That's quite a big thing, really, for a small town.

(upbeat music) - [Jessica] We're three local artists.

Jeanette, how long have you lived here?

- Since I was 15 so about 45 years now.

- I've lived here for about 45 years as well.

Jessica got a hold of us and said, hey, we have a wall.

Would you be interested?

And we said, yeah.

- The Oklahoma Mural Syndicate is a nonprofit that advocates and creates public art throughout the state of Oklahoma.

They were one of the first communities that reached out to us after seeing what we've done with Plaza Walls in Oklahoma City.

And they were like, hey, will you come to our community and paint it all up as well?

And we said, yeah, of course.

You know, in 2017, when we first started this, we had people from the community walk up and say, wow, this is so cool what you guys are doing.

We've never seen anything like this.

(upbeat music) - Our first year we tried Mural Fest out here.

This building was vacant at the time and since then it got renovated, was sold, and now it's this daycare center.

The praying mantis that was mine.

Bugs are cool.

- It's really great to introduce modern art to a community that might be used to more traditional murals.

- I like to describe my style as colorful abstract work.

I do a lot of work that references typography and calligraphy.

I think it's like a nice little moment of joy, you know?

Like not even just today, but like, just seeing the murals everyday is like, just a little moment of happiness or joy, or, you know, excitement of having a little bit of art brighten your life.

- That's called a Doodle Grid.

And it's just another form to put up a big image on a wall.

In this instance, yeah.

I mean, you just fill up the whole wall with a bunch of different reference points just in order to get the image up on the wall.

And then once I have that then I can kinda just play jazz and improvise a little bit with the color.

- I have painted my whole life.

Six years ago, I finally, after years of wanting to try it, started spray painting.

It takes a lot of practice to really kinda get it down.

Really it comes down to they say it's called can control is the term.

It's your ability to control the can.

There are options with you can trade out the caps.

You've got skinny caps, you've got fat caps for fills, you've got there's stencil caps, which I have never used, but you can get super fine lines with those.

(singing music) - All right, here we go.

I love the idea of coming to a smaller town.

The lady and her family that just bought stickers from me her son said that he liked the robots the best and that it inspired him to do some art.

So I think that's awesome, right?

That's kind of the goal.

I don't know exactly where the robots came from.

I don't have, like, some big purpose about why I started painting them, but I think they're cool, you know.

I've always been kind of attracted to, like, painting things that I would have thought were awesome as a kid, you know.

- You're listening to KGLC 100.9 FM Radio on the Route.

local broadcaster, Michael Woodrow, hanging out with you this afternoon.

Hey, come on down to Mural Fest here in beautiful downtown Miami.

They got some great stuff.

And while you're at it, stop by the Coleman Theater to get tickets for tonight's music performance.

It's air conditioned, it's fun.

It's KGLC 100.9 FM Radio on the Route.

(bright upbeat music) - Welcome to the beautiful historic Coleman Theater Beautiful.

This is on the stage where the Marx Brothers performed, where, of course, Will Rogers was here, where Tom Mix rode his horse on this stage.

What you see behind me, flown halfway down from the fly space, is Miami's very first mural.

This is the backdrop that was here on opening night in 1929.

- This is a mural that I painted about the history of commerce and life in Miami, Oklahoma.

Miami is an interesting little town.

The economy of it was really based on local lead and zinc mine.

It was the biggest supplier of lead and zinc for the world really during World War I and World War II.

And that built the town and it also ruined the environment.

(solemn music) It's kind of that eternal story of the good and the bad mixed together.

When we moved here, there were a lot of buildings on Main Street that were boarded up, the windows were boarded up, and yet it survives and it's building up now.

Downtown's looking good it keeps getting improved.

We have events like Mural Fest.

- It's a small town just trying to make their downtown prettier.

- It's very encouraging.

Just a great sign to see, you know, a relatively small town that's embracing the arts in such a way.

I wish that more small towns in Oklahoma would do the same because I do think that it revitalizes the community a little bit, and it gives people something to look at everyday.

- When we first moved here we had BFGoodrich and it was a really happening little place on the go.

And then Goodrich shut down.

It was like Miami just lost its will to live almost.

The people talk about it.

They see the murals, and they just talk about how happy it makes them feel.

We're starting to take some pride in things that we're doing again, and it makes me happy to drive down Main and see life.

(uplifting music) - [Michael] Well, the Mural Fest is finally coming to an end.

If you get to come down here it's gonna be open 24/7.

They did such a wonderful job.

We wanna thank them again for another wonderful year.

