The Magicians Are Coming to Baltimore (Several Dozen of Them, Actually)
- Poe's Magic Theatre
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
Issue No. 1 • Published April 8, 2026
Welcome to April. Baltimore Has Plans for You.
This is the first edition of The Purloined Dispatch. It publishes every two weeks, it lives on this website, and it covers what is happening at Poe’s Magic Theatre, what is going on at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, and what the wider city of Baltimore has been quietly up to while you were looking elsewhere. Future issues will dig into history, spooky stories, magic lore, and the kind of Baltimore facts that sound made up but aren’t. This week, we start with the present moment, because the present moment is genuinely busy.
What’s Happening at Poe’s Magic Theatre This Month
April is not a quiet month at the theatre. Not even slightly.
This weekend, on Saturday, April 11, Poe’s Magic Spotlight featuring Mystique takes the stage. The Spotlight series is built around a single headlining performer given the full weight of an evening, which is a different experience than a showcase, and worth knowing the distinction before you book.
Then, April 16 through 19, the Poe’s Magic Conference comes to the Lord Baltimore Hotel. This is a four-day event for the magic community, featuring lectures, workshops, panels, and performances. The lineup includes Tara McAlister, Dr. Larry Hass, Dev L. Ish, Meadow Perry, Christopher Thiess, and Emmy-winning designer Tome Wilson, among others. The conference also features the Gala Show, the Annual Honorary Andruzzi Awards, and the Black Cat Lounge for after-hours entertainment. If you have any interest in magic as a craft rather than just a spectacle, this is four days that will recalibrate your sense of what the art form can do.
On April 17 specifically, The Wizardry of David Parr performs as part of the Conference programming. April 18 brings the Poe’s Magic Gala Showcase. And on April 24, A Dose of Deception featuring Dr. Brian Nguyen closes out the month.
Running all the way through September 5, The Magic Showcase at Poe’s Magic Theatre continues its regular run, bringing together the best performers from Baltimore and the broader Mid-Atlantic region. It is the kind of show that rewards repeat visits because the lineup rotates and no two evenings are identical.
Also worth knowing: Drag Brunch LIVE, hosted by Gizele Monáe, runs on the fourth Sunday of each month. Monáe is one of the DMV’s top live-singing drag performers, and “live-singing” is doing real work in that sentence. Baltimore has a lot of drag shows. Not all of them involve actual vocals.
Full schedule and tickets for everything above at www.poesmagic.com
Sources for this section:
What’s On at the Lord Baltimore Hotel
There is a current art exhibition in the hotel that is easy to miss if nobody tells you it exists, so: it exists.
Baltimore-born visual artist Mark Anthony West Jr. has a show up called “Seven Stars Between Two Skies,” running through June at LB Bistro & Bakery. West created the work in Rio de Janeiro, and the portraits feature American and Brazilian creatives depicted as sovereign figures in complete command of their own universes. Each portrait has seven stars appearing both above and within the subject. It is striking, ambitious work from a Baltimore artist doing something genuinely interesting, and admission is free.
Tomorrow evening, Wednesday, April 8, the hotel hosts an Event Industry Mix and Mingle from 6 to 8 p.m., with food and drinks available and no cover charge. No agenda either, which is either relaxing or chaotic depending on how you feel about structured networking.
Later this month, the Baltimore Tattoo Convention runs April 24 through 26 at the Baltimore Convention Center, a short walk from the hotel. If you have ever wanted to spend a weekend surrounded by people who are very committed to their decisions, this is the event for you. The Lord Baltimore Hotel is a natural base of operations for the weekend.
And then, on April 30, the LB Skybar reopens for the 2026 season at 7 p.m. on the hotel’s 19th-floor rooftop. The Skybar runs Thursday through Saturday evenings from 5 to 11 p.m. for the season, with specialty cocktails, crab rolls, sliders, and views of the Baltimore skyline. There is a “Touch the Sky” overnight package that includes a $50 Skybar credit and late checkout, if you want to make a proper event of the opening night.
Sources for this section:
The Orioles Are Home This Weekend
The Baltimore Orioles are sitting at 3-5 on the season, which is the kind of start that nobody celebrates but everyone agrees is recoverable. They come home this weekend for what amounts to a very good excuse to spend time in downtown Baltimore: three games against the San Francisco Giants (April 11–13) followed by three against the Arizona Diamondbacks (April 14–16).
Camden Yards is about a 15-minute walk from the Lord Baltimore Hotel. The math on spending an afternoon at the game and an evening at the theatre is straightforward and works in everyone’s favor. Dinner at LB Tavern, walk to the game, walk back. The Inner Harbor is right there if you want to extend the evening in either direction.
Sources for this section:
A Note on What This Blog Is
The Purloined Dispatch publishes every two weeks. It will cover the theatre, the hotel, downtown Baltimore events, and the broader history of a city that has far more going on than its reputation sometimes suggests. Future issues will get into the strange, the overlooked, and the genuinely fascinating corners of Baltimore’s past. There is a lot of material.
For now: April is busy. Get your tickets early.
Next issue: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.
A city that burned to the ground over a single weekend and then, in a move very characteristic of Baltimore, immediately rebuilt itself.
Comments