A 141-year-old mansion in Portland's Kenton neighborhood is set to host a one-night-only magic show Thursday, August 13, pairing a local historian of Western conjuring with a scholar of Indian street magic. The performance, titled World of Magic: From Conjurer to Jadugar, brings together Professor DR Schreiber and Professor Palshikar for what organizers describe as a shared history of mystery from lands far and near.
The show was first previewed by Ally Osborne, who hosted a segment on the collaboration for Everyday Northwest, as reported by KOIN.com. Osborne previewed one of the tricks featured in the live show and learned about how the two performers came together for the collaboration, according to the same report. Professor Palshikar is described in that coverage as a New York-based, second-generation Indian magician, while Professor DR Schreiber is billed as Portland's own historical conjurer.
Who Are the Two Magicians
Professor DR Schreiber's real name is Danny Schreiber, a Portland-based magic historian and former television producer who has served as past president of the Society of American Magicians Portland Assembly, per GigSalad. He has performed and lectured across the West Coast and Europe, and he belongs to the Academy of Magical Arts at Hollywood's Magic Castle, according to Experiment PDX. Schreiber has also spent more than 15 years teaching close-up and parlor magic to youth through Portland-area schools and community programs, with a curriculum covering card and rope illusions alongside magic history, the organization notes.
Schreiber's local organization, the Society of American Magicians Assembly 59 in Portland, is the regional chapter of the world's oldest magic society, established in 1902 to advance the art of illusion, according to M-U-M Magazine. The local assembly holds monthly educational meetings, connecting Thursday's show to Portland's organized magic community.
Professor Palshikar, whose full name is Dr. Shreeyash Palshikar, holds a Ph.D. in South Asian Studies from the University of Chicago and is a two-time Fulbright scholar who has conducted field research on traditional Indian street magic, according to Southern Methodist University. He has previously taught at Albright College and Oxford, per the same account. In his performances, Palshikar adopts a traditional Indian stage persona to reenact Victorian-era magic routines before breaking character to offer scholarly commentary that deconstructs Western stereotypes about Eastern mystics, Hyphen Magazine reports, with routines that blend historical satire and sleight of hand.
A Mansion Built for the Era
The host venue, the Victorian Belle Mansion, was constructed in 1885 by merchant David C. Cole as a wedding gift for his bride, Amanda Laura Boone, a great-granddaughter of frontiersman Daniel Boone, according to Arciform. The property today operates as a restored 2.5-acre event venue in North Portland's Kenton neighborhood.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the David C. Cole House, the Victorian Belle is historically recognized as one of the first residences in the Portland area to feature indoor electricity and windmill-pumped hot and cold water, per the Victorian Belle's own site. The house also features original Povey Brothers stained glass windows, reinforcing the 19th-century atmosphere for a show built around that same historical period.
What the Title Means
The show's title nods to a piece of vocabulary with deep roots. The term jadugar, or jaadugar, derives from the Persian word jadu, meaning magic, and is the Hindi-Urdu word for a magician, historically referring to itinerant street performers and court conjurers across the Indian subcontinent, according to The Economic Times. Traditional jadugars traveled seasonal circuits performing at regional fairs and festivals, the outlet notes.
Traditional Indian street magic significantly influenced 19th-century Western stage illusionists during what is often called the Golden Age of Magic, though the art form suffered a severe decline following criminalization under British colonial rule, per Indiablooms. Western magicians of that era frequently adapted famous Eastern feats such as the Indian Rope Trick, the outlet reports. That history helps explain why Palshikar's act is built to be explicitly educational and deconstructive, using performance to challenge colonial-era stereotypes about Eastern mystics rather than simply performing exoticized tricks for an audience.
Tickets and Details
Advance show-only tickets for the August 13 performance start at $23.18 through Eventbrite, with door tickets priced $10 higher if available, according to Eventbrite's listing. Food and drinks are sold separately from the venue's dinner menu. Tickets and further information are available through the Victorian Belle's own event page.
The pairing arrives in a summer already stacked with magic-themed entertainment around Portland, following the run of Cursed Child's farewell at Keller Auditorium and a recent Halloween-themed performance event at The Redd in Southeast Portland. Whether Thursday's collaboration between Schreiber and Palshikar is a one-off pairing or part of a broader touring partnership between the two performers remains unclear from available details.
