Magic, Events, & More!

The Blog of Poe's Magic Theatre at the Lord Baltimore Hotel

Issue 10 |  May 10th, 2026

Poe's Magic Theatre: This Weekend

This Friday and Saturday we have what might be one of the more interesting programming combinations we've put together in a while, and I say that as someone who has, over the years, scheduled a séance followed immediately by a comedy hypnotist. Different acts. Very different energies. Nobody warned the hypnotist.

Friday & Saturday, June 12th & 13th, at 8 PM brings Cody Clark to the stage for A Different Way of Thinking. Cody blends magic, comedy, and storytelling in a show that pulls the curtain back on how the brain constructs reality, which, as it turns out, is something magic has always been quietly doing anyway. He just makes it visible. The show runs through Saturday the 13th as well, so if you miss Friday for Pride-related reasons (more on that below), Saturday exists. https://www.poesmagic.com/event-details/codyclark

Also Saturday, June 13th at 8 PM: A Dose of Deception featuring Dr. Brian Nguyen. Yes, he's an actual physician. Yes, he does actual magic. The show runs until 10:30, which is longer than our usual slot, presumably because there are more impossibilities to get through. Your prescription is wonder. His words, not mine, but I'm not going to argue with a doctor. https://www.poesmagic.com/event-details/briannguyen

Tickets at poesmagic.com. Both shows are at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, 20 W. Baltimore St. Showtime is 8 PM.

At the Lord Baltimore Hotel

The LB Skybar is open Thursday through Saturday evenings from 5 to 11 PM for the season, which means if you're coming to the show on either night, there is absolutely no reason not to arrive early and watch the city from the 19th floor first. Light bites, specialty cocktails, and the kind of view that makes you briefly forget you live somewhere with potholes. The Skybar is up there. The potholes are down here. These are two separate and unrelated realities.

Also ongoing through June: Seven Stars Between Two Skies, the Good Taste art exhibition featuring new work by Baltimore-born visual artist Mark Anthony West Jr. It is free to look at. The bar is not free, but the art is, and sometimes that is the correct order of priorities.

Downtown Baltimore

Baltimore Pride Week runs through Sunday the 14th, and the back half of the week is where it really gets going. Wednesday brings Pride on the Plaza, a resource and job fair at War Memorial Plaza from noon to 6 PM, followed by the There's No Place Like Home Fashion Show at the Top of the World on Pratt Street starting at 7 PM. That one has an open bar, a DJ, and a Pride-themed sneaker contest, which is a sentence that exists and is real.

Thursday has the Pride Glow and Skate party at Shake & Bake Family Fun Center on Pennsylvania Ave, 4 to 7 PM, geared toward youth 18 and under.

Friday the 12th: the Mt. Vernon Block Party from 3 to 8 PM at 200 West Read Street, which is a lively street festival with DJs, vendors, and food. That one runs right up until our show doors, so the timing works out reasonably well if you're trying to do everything, which is a reasonable goal.

Saturday, June 13th is the centerpiece: the Pride Parade along Charles Street and North Avenue from noon to 3 PM, followed by the festival at Druid Hill Park running until 9 PM. This is the 51st year of Baltimore Pride. Approximately 150,000 people. The theme is Charm City Homecoming. It is by some distance the largest thing happening in the city this weekend, and it happens to be sharing the calendar with a magician who explores how the brain constructs reality and a physician who does impossible things. Baltimore contains multitudes.

A Bit of Local Magic History

Baltimore's first recorded magic performance was December 3rd, 1787, when an Italian conjuror named Signor Falconi performed at the Old Theater and billed the show as 'Natural Philosophical Experiments,' which is what you called magic when you wanted educated audiences to feel intelligent for attending. His act included an automaton that answered audience questions and predicted dice rolls. Baltimore's introduction to professional magic was, technically, a mentalism show. I find this deeply satisfying and not at all surprising.

Also worth noting this week: Milbourne Christopher, one of the most decorated magic historians and performers of the twentieth century, was born in Baltimore. He died on June 17th, 1984, so the anniversary falls just after this weekend. Christopher accumulated what was considered one of the world's largest private collections of Houdini memorabilia. He is buried in Baltimore. The city has a long habit of producing extraordinary people and then not mentioning them nearly enough.

CFG Bank Arena

Wednesday, June 10th: Indigo Girls are over at The Lyric on Mount Royal Ave at 7:30 PM, if the arena isn't your scene. Thursday the 11th is quiet at CFG. Then Sunday, June 14th: WWE RAW at CFG Bank Arena at 7 PM. I mention this without extended commentary. Baltimore has a long history with professional wrestling. The history is real, even when some of the outcomes are negotiated in advance.

The Orioles

The Birds are home all week. The Seattle Mariners series wraps up Thursday the 11th. Then the San Diego Padres come in for a three-game weekend series, Friday the 12th through Sunday the 14th. So the Padres series runs directly alongside Pride weekend, which means the downtown core is going to be extremely occupied in several simultaneous directions starting Friday. Plan accordingly, or don't plan and see what the city does with you. Both are legitimate strategies.

Coming Up at Poe's

Saturday, June 20th: Worlds Beyond Imagination featuring TEO at 8 PM, described as 'a nerdy adventure in magic,' which I support wholeheartedly both as a concept and as a lifestyle choice. Then Sunday, June 21st: Drag Brunch LIVE is back at noon. Baltimore's only 100% live vocals drag show, back in the ballroom. Tickets at poesmagic.com.

And mark October 8, 2027 on whatever you use to track things that are still sixteen months away: the Nevermore Soirée, a Poe-themed evening at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. Details are forthcoming. The ravens, as they say, know things already.

Until next week,

Vince Wilson

Poe's Magic Theatre  |  Lord Baltimore Hotel  |  poesmagic.com

The Purloined Dispatch publishes every Tuesday.

Poe's Magic Theatre at the Lord Baltimore Hotel  |  poesmagic.com