Brazilian magic phenom to perform in Windham

WINDHAM—Along State Route 23, where the Catskills still trade in equal parts memory and reinvention, a small room above Main Street has become something of an improbable proving ground.

Inside Magic On Main, proprietor Sean Doolan has built a reputation not on spectacle, but on proximity. It’s the kind of close-up magic where the miracle happens inches from your hands, and disbelief has nowhere to hide.

This Tuesday, April 21, that room will host something rarer than a trick: a test.

For one night only, Brazilian card virtuoso Bernardo Sedlacek will take the table at Doolan’s personal invitation, bringing with him a résumé that stretches across nearly 40 countries and into the orbit of modern magic’s biggest names.

Immersing himself in magic since the age of seven, Sedlacek has fooled audiences—notably the hosts of Penn & Teller: Fool Us—and has worked behind the scenes as a consultant to David Blaine on projects with National Geographic.

In 2023, Sedlacek earned the Milbourne Christopher Award for Close-Up Magic, one of the field’s highest honors.

But in Windham, the stakes are different.

“This is a proof of concept,” Doolan said, speaking between shows at a venue that has quietly amassed 542 performances and a number one ranking on TripAdvisor for the area.

“If this works, it opens the door to something bigger,” said Doolan.

Bigger, in this case, means a new chapter for Magic On Main—a larger venue, longer residencies, and a rotating cast of elite performers who could spend a week in the mountains instead of a night passing through Manhattan.

For a town better known for ski runs and summer rentals, it’s an ambitious pitch: that world-class magic might take root here. Not as a novelty, but as a fixture.

Doolan himself is no stranger to reinvention. He arrived in Windham in 1998 from the Bronx, leaving behind a career as a prosecutor and trial lawyer for one that relies on a different kind of persuasion.

“Either way,” he joked, “I lie for a living.”

The lifelong obsession with sleight of hand, particularly card magic, is one that Doolan calls his favorite discipline.

It’s also what drew him to Sedlacek.

Trained in the rigorous traditions of the Spanish school of card magic—a style known for its technical precision and deceptive elegance—Sedlacek represents, in Doolan’s estimation, the next wave.

“He is the future of card magic,” Doolan said plainly.

Sedlacek, for his part, seems eager to test that future in an unlikely corner of Greene County.

“I’m so excited to be sharing this journey through my passion with everyone in Windham for the first time,” he said. “It will be my first time there, but surely not the last.”

For Sedlacek, his magic is exclusively with playing cards. But nothing like poker.

“The way I see magic is just like watching a movie, where the intention is not to fool you or for you to feel that sensation. Instead, it is made to guide you through a journey full of emotions and sensations,” he said.

“All you need is to sit open minded and enjoy,” Sedlacek added.

The show itself will be as intimate as anything Magic On Main has staged―a single 7 p.m. performance, limited seating, no walk-ins. Tickets are set at $100 with reservations required. It’s the kind of scarcity that has become part of the venue’s quiet appeal.

And that may be the real trick.

In an era of infinite content and endless screens, Doolan has built something deliberately finite—a room, a table, a deck of cards, and a handful of witnesses. For one night, at least, that formula will be pushed to its limits by a magician who has fooled millions elsewhere.

If it works, Windham may find itself holding more than just a good hand.

For ticket, text Doolan at 518-755-3433 or email MagicOnMainWindham@gmail.com.