Do you believe in magic? The first thing magicienne Belinda Sinclair tells you at her Hells Kitchen salon where she conjures, misdirects, fans cards and sets fires in her highly entertaining magic show, is that she cheats. Believe her. Even as your eyeballs are a few feet away, shes able to find your card in a well-thumbed stack, or affix yours to your lovers to create a unified one. Providing the history of conjurers in this neighborhood now known for Broadway theater, on and off, she tells you about the women who came before her in an industry more showy for the men. And because you are most certainly in a library and period-adorned living room, her formally clad assistant serves tea and home-baked cookies during intermission. Prepare to be thoroughly enchanted.

On the night my amateur magician husband and I attended, Belinda, witchy in black lace, brought me in touch with a recently deceased special aunt. She also dispensed career advice to another attendee, but in particular it was her card facility that astonished my husband who knows a thing or two about such sleights of hand. Even when you know how a trick is done, it is still so special to see it accomplished by someone as practiced as Belinda, he told me. She claims, however, modest about her talent, it is all about passion.

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