The bigger tricks, like their version of "disappearing" an elephant or the classic sawing a woman in half were all done with literal levity, audience participation or jokes...but they never talk down to the crowd.
But, it was afterwards that I saw an almost bigger trick: a crowd of humans tightly encircling a man in the center and practically consuming him with flashes and fevor, but being tamed by the lone subject in the middle.
His part of the stage act never involves speaking a word, but when Teller talked to the crowd that was something to hear. He was patient, polite, generous and, well, a mensch with every single person. If he needed to coax a camera-shy person into a photo, or remind an anxious, clamoring kid that there was a bigger kid (me) who had been waiting longer, he never raised that voice or seemed irritated. He continuously reassured everyone he was not leaving until everyone had a photo or an autograph. There must have been a couple of hundred clamouring fans. I can't imagine how he was not claustrophobic with people pressing in on him. And yet, the crowd was tamed, and behaved, if that is not oxymoronic in describing crowd mentality, thanks to one of the best communicators I've ever seen.
See them while you can. Through 8/16.
