The Irma Magic Castle is a popular tourist attraction located in Tokyo, Japan. It is a unique combination of a magic show and a themed restaurant, offering visitors a truly immersive experience. As soon as guests step foot inside the Irma Magic Castle, they are transported to a world of illusion and wonder. The interior of the castle is intricately designed, with every corner and detail created to evoke a sense of magic and enchantment. The main highlight of visiting the Irma Magic Castle is the magic show itself. The performances are led by world-renowned magicians who amaze and astound the audience with their mesmerizing tricks and illusions.
Irma magic castle
Prior to a show, patrons enjoy dinner (or brunch on the weekends) in the elegant dining room where waiters are clad in black tie attire. With the upswing of magical interest in recent years, Magic Castle General Manager Joe Furlow led an effort to improve the club, including the food and beverage program, which was sprinkled with a nod to California’s robust selection of produce and flavors from the club’s onsite garden.
The Parlour of Prestidigitation at the Magic Castle | Instagram by @the.rosenkranz.mysteries
Afterwards, diners are dazzled by various stage performances in either The Palace of Mystery or the Parlour of Prestidigitation. In a town of movie magic, not much compares to a show here.
“Computers can do anything. Movies have technology to perform magic,” Larsen says. “But if you’re sitting two feet from a magician at the castle, you know what he’s doing isn’t an optical effect. It’s a genuine person tricking your eyes. That is why magic will always be around forever. There’s no limit to imagination.”
Whit "Pop" Haydn performs in the W. C. Fields Bar at the Magic Castle | Photo by Billy Baque, Wikimedia Commons
Further deceptions continue in the basement where Pepper’s Ghost – a haunting ghost display – resides. This particular element was the actual prototype for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland (think the ghostly revelry around the dining table). And if you’re an exclusive guest, a drink in the W.C. Fields Bar in the downstairs Inner Circle will have you witness to a bamboozled pool table, once owned by W.C. Fields.
Houdini Séance Chamber at the Magic Castle | Instagram by @robzabrecky
On weekends, the Houdini Séance Chamber is opened for small groups to summon spirits long gone - the effort pays homage to Houdini’s wife, who tried for years to summon his spirit after his untimely death.
#FotoDelDia | 30 Octubre, 2017
El emblemático letrero de Hollywood desde una perspectiva diferente, misma que tu puedes vivir en tu próxima vista a la ciudad de las estrellas #DescubreLosAngeles
For a keepsake, Magic Castle: Beyond the Smoke & Mirrors by Carol Marie and Kendall Bennett is a retrospective of photographs and tales. And in August 2018, a petite location called Magic Castle Cabaret opened in Santa Barbara, offering coastal magic for members.
A meander through the Magic Castle is a constant turn of the neck that wisps away the rigors of reality and presents an experience of childlike astonishment. “In today’s world, it’s important to escape the bad stuff and make dreams come true, and magicians do that all the time,” says Larsen. “You watch a magician and don’t think about anything … and it opens the door of imagination. And once you get that door open, nothing else in the world is happening.”
And to that, we say “open sesame!”
Life of Magic Castle piano man celebrated
TICKLING THE IVORIES—During the memorial for David E. Bourne, Jason Faessel of San Diego gazes at Irma the piano, the instrument that Bourne played at the Magic Castle for 48 years. The memorial for the Agoura Hills resident was March 15 at Paramount Ranch.
Like Mark Twain’s characters Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, David E. Bourne would have gotten a hoot out of attending his own memorial service at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills on March 15.
The Agoura Hills resident and 48-year career saloon piano player at the Magic Castle in Hollywood would have been pleased to witness the hundreds of people who traveled from across the state and the nation to celebrate Bourne’s life and times as a cowboy, musician, actor, friend–and magic piano man.
Bourne died at home in January from cancer at age 75. His wife, Patty, daughter Rachel, son Jason and other family members were by his side.
The celebration in the bucolic mountain setting of a ranch that was once routinely used in cowboy movies weas the perfect environment to celebrate Bourne’s life. Pictures of Bourne displayed at the ranch depicted a craggy, deeply etched cowboy face that was matched by his unique talent of performing the perhaps the widest range of saloon piano music known to man.
Even Irma, the magic piano that could play any song suggested by mesmerized guests at the Magic Castle (and Bourne’s five-day-per-week companion), was hauled to the ranch as a symbol of their partnership in musical illusion.
Bourne performed over 3,000 songs in every genre and style over the decades. In addition to playing piano, he was a band leader, guitarist, singer, actor, author, historian, teacher and horseman, according to his website, saloonpiano.com.
The celebration at Paramount Ranch began with a marching band. David E. Bourne’s Magnifi- cent Ensemble performed, as did myriad musicians with Dixieland, cowboy, Irish, Hawaiian, reggae, ragtime and other musical styles.
Nile Jones of Madera, Calif., said he met Bourne at an event where Bourne performed on piano.