(uplifting music) - And now let's review this week's art quiz.

Harry Houdini, the famous magician known for his incredible escape act is actually just a stage name.

The name Harry Houdini was carefully crafted and inspired by other famous magicians throughout time.

What was Harry Houdini's original born name?

Is the the answer, A, Robert Houdin, B, Erich Weisz, C, Harry Kellar, or D, Joseph Rinn?

And the answer is, B, Erich Weisz.

Regional Dance America is an organization dedicated to teaching and preparing young dancers who dream of dancing professionally.

Recently, RDA chose Reno for the location of its inaugural Pacific Festival, bringing together more than 100 young dancers to the biggest little city.

(gentle music) - Ballet reaches your heart and your soul, and it's not something that you can put words to.

There are no words, it's just from one to another and everybody interprets it their own way.

- There's the saying where words fail dance can express.

It's so beautiful just what the human body can do.

- Dancing connects you with emotions that are in your body and gives you a way to express your emotions to relate to others on a very human level.

My name is Erika Davis.

I'm the CEO of Regional Dance America.

Regional Dance America is a national organization of pre-professional companies, dance ensembles, troops, guilds and studios throughout the country.

The majority of our dancers are between the ages of about 11-years-old and 18-years-old.

- When Regional Dance America says pre-professional that's a dancer that is on a training track to a professional career.

They're submitting themselves to a certain level of training, so that's a daily ballet class, or a modern class, or a jazz class.

These dancers hope to earn a spot in a prestigious university program, or a professional company.

- RDA has five regional organizations, the Northeast, Mid States, Southeast, Southwest, and our newest Pacific Region.

We selected Reno, Nevada as the location of our first inaugural Pacific Festival to bring the opportunities that RDA offers the rest of the country to this part as well.

The 2022 RDA Pacific Festival is happening at the Silver Legacy Resort here in Reno.

An RDA festival is multiple days.

Dancers are programmed into three master classes a day with nationally acclaimed teachers and choreographers.

The dancers partake in classes of all different styles of dance, be that ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, commercial dance.

We have it all.

- The one teacher for hip-hop, he was so inspiring because he was just, like, telling us to look at our own artistry and just being ourselves.

- I love the hip-hop class that made my day.

This festival means that I can take a step up in my career that I wanna take.

- It was really honestly amazing just being able to share that amazing environment with all the amazing dancers and being able to feed off of what they're doing and get inspired by them as well was really cool.

- Dancers also have the opportunity to experience workshops and seminars that are in dance related topics.

So we have seminars happening in say foot and ankle injury prevention, nutrition for dancers, overall wellbeing, how to construct a resume.

- [Joy] We always say to our dancers, you're learning so much more in the studio than just dance steps.

You're really learning life skills.

- Not everybody's gonna be a ballet dancer, but what that work ethic that ballet creates and also the discipline, the determination you have to have in order to improve, all of that serves young people so well in adult lives.

And that's why I promote the art of ballet so much.

- We seek out highly esteemed professionals in the field of dance.

The adjudicator it's like RDA's secret sauce.

- Rosine Bena as well as her daughter, Ananda Bena-Weber, both of Sierra Nevada Ballet are adjudicators for Regional Dance America.

They work with our member companies on an annual basis to help those companies elevate their training.

- When I was part of RDA as a young person I remember thinking how I felt so proud of my community, of my company and I think it helps our community to say, wow, I'm proud of Reno.

I'm proud of where I'm from.

So that's an important thing for our community.

- [Erika] The dancers also have a performance opportunity with evening performances at the festival that are non-competitive.

- We finish the event off with a gala reception.

The dancers are awarded scholarships and recruitment opportunities to colleges throughout the country and also summer intensives and programs.

When young dancers, young people when you're mentoring them and they're in the pursuit of excellence, it's a very noble pursuit.

They really are pushing themselves to be better, to be bigger, to go beyond, to be extraordinary human beings and to be a small part of that is very inspiring.

- The students are what make everything that we do worth it, so worthwhile because we see their faces, we see these opportunities that are provided.

We see the thousands and thousands of dollars of scholarships that are offered to these individuals, and to create a pathway for their dreams to come true.

That's why I do what I do.

That's why RDA does what we do.

That's what this organization stands for.

(audience applauding and cheering) - To learn more about Regional Dance America visit regionaldanceamerica.org.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "ARTEFFECTS."

If you want to watch new artifact segments early make sure to check out the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org/arteffects for complete episodes.

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Meg and Dillard Myers.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(upbeat jazz music)