Alyx Hilshey
Comedy magician and sleight-of-hand specialist Alyx Hilshey returns to the Chicago Magic Lounge. A featured performer on Penn & Teller: Fool Us, she has appeared at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, headlined Philadelphia’s Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater, and guest-starred on Washington, D.C.’s The Magic Duel. She tours with the immersive show The Magician’s Table and was chosen to perform close-up magic for attendees at the five-day TED 2026 conference.
Before taking magic full time, Hilshey spent more than a decade as a street performer up and down the East Coast and taught electrical engineering at a Big Ten university. She did her first show at age seven and hasn’t stopped since. Expect sharp comedy, precise sleight of hand, and miracles with ordinary objects.
About the Chicago Magic Lounge
Tucked behind a working laundromat on Clark Street in Andersonville, the Chicago Magic Lounge is a speakeasy-style magic theater and cocktail bar that celebrates the city’s role as the home of close-up magic. From the early 1900s, Chicago supported more than 15 bars, restaurants, and lounges devoted to what became known as “Chicago-style magic,” where sleight-of-hand artists performed right at patrons’ tables. Landmarks like Schulien’s are long gone, but the Lounge brings that tradition back.
Founded in 2015 as a one-night-a-week show in a rented theater, the Lounge grew into its own permanent home. Each night features close-up and stage magic from a rotating lineup of professional magicians from Chicago and around the world, along with craft cocktails and shareable small plates.
The Chicago Magic Lounge is located at 5050 N. Clark Street. Guests must be 21 or older; guests 16 and older may attend with a legal guardian.
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