Magic Table Dinner Show at VEN: Featuring Real and Virtual Magicians

Do you need magicians to experience an enchanting evening? We put it to the test—by invitation and therefore feeling a bit invited—not uninvited, as Mr. Tucholsky so charmingly put it over 100 years ago. But I can handle that. The Media Night was dedicated to the Magic Table, a format featuring magic projected from the projector above the table on one hand and enchanting food from the VEN kitchen on the other, where (after a hiatus at the Kempinski) Marcel Spahn is once again calling the shots.

The team is delighted about his return, especially the (still relatively new) hotel director, Ernesto Denaro. Nothing beats a well-coordinated team that gets along! And a team that’s fully represented on the menu: Marcel Spahn and three others in the kitchen, Susann Schaffel and three others in service. A lovely, appreciative idea in just two lines! Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass bring the magic to the table. The duo also performs as “The Clairvoyants” and—it’s magic!—appears at tables in multiple locations around the world simultaneously. They can’t do this because they’re magicians, but because they’re digital hosts. They appear from the projector above the table, just as so much else is a colorful projection of reality.

There’s Magic in the Air (Images & Montage: Ulrich van Stipriaan)

The tricks, choreographed down to the second, work perfectly, of course—after all, the Austrian professional magic duo has years of Las Vegas experience. It would work just as well if the two were standing right in front of you in the flesh. So far, so good. On the other hand, I found it odd when the microphone prompted the audience to applaud and—given the well-known reserved nature of the locals—immediately followed up with an announcement to try a little louder. I, stubborn old goat that I am, refused to cooperate with the machine at that point—and, just to test it, during other pointless interactive activities as well. I’m not going to let a machine run my evening. At least not the whole time. Of course, I placed my wine glass exactly where the projector suggested—it (!) must have had a reason. Exactly—I needed the space; I shuffled the cards, tore them up, put them back together, and, naturally, rejoiced like a child at the correct result. Or moved my finger from one self-chosen colored (virtual…) key to the next—and still ended up on the correct, predicted one: fabulously entertaining magical math!