Magic Beyond Belief

Pigeon Forge, TN thrives on the tourist industry and one of the avenues they have chosen to help drive traffic to the area is the theater/show business. We have plenty of singing, dancing and comedy theaters to choose from. Some even go a further step and give you a dinner of some sort.

All of this is well and good if you have children of the age where such things keep their interest and thus allowing you to keep your sanity. However, should you have children of an age where country tunes and a good line dance are ingredients to the recipe for mass frustration - you would be best served by choosing a different venue. Though, if you are like me in any way, you would still like to see a show.

Well, along comes Pigeon Forge's newest attraction - Magic Beyond Belief. I mention this one because my family and I went to one of its shows the second week that it was open. For those of you who are outside of the Sevier county area, news about this place may not have reached your ears yet. However, its kind of hard to overlook its bright and bold sign complete with huge tiger while on your way to work.

Magic Beyond Belief is the culmination of one magician's hard earned work to get his own theater. Terry Evanswood has been in the Smoky Mountain area for a while now, performing at various theaters for breakfast or lunch shows and guest appearances during the dinner ones. During the off season, he seems to go around the world and perform at special events and cruise ships. This man seems to never stop working.

Having finally met him (after the show) - I would like to add that he is honestly the nicest man you will ever meet. There are all sorts of types running around this area - some with a bit of fame or notoriety that fuels their ego and this allows them to treat people like the red dirt that seems to permeate the land around here. Evanswood, though, is honest and there isn't a hint of acting in his personal behavior. He loves what he does and loves his audience for allowing him to do it.

Now he has his own show to which he performs in nearly every night - sometimes twice in one day. This seems to have allowed him the opportunity to get a lot more creative with his act. My two boys will gladly testify that they were amazed. Sometimes so much so that they were actually speechless (I need to ask Terry about THAT trick). The show was nearly 2 hours long and it never really paused to let you catch your breath.

There were a ton of really cool illusions but what I liked best was that he worked the audience into the show as well and peppered it all with some great humor. Can you say recap? Hehehe. Some of the humor had to be ad lib and it just lent to the interesting fact that Evanswood and his crew were actually having fun up there. You know the kind of fun that is contagious and that keeps your children's interest.

Speaking of his crew, the noticeable exception to his act was that Tammy (his longtime assistant) wasn't present. Terry has a new assistant, some Russian girl who should small glimpses that she was just getting used to the show. I am sure her timing will improve as times moves forward and it is somewhat unfair to compare her to her predecessor.

So at the end of this meandering review, I would like to say that this show is a must if you have a family and a must if you are kind of tired of the whole singing revue circuit. We plan to go back when the tiger arrives to the show this summer - that alone ought to buy me a few minutes of stunned silence. As for more information, here is the link to the Magic Beyond Belief Attraction.