In a Las Vegas Magazine interview earlier this year, Jen Kramer explained what her chosen profession means to her, and what it means to her audiences. “Magic evokes wonder. It makes you feel like you’re 5 years old again,” said the magician. It’s that sense of wonder that you will find permeating The Magic of Jen Kramer at Westgate Las Vegas, where the Yale graduate performs her fun, family-friendly show almost every weekend since 2018 at the resort.
After a short slideshow that introduces her and impresses with her credentials, the first trick begins. Onstage, you may have noticed an elevator, shiny and just a little cartoonlike, with the up arrow on the eighth floor. A pair of trusty assistants demonstrate the car is empty, then the doors close, the arrow heads to the first floor, and out pops the magician! Then Kramer proceeds into a quick-change routine, donning about a dozen outfits in rapid succession.
It’s a fun entree to the rest of Kramer’s show, where corny jokes and reminiscences about her experiences in magic mingle with how’d-she-do-that illusions. Find out how Kramer got her early start—with a birthday present, a book titled The Royal Road to Card Magic, during a sleight-of-hand card trick that seems impossible.
During the rest of the show, you’ll witness the bits in Kramer’s show winding one around another and looping back in for final reveals. One audience member’s hundred-dollar bill disappears mysteriously. Will he ever see it again? Aah, it reappears during a game show segment. When Kramer points out a locked box high overhead, you wonder what it could contain, but she gives no clues.
Later, she draws a small volunteer onstage, giving her a key to guard. A comedic bit has audience member Kye attempting to avoid eye contact with Kramer. He fails, and up he goes to be the profile pic in a huge social media page, where the crowd names his wife, his number of followers and his likes. Another volunteer experiences a magical connection with Kramer, as the blindfolded magician correctly identifies several beverages the volunteer sips. It’s that type of connection that makes Kramer’s job so rewarding.
“To me, it’s about genuine human connection—it transcends age, language, everything. I’ve done trips with Magicians Without Borders to rural India and Central America, performing for people where we don’t share a single word of language. And magic still connects us. That universality is something I’m endlessly captivated by,” Kramer told Las Vegas Magazine.
That box? It is eventually unlocked, and you can guess what’s inside. Can’t guess? Then you certainly need to see the show! In the end, Kramer transforms a bicycle into a motorcycle, and rides off to entertain another night, where she’ll make more connections with her spellbound audiences.
Westgate Las Vegas, 5+. westgateresorts.com
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