{"id":22655,"date":"2025-04-17T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T21:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/illusionist-leon-etienne-brings-magic-to-community-concert-hall\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T21:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T21:37:07","slug":"illusionist-leon-etienne-brings-magic-to-community-concert-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/illusionist-leon-etienne-brings-magic-to-community-concert-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"Illusionist Leon Etienne brings magic to Community Concert Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=45baa9e4-21cf-54ee-bb3c-279ac455ea03&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2570\" alt=\"Illusionist Leon Etienne is bringing his \u201cMagic Rocks!\u201d show to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Saturday night. (Courtesy)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Illusionist Leon Etienne is bringing his \u201cMagic Rocks!\u201d show to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Saturday night. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know about the rest of you, but when we were grounded as a preteen, all we did while being locked in solitary was stare at ourselves in the mirror and dream of the day we\u2019d get to move out.<\/p>\n<p>But for illusionist Leon Etienne, a stint in lockdown led to a lifelong calling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was 12 years old, I was grounded by my mother. I was bored out of my mind \u2013 this is before the internet, I didn\u2019t even have a video game console in my room at the time. I was digging under my bed, and among my fire trucks and my hockey equipment was a magic book that my grandparents had given me for Christmas,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just so bored from being grounded that I (learned my) first trick. I left my room, which my mom was like, \u2018What are you doing out of your room?\u2019 And I just said, \u2018Mom, I want to show you this thing I just learned.\u2019 I show her this trick, and I just watch her mind melt in front of me. And as a 12-year-old, that was like, oh my God. And I was hooked from that day.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-scoreboard\">\n<h4 class=\"scoreboard-title\">If you go<\/h4>\n<p><strong>WHAT: <\/strong>Magic Rocks! Illusionist Leon Etienne.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHEN: <\/strong>7:30 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHERE: <\/strong>Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TICKETS: <\/strong>$26.25-$50.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE INFORMATION: <\/strong>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.durangoconcerts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.durangoconcerts.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>That was 29 years ago, and Etienne has carved out quite a career: He\u2019s competed on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d performed on \u201cLate Night with Jimmy Fallon\u201d and \u201cPenn &amp; Teller: Fool Us\u201d and countless other shows.<\/p>\n<p>And now he will bring his show, \u201cMagic Rocks!\u201d to the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College on Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a cool, fast-paced show that features nonstop illusions by Etienne with the help of his lead assistant Chelsea and second assistant Alyssa, all against the backdrop of rock music.<\/p>\n<p>Etienne said he has been a professional illusionist since he was 12, performing for younger kids. Once he got the magic bug, he never looked back: His influences include the old show \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Magic\u201d and his early membership in a magic club in Utica, New York, where he\u2019s from. In fact, when he was a senior in high school in 2002, his school required students to complete a community service project in order to graduate. Because the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had just happened, Etienne used his skill to put on a show for the school where students would each pay $2 to get to leave class to go watch. The money he earned went to a 9-11 fund.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/txJ4HI4CSLQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI was like, wow, if you could do this a couple weekends a month, times, you know, 40 weeks a year, 48 weeks a year, whatever, now you can be making a living. That\u2019s when the business side clicked,\u201d he said. \u201cI also learned something else on the producing side, because at the time, I didn\u2019t have enough material to do a 90-minute show. So I had to hire other magicians from the community and work together as a team. So I learned a lot on that project of how to do this moving forward. And I\u2019ve been blessed with great mentors, too, that have helped me along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Etienne didn\u2019t give up magic when he went to college, either: \u201cI literally paid my way through with card tricks,\u201d he said. \u201cI was doing strolling magic at restaurants around town. I majored in Business Management with a focus in marketing, and all my electives were in theater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the type of magic audiences can expect, Etienne said there are some tricks they won\u2019t see.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s two things I don\u2019t particularly like, just my own personal style,\u201d he said. \u201cI have nothing against magicians or entertainers who use it \u2013 I will not portray myself as a mentalist who is really reading minds. There is a part of the show where I say I\u2019m going to read your mind, but definitely there\u2019s no question that this is a theatrical piece and not actual spiritualism. Then the other thing, Pen and Teller say this best: Any performer, not just magician, that actually puts themselves in real danger during the show, is the fool. So I avoid real danger. However, we can make it (look dangerous). If you ask an audience member after the show which tricks were dangerous, I guarantee you about seven or eight of the segments, they think those are dangerous. And they\u2019re not wrong. But we\u2019re also taking calculated measures and safety factor that people don\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Etienne incorporating rock \u2019n\u2019 roll in to the show wasn\u2019t exactly a stretch, either, he said \u2013 he loves magic, he loves rock: Why wouldn\u2019t he combine them?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just put the two together,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat really opened my eyes to it is there was a magician when I was younger called Lance Burton. And Lance was basically the magician\u2019s magician \u2013 if you ask people to think of a magician, Lance Burton is the picture you\u2019d have in your mind \u2013 tuxedo, good-looking gentleman, the whole thing. He does what we call classic magic really well. And then I saw a band called Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They basically took classic Christmas and just rocked it to the Nth degree. Once I saw that concert, I said, \u2018Wait a second, Leon, you don\u2019t have to wear tails. You don\u2019t have to have classical violin music behind you. You could literally rock. And that was the day Magic Rocks! was born. It was just literally between taking a rock concert that I had attended and all the knowledge I had already studied and gained from magic and going, let\u2019s do something a little different here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And when it comes to bringing his family-friendly show to Durango, he hopes the performance will give audience members a chance to relax and leave the noise of the outside world behind \u2013 if only for an evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe world could really use some magic in it now more than ever; you don\u2019t have to go far to find negativity, right? You can turn on your local news. You can open your phone. There\u2019s negativity everywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cThe thing I like best about this show is someone can come for 90 minutes, shut off their brain from outside distractions and totally get lost in the experience of wonder, of joy, a little bit of comedy. Magic is a universal language. There\u2019s no age barrier, there\u2019s no race barrier, there\u2019s no language barrier. It\u2019s just truly a universal art form to be appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-a20cdd8d4430ec4795478bee73c788f7\"><a href=\"mailto:katie@durangoherald.com\">katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Performer has been on \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d \u201cLate Night with Jimmy Fallon,\u201d \u201cPenn &amp; Teller: Fool Us\u201d and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,1167,1794,28,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-exclude-homepage-video","tag-fort-lewis-college-community-concert-hall","tag-headlines","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22655"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}