iJoods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)Amsterdam Centrum
Abracadabra: Mysteries from Houdini to Hans Klok
The golden age of magic through its Jewish illusionists, from Harry Houdini to Hans Klok, with tricks visitors can try themselves.
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Okito's iron ball sits in a case here, the prop he made float on stage in The Floating Bullet, next to a signet ring from the King of Siam. Okito was Theo Bamberg, a Jewish Amsterdammer from six generations of magicians, and his belongings reached the illusionist Hans Klok in moving boxes. Those boxes started this show.
The rooms are rebuilt as four small theatres: Disappearing, Levitation, Escape and Horror. Houdini's 1907 escape casket and his straitjacket are shown alongside posters, scrapbooks and Horace Goldin's saw-in-half act. The thread is why so many early magicians were Jewish: shut out of trade guilds, they took to a freelance stage where, the museum says, only talent counts. The route also covers what the Holocaust did to these performers.
You don't just look. Klok teaches tricks on video, and you can vanish in a cabinet or saw a family member in half. Tickets are €20, or €40 for a family; a guide magazine with a Klok interview costs €4.95.
Look for
Okito's floating ball
Look for the iron ball from The Floating Bullet, shown with the Eastern robe Okito hid things in and his ring from the King of Siam.
Houdini's escape casket
The 1907 casket Houdini escaped from, displayed with his straitjacket and a set of his locks and restraints.
Okito's backstage sign
His original sign ordering artists and theatre staff to keep away from the stage during the performance, so nobody saw how it was done.
The saw-in-half
Horace Goldin's illusion, here with a circular saw, and a box nearby where you can try it on someone you came with.
The vanishing cabinet
In the Disappearing Theatre you step into a cabinet, vanish and come back out.
Good for
- Small Kids
- Teenagers
With kids
Made for young and old: kids can saw a parent in half, vanish in a cabinet and learn levitation from Klok's videos, and a scavenger hunt runs until 28 March. Family ticket €40.
Also at Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Abracadabra: Mysteries from Houdini to Hans KlokJeroen Bont
- The Land of Chocolate Sprinkles. Building a new world togetherCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- Chez Matisse - Masterpieces from Centre PompidouCourtesy of H'ART Museum
- The Poor Man's Rembrandt ProjectCourtesy of Rembrandt House Museum
- Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)S Sepp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- H'ART MuseumFentener van Vlissingen, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Rembrandt House Museum14:43, 17 October 2006 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Amsterdam MuseumJvhertum, Public domain
- Museum Willet-HolthuysenJane023 / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain