A Brit’s Lifelong Dream to Be a Magician Propels an Off-Broadway Debut
English showman Jamie Allan mixes magic and memories in his Off-Broadway show. He fuses hi-tech with timeless sleight of hand and dedicates each show to his late mom and dad.
| 28 Aug 2025 | 07:43
Jamie Allan, while trained in old-school magician tricks, uses lasers, light shows, and hi-tech in his magic acts. (
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Allan said he dedicates each show to his earliest backers, his mom, Kay Kennedy, and his dad, Allan James Nicklin. They owned a pub in the small English town where he grew up and where he performed some of his earliest magic tricks as a youngster. (
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He calls his New York show Amaze and dedicates it to the earliest backers of his magical aspiration, his late parents, who were performers and pub owners in the small English village where he grew up. (
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Jamie Allan knew from the time he was a 7-year-old kid in England living above a pub that he yearned to be a magician. Now after a successful run in Chicago, he’s working his magic at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages through Nov. 2. (
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At an age when most of us are just starting to outgrow our childhood toys, Jamie Allan was already plotting his destiny. At 7, he unwrapped a beginner’s magic set and a Rubik’s Cube on Christmas morning. The Cube sat untouched. The magic kit consumed him—and “that decision marked the path I would follow for the rest of my life,” Allan recalls.
Now, that kid who grew up in a small English village in Congerstone, about an hour from Stratford-upon-Avon, above a pub owned by his parents, is centerstage in NYC, living out the very dream he conjured decades ago. Amaze, his record-smashing, tech-drenched magic show, is having a limited run at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages (340 W. 50th St.) through Nov. 2, and Allan is making one promise: “Prepare to experience magic not just with your eyes, but with your heart.”
This isn’t Vegas glitter or smoke-and-mirrors cliché. Amaze is a theatrical phenomenon that fuses holograms, iPads, lasers, and 3D video mapping with timeless sleight of hand. But the real trick isn’t technical—it’s emotional.
“It must have started shortly after I began performing tricks for my parents,” Allan says. His late parents, Kay Kennedy and Alan James Nicklin, were performers themselves who also owned a pub, where he had many happy childhood memories. “I showed my mom and dad a simple coin-vanish, but the real magic was seeing their reaction. I realized then it wasn’t about fooling people—it was about making them feel something. And that has guided me ever since.”
That philosophy drives Amaze. The show, which played in Chicago and in London’s West End before landing in New York, unfolds as an intimate autobiography, with every illusion tied to Allan’s own life—his childhood surrounded by music and performance, his parents’ unwavering encouragement, even the memory-soaked cabaret room in the family pub where he first tested out routines. “From the moment the audience walks in, I want them to feel like they’ve stepped into my own imagination as a child,” he says. “People don’t just see the impossible. They feel it.”
And the audience isn’t just watching—they’re in it. Phones, memories, choices—everything’s fair game. “Magic isn’t meant to be observed from a distance. It’s meant to be shared,” Allan explains. “When the audience participates, the miracle belongs to everyone. That’s what makes Amaze unforgettable.”
If Allan sounds like a dreamer, don’t mistake it for softness. He’s also a record-breaker. His iMagician show became the highest-selling magic production in Chicago history. He’s headlined the West End, closed BBC’s One Show to millions, and fooled the hardest skeptics on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. He has mentored on primetime TV, created multimillion-dollar immersive productions, and written a book, Everything, that magicians call essential reading. But New York is different. It’s the crucible.
Performing here, Allan says, is both a culmination and a new beginning. “New York’s theatrical history is known the world over. Bringing Amaze here feels like the start of a brand-new chapter.”
He admits that getting personal onstage wasn’t difficult because it came from truth. “They always say, ‘Write what you know.’ And I decided to do just that. And it worked. The only difficult part is that my parents, such a huge part of the story, are no longer here to see it.” That loss, however, is also what makes the show hit deeper. Every illusion is a tribute not just to wonder, but to the people who believed in him.
And while Allan thrives on the high-tech future of magic, he hasn’t abandoned its roots. “I like to think I use technology today just like magicians used to use a wand, doves, or a deck of cards,” he says. “But the drama and feeling of the show, that comes from using classic rules which have been around for centuries.”
And when asked what playing card New York would be, Allan doesn’t miss a beat:
“The Joker. Unpredictable, and capable of anything. You never quite know what will happen next, and that’s the thrill of it. That’s New York. A wild card. One night you’re tested to your limits, the next it hands you the biggest opportunity of your life. Possibility and mischief, the unexpected turn you didn’t see coming.”
For a magician whose career was born from possibility and surprise, it feels like fate. Because in New York—just as in magic—anything can happen! He’s in the only city that could match that wild-card energy—proving that if you chase your childhood dream hard enough, one day it might just take the stage with your name on the marquee.
Amaze, New World Stages (340 W. 50th St.) through Nov. 2. Presented by Starvox Touring, co-created by Tommy Bond and directed by Jonathan Goodwin. Tickets on sale now.
“People don’t just see the impossible. They feel it.” — magician Jamie Allan