Spooky season is my favorite time of the year, and I’m always on the hunt for cool new things that fall into this realm to add to the October docket. One of the benefits of living in Las Vegas is you are NEVER without options, especially when it comes to weird, wacky, wonderful, and yes, witchy. Like a show I came across called Ghost Stories at the 1923 Prohibition Bar, a speakeasy vibe at Mandalay Bay. It runs Thursdays through Sundays, and is billed as a “rare and intimate mind reading-dark magic show… a haunting and deceptive journey through the mind that is not for the faint of heart.”
Let’s start with the intimate claim: ACCURATE. We could tell by the seating chart that the space was small, so we opted for Sunday, October 11, which still gave us the option of purchasing first-row access. Specific seats in said row weren’t assigned until you entered the venue. Row A was full and most if not all of row B. Maybe a few in C as well, bringing the audience to just shy of 30 people total. As luck would have it, we were placed dead center in seats A7 and A8.
What we DIDN’T know until we were inside was that what appeared to be some space between row A and the performer was, in fact, arm’s reach. Literally. Or less.
Had the performer been any closer, I would have wondered if we were in a throuple.
Said performer was Kent Axell, who describes himself as a “psychological illusionist” and “professional mentalist.” I’d describe him as part Edgar Allan Poe, part Harry Houdini, with a dash of John Mulaney. The college theater minor / five years of improv performer in me instantly recognized, respected, and absolutely marveled at his incredible stage presence. He was fully committed from start to finish, and also had great comedic timing at multiple moments throughout. The man knew how to work a crowd, and this was not an easy feat when that crowd was practically sitting on your lap.
So let’s circle back to the rest of that show description: “mind reading-dark magic… a haunting and deceptive journey through the mind that is not for the faint of heart.” Check, check, AND CHECK. But trying to recount every aspect of the show feels a bit like trying to talk about the brilliant documentary You Can See Everything (which, incidentally, I went to see on Thursday, October 15 at 8pm, the evening before the official opening day).
I don’t want to spoil the experience by giving you a play-by-play, and even if I did, it wouldn’t do it justice. You just have to see it. And, much like my jaw was on the floor for nearly all of You Can See Everything, I had a similar reaction throughout the entire Ghost Stories experience, though the latter was about half the run time, and my expression also ran more of a gamut from “What the hell just happened?” to “HOW did that happen?” to sheer, unbridled delight.
Ghost Stories is now in my top three (if not TOP) recommendations of shows to see in Vegas. Period. My partner was just as blown away.
Especially by one segment. And this is the only time I’ll break my no-spoilers rule.
