ERIE, Pennsylvania, USA, October 19, 2026 — Bobby Borgia is bringing his Interactive Magic in Concert show home to Erie. Borgia, who founded Kellar’s: A Modern Magic & Comedy Club in 2020 and won an Emmy Award this year for producing a PBS documentary about magician Harry Kellar, will perform his immersive, multimedia show for the first time on the club’s stage October 23 and 24.
The show takes close-up magic and scales it up for a full room. Sleight of hand, predictions, and audience participation are captured by a live multi-camera crew and projected on large LED screens, so every seat sees the work as if from inches away. Borgia layers in CGI, cinematic visuals, and intelligent lighting, with magic happening in the hands of audience members.
For all its technical complexity, Borgia says the goal is not to show off technology but to create an experience for the audience. “People don’t remember technology,” he told Conjurly. “They remember how a story made them feel.”
The concept was born by accident and out of necessity. Borgia had just ended a run with his illusion show on a Celebrity cruise ship and was moving to a Carnival ship when all of his illusions and show gear were lost in transit between the two.
“I had a deck of cards, some yarn, a thumb tip, and shows to perform,” Borgia told Conjurly.
In true “the show must go on” tradition, he recalls telling the entertainment director, “Give me a camera operator and a big screen. I’ll just have to make some close-up magic into a bigger experience.”
After two weeks, the lost props caught up with Borgia and he was back to performing his illusion show. But a seed had been planted, and Borgia would develop it into a full concept for a new kind of interactive magic show experience.
Now that show is coming to the club he built. Mike Quirk, general manager of Kellar’s, said the run means a lot to the club. “Kellar’s is bringing Bobby’s show home to Erie, offering audiences an immersive, modernized look at the hard work and artistry behind contemporary magic and illusion,” he told Conjurly. “Crafting a production of this caliber requires immense preparation, making its homecoming a truly special moment for Kellar’s and for Erie.”
For Borgia, the return is personal. He spent three decades in Hollywood, living just a few blocks from the Magic Castle, before coming home to Erie and opening his magic and comedy venue. His career still spans the globe, but Erie is once again his home base.
Borgia named the club for Harry Kellar, who was born Heinrich Keller in Erie in 1849. Kellar became the dean of American magicians. He toured the world with a full-evening illusion show, made his levitation of Princess Karnac a signature piece, and in 1908 handed his show to Howard Thurston, starting the line of succession that runs through American stage magic. Harry Houdini counted Kellar as a friend and mentor.
Borgia’s ties to Kellar’s family go back to his teens. At 16, while performing table magic at an Erie restaurant, he met a 72-year-old woman who asked whether he had ever heard of her great-uncle, Harry Kellar. She was Katherine Keller Blakely, who had lived with the magician in Los Angeles for the last 10 years of his life and brought his belongings home to Erie after his death. In response to Borgia’s blank stare, she told him Kellar was “the greatest magician in the history of magic.” With those words, Borgia’s fascination with Kellar was born.
Decades later, the family found him again. In 2018, Borgia was closing his shows aboard the Carnival Horizon with a video tribute to Kellar. To his surprise, audience members who had been seated in the front row introduced themselves after the show as Kellar family members.
After hearing his plans for a Kellar homage in Erie, Rick Blakely, Katherine’s grandson, and his wife Jennifer Blakely opened the estate to Borgia. The family’s collection includes Kellar’s library, furniture, passport, and hundreds of letters between Kellar and Houdini, along with photos of the two that Borgia says have never been seen publicly. Several of the rare photos and letters are now on display at the club.
“It was quite amazing to personally view these Kellar treasures and actually read the many letters between Kellar and Houdini and view the rare photos,” Borgia told Conjurly.
The family is glad it trusted him. Rick Blakely said his grandmother vividly remembered meeting the young magician that night at The Station restaurant, and that nothing gave her more joy than sharing her memories of her great-uncle Harry.
“I believe that my grandmother would be extremely happy to know that the memory of her dear Uncle Harry was alive and well here in Erie, and that it was that young man she met so long ago who brought that memory back to life for all to see,” he told Conjurly. “Bobby has unquestionably been an extremely good steward of Kellar’s legacy. Our family could not be more pleased.”
Borgia has carried Kellar’s story to a wider audience beyond the club. As producer of Kellar: The Greatest American Magician, an episode of Chronicles, the local history series from WQLN, Erie’s PBS station, Borgia won a 2026 Emmy Award for Historical Documentary, along with a Gold Telly Award for General-History and a Silver Telly Award for General-Biography.
Jesse Olszewski directed, Mike Berlin and Cindy Spizarny were executive producers, and Borgia narrated the 58-minute episode, which streams on PBS Passport and YouTube. The film features interviews with magic luminaries Lance Burton, Jim Steinmeyer, Mike Caveney, and John Gaughan, along with appearances by Piff the Magic Dragon, Ed Alonzo, Garrett Thomas, Blake Vogt, and others.
“To win an Emmy and two Telly Awards was mind-blowing,” Borgia said. “It has left me humbled and grateful.”
Producing the film, he added, was never just about documenting history. “It was about bringing an American icon back to life for a new generation and honoring the man who helped define an entire art form.”
The awards have also opened doors, he said, for an outside-the-box magic television show he has been developing for several years. “My goal is to create a magic show that affects people in a positive way,” Borgia said. “Positivity is definitely something we need more of right now in our society.”
Those ambitions rest on more than 30 years of performing in more than 70 countries, from Asia and Europe to Las Vegas casinos and cruise ships from Alaska to the Mediterranean. In Erie, he has played the Warner Theatre and the Erie Playhouse. His television work includes The CW’s Masters of Illusion, NBC’s The Pretender, ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, FOX’s MADtv, The Great Magic of Las Vegas, and three years as a host on the Disney Channel.
“If a musician can create a song that has a lasting impact on the world, why can’t a magician do the same with magic?”
— Bobby Borgia
Behind the scenes, he has designed illusions and consulted for film, television, stage, music, and theme parks. He was magic consultant on the Disney Channel Original Movie Now You See It and on Flick: The Power of Motion Pictures, technical advisor on The Pretender, and a consultant for Tokyo Disney, Disneyland’s Aladdin live show, and a regional theater production of Mary Poppins.
He has also designed concert illusions for Destiny’s Child, Brian McKnight, K-Ci & JoJo, and Henry Rollins, consulted for Boyz II Men, and illustrated The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Magic Tricks.
It has been an incredible global run for the kid from Erie. Borgia recently sat down with Joel Natalie of Talk Erie Radio to chat about his career and share insider stories. The full 49-minute interview is available on YouTube.
After decades of performing everywhere from tableside at local restaurants to cruise ship theaters on the high seas to the stage of the club in Erie that bears Kellar’s name, Borgia still measures magic by what it leaves behind. “If a musician can create a song that has a lasting impact on the world, why can’t a magician do the same with magic?” he told Conjurly. “I believe we can.”
Shows begin at 7 p.m. both nights, with doors opening at 5 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children 16 and under, plus a per-ticket surcharge. The show is rated Parental Guidance: children 5 and older are admitted with a responsible adult over 25 with identification. Kellar’s is at 1402 State Street in Erie, and tickets are available at kellarsmagic.com.
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