Be dazzled this weekend

Mark Toland isn’t a magician anymore.
“I have illusionist and mentalist on my business card,” he noted.
The distinction may be subtle for the layperson, but for Toland, who makes a living from the art, it’s clear.
“In college I watched a lot of magic,” said the 2009 Wichita State University graduate. “It seemed so cheesy,” he said of typical slight-of-hand tricks.
So, over the years he refined his act, he said.
“The show is a culmination of what I’ve been working on all through college,” he said. “I’ve taken out what I consider lackluster and replaced it. It’s a higher-level show now.”
Iolans will get a chance to view the changes firsthand when Toland returns to his hometown for two shows this weekend.
Iola Community Theatre’s Warehouse Theatre at 203 S. Jefferson Ave. will be the venue at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday where Toland performs his “combination of magic and mind reading.
“There are no props,” in Toland’s new show, he said. “It’s just me.”
The show is also “longer than I’ve done before” with “a lot of audience participation,” he said.
Some of the refinements came courtesy of Toland’s fiance and college sweetheart, Stephanie Cunningham.
“She’s so supportive, and really talented, too,” he said of his bride-to-be. “She made me rethink how I wanted my magic to be.”
Cunningham, a ballet and modern dancer, helped Toland view his show “more from an outside perspective,” he said, and allowed him to see his act “more aesthetically,” he noted.
The audience should benefit, he said.
“There’s a point where I’m blindfolded and have to guess what people standing up in the audience are holding,” he said. Other feats include answering questions written and sealed into envelopes by audience members — without ever having access to the questions, he said.
To add a bit of flash, Toland will also perform a “side show presentation popularized by Harry Houdini,” he said, in which he swallows 50 sewing needles.
Other such visual tricks must remain under wraps until performance time, Toland said.
Toland hopes the changes will expand the fan base for his shows.
He returned to Wichita after almost a full year of performing magic in Los Angeles to be closer to Cunningham, he said. The two hope to move to New York City next year, where he will be closer to agencies that can advance his career and she can join a professional dance troupe.
“I’m working with a national agent trying to get college shows,” he informed. If all works as hoped, Toland will be touring the college circuit by next year.
“Los Vegas would be nice eventually,” he said of his career plans, “and a cruise ship is nice to see the world,” but right now, Toland wants to perform for as many people as possible.
No matter where he ends up, though, he said, “it’s always good to come back and see the people who got me hooked on theater in the first place.”