For early residents of Spokane, entertainment choices in the days leading up to All Hallow's Eve probably didn't look or sound all that different from what local magician Isaiah Daniels is planning a century and a half later.
In the final decades of the 19th century, the spiritualist movement was at its peak, luring the curious public to seances and other occasions during which mediums allegedly contacted the spirits of those mortally departed.
Ever heard of the famous Fox sisters and their "rappings?" By cracking their foot and leg joints beneath long skirts, sisters Catherine and Margaretta hoodwinked countless people into believing the raps were messages from the dead. In 1849, the Fox sisters — later revealed to be frauds — held the first paid demonstration of this spiritualist effect in Rochester, New York.
For folks today who either believe in or are simply agnostically curious about the afterlife, Daniels has several old-timey spiritualist tricks up his proverbial sleeves that he'll showcase during his latest family-friendly performance, titled "Do Spirits Return?"
"Our show involves some of that history, and we have some characters in the show that perform kind of in the way that [the Fox sisters] would, at a table in the traditional seance sense," he explains. "And then we have some other characters from throughout that era, like the Davenport brothers, who were more of magicians who took the aesthetic of spiritualism and created different kinds of demonstrations and whatnot. It's super interesting how magic and spiritualism kind of intertwine."
Daniels, 25, can barely remember a time when he wasn't enthralled by magic. His first taste of intrigue into the world of illusions was at age 6, when a magician performed for his kindergarten class.
"I don't remember his name, and I hardly remember his face, but I remember some of the tricks he did, and it just kind of stuck with me since then," Daniels says. "I've been doing magic pretty much my whole life. As I got older, it obviously got a lot better, and then I honed in on my skill set."
Those skills range from fire-eating to levitation, and everything in between. Daniels is entirely self-taught, and seeks to discover and learn older magic tricks that aren't commonly showcased much these days — especially techniques that have nearly disappeared with time.
While he's now a seasoned performer, landing a multiyear residency at Silverwood Theme Park just after graduating from Gonzaga Prep in 2016, Daniels fondly recalls his first-ever paid gig. In middle school, he performed for residents of a Spokane nursing home.
"From there, it started becoming more and more of a professional deal," he says.
As October comes to a close, however, Daniels is also wrapping up his Silverwood stint for good, and looking toward a future that most likely involves embarking from Spokane for new opportunities.
While "Do Spirits Return?" may be one of Daniels' last visual treats for local audiences, it also won't be the first time he's performed a version of it. Five years ago, he debuted the show's first iteration at Riverside Place, in downtown Spokane's former Masonic Temple, exploring common effects from ghost hunting TV shows, plus techniques from Victorian-era spiritualism.
"We kind of tackled whether or not that stuff is real, and used magic as the basis for like, well, if we can replicate this..." then audiences can come to their own understanding, he explains.
"This time around, it's less of the skeptical side of things, and more 'come have a good time,' but most of the effects are still based out of this era of spiritualism."
During spiritualism's fever pitch, Daniels says professional magicians like Harry Houdini "were going out and using their skill sets to be like, 'This isn't real.' So it's very interesting, a lot of the esoteric themes in magic stemmed from this era."
One such demonstration he's featuring in "Do Spirits Return?" is an effect called table turning. The act involves a randomly chosen audience member invited onto stage who places their hands on a table at which a few other people are also seated, hands also resting atop. The person — and audience — then see the table moving as if by its own accord.
"It's almost like an Ouija board effect, but on a bigger scale," Daniels says. "That was something that got a lot of attention back in the day because the spiritualist wasn't involved. It's kind of rare, but magicians still do that kind of demonstration today. You're going to see it just like they would have done it back in the day."
I then ask if Daniels can explain the truth behind table-turning's effect, or if he plans to reveal its workings to his audience.
"If you pay attention in the show, you will get hints at how certain things are done," he says. "How we've structured it, right off the bat, we're going to tell everyone that everything you're about to see is just magic. That being said, we worked really hard to make sure that everything you're going to see is impossible" to be caused by a supernatural force.
"Then we just kind of leave it up to them to think about the correlation between, you know, the demonstrations that we're doing and maybe some of the phenomena they've experienced or that might be real in life. There's kind of a gray area there, but we want to leave it that way."
Overall, Daniels says this new iteration of "Do Spirits Return?" feels modern, yet with a Victorian flair. The costumes he and his on-stage assistants are wearing have an old-timey gothic look, and the show includes period music, remixed. Several of the effects will be captured by a live camera feed and projected onto a screen for better visibility.
"It's kind of like an updated version of something they would have done back in the day, without the guise of 'this is real.' And it's not going to be very scary. Most of the show is kind of beautiful and elegant." ♦
Isaiah Daniels Presents: Do Spirits Return? • Sat, Oct. 28 at 8 pm • $32 • All ages • Bing Crosby Theater • 901 W. Sprague Ave. • bingcrosbytheater.com • 509-227-7638