“Oh, he was a wonderful person,” Jones said. “He was so friendly. Everybody liked him.”
Candy Chapman, who’d known Bourne for decades, traveled from Oregon to pay tribute to him. She said they first met at Shakey’s Pizza when she was 17 years old. Later she would go to hear him play at the Hock Shop, a bar in Hollywood where his reputation as a piano player started to take hold.
“You’ve got to admire a guy who got to do what he loved for his entire life,” Chapman said
Bourne was born in the Santa Maria area, and his family later moved to Anaheim, where his father, Ted, became the instrumental music instructor for the Anaheim City School District.
David Bourne began taking piano lessons at age 6. His father also taught him to play trombone, baritone and string bass.
Bourne attended USC on a full scholarship, graduating in 1961 with a degree in music. During his college years, he played piano in the Calico Saloon at Knott’s Berry Farm and continued to work at Knott’s after graduation, playing string bass with the Wagonmasters, a country group that entertained in the park’s Wagon Camp from 1955 to 1968.
His family said Bourne’s love of Knott’s Berry Farm led him to publish the book “Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town: A Pictorial Retrospective 1940-1968.”
Not long after graduating from college, Bourne served in the U.S. Marines, where he worked in recruiting at Los Alamitos.
Later he formed a folk singing group, The Californians. One of the band members became his wife—David and Patty Bourne were married in 1964.
Bourne formed the Maple Leaf Club, a group dedicated to the preservation of classic ragtime piano, in 1967, when he was performing at the Hock Shop. At the same time, he launched his 48-year, behind-the-scenes career at the Magic Castle. He performed there until December 2014.
In addition to his long-standing career at the Magic Castle, Bourne performed with about three or four bands each year and led the Resurrection Brass Band, a 20-piece New Orleans marching ensemble. He also formed the Dawn of the Century Ragtime Orchestra and entertained at Casey’s Bar in Los Angeles for 17 years.
Bourne made his mark in television and film, performing in HBO’s “Deadwood” and the History Channel’s “Wild West Tech” and “The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth.”
Bourne performed saloon piano in the movie “Jonah Hex” and played a wolf hunter in the independent film “Wolf Town.”
Bourne is survived by his wife, Patty; son, Jason; daughter, Rachel; and son-in-law, Jason Bold.
While the celebration of Bourne’s life was centered on music, Patty Bourne requested that a Hopi prayer be recited:
Do not stand at my grave and weep. / I am not there, I do not sleep. / I am the thousand winds that blow./ I am the diamond glint in the snow….
JAZZY SEND-OFF—Patricia Wilson of Culver City leads the David E. Bourne Magnificent Ensemble to kick off Bourne’s memorial on March 15.
LENDING A HAND—Cassie Poole, 16, of Victorville and her grandmother Glenda Morehouse of Garden Grove help with signing in family and friends at Bourne’s memorial.
Hollywood is a magic place where ghosts play piano and you get to the top by driving a Cadillac up an elevator
In my recent superficial and impressionistic review of Hollywood Boulevard, I was inevitably guilty of some misapprehensions, which I would like to correct.
I am told, for one thing, that Irma, the invisible pianist who plays the piano at the Magic Castle, is “but an illusion.”
I was guilty of publishing the house legend, which is that Irma was one of seven daughters of the original owners of the mansion, and that because of her eternal practicing on the piano she was banished to the attic. When the place was converted into the Magic Castle in 1963, Irma’s ghost emerged to play requests on the piano in the music chamber. Though she remains invisible, Irma plays almost any song a visitor can request.
AdvertisementAbraham Hoffman of Reseda writes that the house was built in 1910 by Rollin Lane, a Redlands financier and orange grower, and that Lane and his wife were very staunch and benevolent Hollywood citizens; but he implies that they did not have seven daughters.
Art Dowling of Manhattan Beach suggests that Irma is either a computer that has instant access to hundreds of tapes or, more likely, a person in another room who plays a piano wired to the one in the public chamber.
He notes that Irma played my request for “Has Anybody Seen My Gal,” which a computer couldn’t have done, since the correct name of the song is “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.”
I am more dismayed by my reference to the “abandoned Broadway building” at Hollywood and Vine. I meant that it had been abandoned by the Broadway Department Stores, but I admit my words would give the impression that it was empty.
I received a call from Steve Meringoff in New York, co-owner of both the old Broadway Building, on the southwest corner, and the Taft Building, on the southeast corner, inviting me to visit his Hollywood offices and find out what is happening.
I was happy to oblige.
Once I got inside the Taft Building I saw that it was undergoing a thorough restoration. The white marble lobby gleamed. The old chandeliers were back. The false ceiling in the vestibule had been removed to reveal the original Renaissance coffered ceiling. On the upper floors, the walls were pristine white and the old marble panels had been cleared of their yellow stain.
