{"id":249946,"date":"2016-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/its-magic-old-towns-best-kept-secret-2\/"},"modified":"2016-03-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T08:00:00","slug":"its-magic-old-towns-best-kept-secret-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/its-magic-old-towns-best-kept-secret-2\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s magic: Old Town\u2019s best-kept secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tori Hahn<\/p>\n

Among the colorful galleries, mariachi bands and Mexican restaurants that line the streets of Old Town lies the well-hidden Red Spade Theater, tucked away on Congress Street between a wine bar and a jewelry store.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Figueroa, who goes by his stage name of Sebastian, opened the Red Spade Theater almost five years ago to create a cozy venue for magic.<\/p>\n

\"Sebastian<\/a>
Sebastian performs his magic on Friday and Saturday nights at Red Spade Theater in Old Town. (Photo by by Darrell Alonzi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The show\u2019s title, \u201cIntimate Miracles,\u201d epitomizes the theater\u2019s ambiance. The small room with just 28 seats welcomes its audience with dim lighting, dark red walls and soft jazz music.<\/p>\n

Dan Thomas opened the show with a card trick and a round of jokes that warmed up the crowd to the theater\u2019s conversational tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Red Spade Theater is here for the preservation of magic and up-close magic,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Sebastian took the stage \u2014 or more accurately, a spot at the front of the room \u2014 after Thomas.<\/p>\n

Throughout his performance, Sebastian regularly engaged the spectators. He often asked them to join him on stage to help with the illusions, to which the audience members hesitantly left their seats and their dates\u2019 sides to participate.<\/p>\n

The magician used a combination of playing cards, music, coins, dice and plastic balls to make the audience fall under his spell. Viewers became so involved that by the end of the show they openly voiced their incredulity at Sebastian\u2019s tricks.<\/p>\n

The onlookers craned their necks so they wouldn\u2019t miss a moment in the 90-minute performance.<\/p>\n

Sebastian picked up magic as a hobby 24 years ago. It wasn\u2019t until somebody told him he was proficient enough to perform for money that he decided to turn it into a career. He blended his favorite type of magic, sleight-of-hand magic, with storytelling to create the intimate atmosphere at the Red Spade Theater.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>
(Photo by Rynne Griggs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI figured you could go to Vegas and see big illusions, you could turn on the TV and see big illusions, but there\u2019s not a venue for close-up-style magic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it in Southern California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian\u2019s favorite part about performing at the Old Town theater is being able to share his love of magic with his audience. But, like all magicians, Sebastian refused to reveal his secrets.<\/p>\n

Sebastian performs \u201cIntimate Miracles\u201d at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays to audience members 16 and older. Tickets can be purchased online through the theater\u2019s website, redspadetheater.com<\/a>, for $34.<\/p>\n

For children 5 and older, the theater brings in a guest magician to perform one Sunday every month. \u201cFamily Magic Show\u201d tickets are priced $14 \u2014 $18.<\/p>\n

\u2014Tori Hahn es pasante en SDCNN y estudiante de \u00faltimo a\u00f1o de periodismo en la Universidad Estatal de San Diego.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tori Hahn Among the colorful galleries, mariachi bands and Mexican restaurants that line the streets of Old Town lies the well-hidden Red Spade Theater, tucked away on Congress Street between a wine bar and a jewelry store.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":803,"featured_media":249947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"It\u2019s magic: Old Town\u2019s best-kept secret","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}