At the theater, one wants, or at least consents, to be fooled. Without a willing suspension of disbelief, theater cannot take place. The audience knows they are in a building with seats, lights, and scenery, and that the people on the stage are actors, not actually gods or gravediggers, suffragists or salesmen, or whatever the story they are telling demands. But except for an occasional prologue or epilogue or other breaking of the fourth wall to address the audience, the lies told in theaters are not usually the subject of the play.  This is all upended in the new work premiering at Round House Theatre, Nothing Up My Sleeve: Simple Deceptions for Curious Humans, an intriguing amalgam of magic show and autobiography. This one-man play, created by master magician/actor Dendy and playwright/director Aaron Posner, foregrounds the falsehoods and faces head-on what it means for an audience to be complicit in their own deception, in hopes, perhaps, of revealing more fundamental truths.  Dendy on the set of ‘Nothing Up My Sleeve: Simple Deceptions for Curious Humans’ at Round House Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman. Dendy and Posner first worked together on the acclaimed Round House production of The Tempest in 2022, which was co-directed by the magician Teller and featured stage illusions to emphasize the sorcery in the story. Dendy portrayed the slave-sprite Ariel and helped design and perform many of the tricks in the show. After this successful collaboration, he mentioned to Posner that he was keen to do a one-man magic show, and Posner, impressed by his talent and drive, agreed. But since Round House is foremost a theater, it was vital that the work also tell a story. And after much workshopping, the duo determined that the story should be Dendy’s own — how he became a magician.  So Nothing Up My Sleeve, while coyly refusing to answer the question that burns in everyone’s mind —How do you DO that?! — touchingly answers a perhaps more meaningful one — WHY do you do that? Dendy, as it turns out, is a very compelling and charming star for a one-man show. He is small, lithe, and humorous — one might call him “puckish” if the role he is most known for weren’t Ariel instead. He spends the first act recreating magic acts from his early years, complete with accents, from his 6-year-old lisp to the lonely adolescent desperate to make friends in various new schools to the fake French accent he adopted at the high-falutin’ Missouri restaurant where he prestidigitized his way into his first paying magician gig. There is much broad humor along with the deft card, coin, and ball sleight-of-hand. But along the way, his fine-tuned acting allows him to delve into deeper moments of emotion, from his interactions with his father to the devastating moment when a “mind-reading” trick caused emotional pain to a patron, and drove Dendy away from magic for years.  Fortunately, one might even say magically, a chance meeting with a relation of one of his idols rekindled his identity as a magician. The second half of the show features not so much connections with Dendy’s own past, but connections with the generations of magicians who have come before — the tradition of passing illusions down hand-to-hand from previous magical luminaries, with each conjurer in succession adding his own personal flair. Teller, traditionally the silent partner in the famous duo Penn and Teller, here submits a video testimony of how he passed along a particular trick that originated from Houdini himself. This rich magic heritage is reflected in Daniel Conway’s charming scenic and projection design, which pays homage to music hall and vaudeville theaters, rich with Edison lights, velvet curtains, dusty trunks, top hats, and bentwood chairs. Images of past impresarios appear on scrims in front of trinket-filled cubbies around the stage, and a large tilted screen center stage presents pictures of Dendy in his childhood magic acts, or jaw-dropping closeups of the sleight-of-hand he performs with cards and coins.  Dendy on the set of ‘Nothing Up My Sleeve: Simple Deceptions for Curious Humans’ at Round House Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman. The entire show shimmers with delightful mystery. As magicians traditionally do, Dendy skillfully employs potential failures to heighten the suspense and perceived difficulty of his tricks. His acting is so good that some audience members could well be unsure whether the mistakes are real or scripted — all part of the wide, fuzzy border between lies and truth that comprises the core of the show.  As with all magic shows, audience participation is key. (Viewers who would be enchanted to be drawn up on stage should try to book seats in the first few rows or near the aisle.) In interacting with patrons live, Dendy shows not only skill at prestidigitation, but a deft hand at standup comedy. One thing that is never in doubt is that without Dendy’s unequaled skills at magic, comedy, and acting, Nothing Up My Sleeve would not exist. There is no understudy listed, and there could be none. The entire performance floats on his slender shoulders. For the most part, he avoids the large-scale dramatic flourishes that some famous magicians employ. No one here gets sawn in half. His attitude toward his material is almost always affectionate and humorous. At one point, he even confines his tricks to the viewpoint of one patron on stage, while letting the rest of the audience in on (one tiny hint of) how they are performed. There is always a tacit acknowledgement that, yes, these are illusions, and although Dendy will never break the code and reveal how they work, we all know we’re being willingly hoodwinked.  The one part of the show that departs at all from this easy, comic approach is a particular illusion inherited from Houdini that resembles a sword-swallowing trick in miniature. While seemingly swallowing bundles of needles, Dendy causes unease by displaying discomfort … and then breaks into a beautific smile, to show that even possible pain is part of the illusion we have all agreed to partake in. The effect can be disconcerting, briefly raising the question of whether watching someone suffer is appropriate entertainment — especially if there’s a chance it’s real. But of course, the point is that this is all theater, all illusion, and the catharsis of watching others in pain has been integral to theater since its birth.  But overall, what Dendy conveys through his magic and his story is sheer joy and connection. He points out that without an audience, magic does not exist; it is a partnership based on mutual trust, even if dependent on deception. Throughout his life, magic has been a way for this young man to reach out and touch others, to bridge gaps, to love and be loved. And there, beneath the lies, lies the ultimate truth of magic. Nothing Up My Sleeve is original, delightful, and mesmerizing. Catch it before it disappears. Running Time: Two hours, with one intermission.  Nothing Up My Sleeve: Simple Deceptions for Curious Humans plays through March 15, 2026, at Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 PM, Saturday at 8:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 PM. Tickets start at $50 with ticket discounts available. Purchase tickets by calling 240.644.1100, ordering online, visiting the box office, or through TodayTix. The program is online here. Buy Tickets Discount Tickets Nothing Up My SleeveBy Aaron Posner Dendy Magic by Dendy Directed by Aaron Posner   The post ‘Nothing Up My Sleeve’ is sheer joy at Round House Theatre appeared first on DC Theater Arts. ...read more read less