AdvertisementM & S is on the eighth floor. Rob Langer, vice president for commercial leasing, and January Garabedian, vice president, operations, were expecting me. They were both young, attractive, enthusiastic. Bill Welsh, the dedicated president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, was visiting.
Langer and Garabedian assured me that the Taft Building, now known as the Hollywood Taft Building, was 70% leased, and the old Broadway Building across the street, renamed the Hollywood and Vine Plaza, was 100% leased, or just about.
Clients in the Hollywood and Vine Plaza building include Capitol Records, which took the top floor for its legal department, Televisia U.S.A., Metmor Financial, and deForest Research.
Down on the street I saw that the storefront space of the Taft Building was being remodeled. Future tenants so far include a movie memorabilia shop, a tourist shop, subway sandwiches and a croissant shop.
Workmen were replacing the old decorated terra cotta mouldings below the windows with new ones. “They’re fake,” Garabedian said. “It’s called Faux-stone.”
A workman handed me one of the pieces. “It’s Fiberglas,” he said. It looked exactly like the terra cotta, including the texture and the tiny blue dots, but it was lightweight and it looked tougher.
“They’re working on making it graffiti-proof,” Garabedian said.
In the lobby of the Hollywood and Vine Plaza, a sign said, “Excuse our dust while we beautify our lobby.”
We rode up to the ninth or top floor, which Capitol Records had taken over, and walked down a long corridor lined with law books. It looked like enough law books for the Supreme Court. The recording industry must be extremely litigious.
The executive suites opened onto the balconies with their ornate columns and capitals. The view swept the boulevard clear to Highland Avenue. We could see up Vine to the Capitol Records building and beyond it the Hollywood sign in the hills; to the east the Art Deco facade of the Pantages Theater; and down below us, on the boulevard, the Cave--adult movies, live nude show--and next door to it, Le Sex Shoppe. That, too, is Hollywood.
Every old building has its legends. Langer said Howard Hughes had once occupied the penthouse above us and that he had brought his Cadillac up the freight elevator rather than walk from a parking lot.
That seemed like the height of arrogance until Garabedian said Hughes also reputedly had the rooftop flooded and sat in a dinghy shooting ducks when they flew over.
I wasn’t sure I believed that, but when we went downstairs they showed me the freight elevator. It looked just big enough for a 1940s Cadillac.
By way of emphasizing the point--that Hollywood is coming back--we had lunch in the elegant restored dining room of the Hollywood Roosevelt.
Langer’s car was parked just south of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel, on Vine, and I couldn’t help noticing that an enormous mural of Angelyne, the busty blonde who has had her picture painted at various prominent locations lately in a brazen campaign of self-promotion, covered the hotel’s south wall.
I didn’t think anyone should be embarrassed by it. It was pure Hollywood. Vain, extravagant and hopeful.
The performances are led by world-renowned magicians who amaze and astound the audience with their mesmerizing tricks and illusions. From pulling rabbits out of hats to making objects disappear into thin air, the magicians demonstrate their extraordinary skills that leave everyone in awe. Aside from the magic show, the Irma Magic Castle also offers a dining experience like no other.
The restaurant area is beautifully decorated, resembling a grand ballroom with dimmed lighting and elegant furnishings. Guests can enjoy a delicious meal while being entertained by close-up magicians who perform tricks right at their tables. The menu at the Irma Magic Castle restaurant offers a wide range of options, including both Japanese and Western cuisines. From appetizers to desserts, each dish is carefully prepared to ensure a delightful culinary experience for visitors. In addition to the magic show and the dining experience, the Irma Magic Castle also features a gift shop where guests can purchase souvenirs and magic-related merchandise. From magic kits to books on illusion, there is something for every magic enthusiast. Overall, the Irma Magic Castle is a must-visit destination for anyone seeking a unique and enchanting experience. Whether you are a fan of magic or simply looking for a memorable outing, this magical attraction in Tokyo is sure to leave you spellbound..
Reviews for "A Fairy Tale Come to Life: Exploring Irma Magic Castle"
- John - 2 stars - The Irma Magic Castle was a huge disappointment. The magic tricks were predictable and lacked any excitement or intensity. The atmosphere was dull and the performers seemed unenthusiastic. The whole experience felt like a waste of time and money. I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a thrilling or entertaining magic show.
- Sarah - 1 star - I cannot express how disappointed I was with the Irma Magic Castle. The show was extremely short and the tricks were nothing more than simple illusions that even a child could figure out. The performers also lacked charisma and failed to engage the audience. Overall, it was a lackluster experience that left me wishing I had spent my money elsewhere.
- Michael - 2 stars - I had high expectations for the Irma Magic Castle, but unfortunately, it fell short. The show did not live up to the hype, with most tricks being unimpressive and easily decipherable. Additionally, the venue was cramped and uncomfortable, making it difficult to fully enjoy the performance. I left feeling underwhelmed and regretting my decision to attend. There are definitely better magic shows out there that are worth your time and money.