Imagine venturing to an immersive space for a private dinner party with 27 friends you haven’t met yet. Your evening is to be spent at an elegantly appointed table lit with candles in a room filled with various curiosities. Your host for the evening is mysterious, charismatic, and, oh, did we mention he’s a seasoned illusionist whose talents will have you thoroughly mystified by the end of the evening? After a spring season performing around the country, Scott Silven returns to The McKittrick Hotel for a four-week summer engagement beginning July 5, 2023.
I was invited by The McKittrick Hotel to At the Illusionist’s Table, and the experience was an unforgettable evening. I walked into the evening skeptical and apprehensive about the level of interaction and left wholly fascinated. A friend recently visited the experience separately and was equally amazed and charmed. I had the chance to talk with the illusionist himself, Scott Silven, to share some fun insight into his frequently sold-out show At the Illusionist’s Table.
The Most Unique Dinner Party in New York
“At the Illusionist’s Table is a unique experience where I invite 28 strangers to join me around the table,” Silven explained. “And I take them on a journey that explores my past, present and future as it intertwines with their past, present and future, using incredible foods, amazing whiskeys and extraordinary experience. I like to call it hopefully one of the most memorable evenings they’ll ever have.”
The evening starts with smaller illusions that engage you and your dinner companions and set the tone for the night. The night includes a three-course dinner and a whiskey tasting along with the fully interactive show—everyone interacts throughout the evening. Still, it’s more of a cooperative collaboration and less of an audience participation vibe.
“People come in not knowing what to expect; they maybe heard about the show, or they’ve seen me on TV, or they might have seen my bigger shows. A lot of people assume it will be separate tables and like a cabaret act,” Silven says of first-timer expectations. “As soon as they realize it’s really interactive and immersive, I think some people get a little apprehensive. I don’t like going to experiences and being picked—I think that surprises a lot of people. They think when I go to a show, that I want to be the center of attention. I really don’t; I don’t like being picked, I hate interactive stuff, and I hate immersive stuff. I took all of that into account when designing this experience. I wanted the audience to feel as comfortable as possible instantly. You’re in a space that means a lot to me, it relates to my childhood home in Scotland, and hopefully, that ambiance and the feeling that you’re at a personal dinner party relax people into the experience pretty quickly. No audience member is made to be picked on; everyone gets a chance to interact.”
My experience included another solo visitor, several couples and a few small groups. While some of us initially found the layout slightly unnerving, the ambiance of the space did make the experience much more comfortable. “It’s very interesting because I think at the beginning of the evening, it feels as if you’re stepping into an Agatha Christie novel; everyone is very suspicious, very paranoid,” Silven hit the nail right on the head—my initial reaction was one of suspicion. “They’re at the table and assume that they’re sitting at a table with 27 actors, and they’re the only real person there. And for me, it’s fascinating, and hopefully fascinating for my guests, that as the evening goes on, you quickly realize that every person at that table is authentic and having just as extraordinary an experience as you are. And hopefully, that builds the believability of the experiments a little bit more as well and bonds you to the people.”
Throughout the evening, I watched my fellow diners interact with Silven as he continuously had us marveling at his accuracy. Seated directly next to him, I was concerned I would be expected to interact constantly; however, everyone at the table participated at one point or another, and nobody was made to feel uncomfortable. “For me, it’s really delightful cutting into the heart of each moment and seeing people give themselves to the experience more and more,” Silven shared. “I think people are naturally skeptical and a little apprehensive until they’re picked to do something. As the impossibility of what you are witnessing builds, as the show goes on. It starts with something straightforward for somebody, essentially making a choice between one and three. And by the end of the experience, you’re choosing between one and several million. I love taking the audience on that sort of impossible journey.”
During each course, Silven discreetly steps out of the room—it’s the perfect time for diners to converse about what they just witnessed and enjoy the meal laid out before them. The presentation of each course is beautiful, and each menu item corresponds to parts of the evening’s narrative. “Obviously, the things that you witness are very curated and theatrical and very carefully considered,” Silven told us. “But thankfully, I’ve been doing the show for quite a bit of time now. I think I’ve done close to 3,000 performances of that show over several years, averaging about 500 performances over the year. It’s certainly still a lot of work to take the time to prepare. As you can imagine, the general stress of having a dinner party for 28 people at the best of times, imagine that but accentuate it a little more. Thankfully I don’t have to do any of the cooking or any of the other stuff!”
As a first-time visitor to The McKittrick Hotel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The immersive venue truly allows for experiences to be laid out in a way that pulls visitors into the interactive space. “I have a long relationship with The McKittrick,” Silven said of the venue. “The other shows are highly theatrical staged productions. The wonderful thing about the space is that you’re stepping into another world, it doesn’t necessarily feel like you’re stepping into a theater. You’re stepping into a completely different environment, and I really exploit that.”
At the Illusionist’s Table has dates at The McKittrick Hotel scheduled through the end of March 2023, before Artown in Reno, Nevada, April 14-20, and the Virginia Arts Festival in Virginia Beach from May 2-14. “Every venue that I go to it’s a different menu; it’s a different chef, it’s a different establishment. While I like that challenge, it keeps it fresh and new,” Silven explained. “By collaborating with a new chef, I’m really working with them and saying, ‘here’s the narrative of the show; here’s what I need for the starter, the main and the dessert.’ Usually, I go into a new venue a couple of days before and do several meetings with the chef and the stage management team before I arrive. The table you experience at the show, the decorations on the table and the greenery are all part of my rider because, psychologically, they play a very important part in the show. Everything else changes from venue to venue. The McKittrick is a really special place for me to do the show because it relates so much to Scotland. I don’t think there’s any other venue in the world where the very second you step in, you’re already part of the show. I’ve been very lucky to have had a relationship with The McKittrick since about 2017. I first brought the first version of the show for an original run of eight weeks, and we were there for eight months. I’m so excited to be back and have a whole new audience experience the show.”
After witnessing so many spectacular illusions (and participating in the completely mind-boggling finale), I had to ask what contingency plans Silven has in case things go sideways. “Usually, I just serve people extra whiskey,” he joked. “That usually resolves it! Thankfully, I’ve done the show thousands of times, so I have seen every possible scenario that can go wrong and will go wrong. Thankfully, as you’re creating a theatrical show, you have certain routes that you can take the audience down and certainly, with the work that I do, it’s a little more psychological, you’re dealing with their emotions and their memories, and you might get some curveballs. Thankfully, the audience doesn’t know the beginning, the middle and the end of the journey. And I can use many different paths, so if you come to see the show again, it might feel a little different than the last time you saw it. And I think that the really beautiful thing about psychological illusion is it’s not so much sleight of hand and gimmick boxes and things to break and go wrong. It’s a human-to-human connection, a mind-to-mind connection. And for me, there isn’t too much that can go wrong there. But of course, when you’re dealing with audience interaction, when you’re dealing with adverse developments, certainly something’s going to trip up, or people might forget something or just remember something. That’s totally fine. As I said, the whiskey is the real secret to the show!
*Interview edited for length and clarity.
