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<\/p>\nIn a world where AI can answer almost any question in seconds, illusionist Vitaly Beckman has built a career on the one thing that still\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0be looked\u00a0up: how he does it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0In his original show, VITALY: An Evening of Wonders, photos and paintings come to life, and faces disappear from audience members\u2019\u00a0driver\u2019s licenses. Through a blend of art and illusion, Vitaly traces his journey from a boy with a dream to a man with a vision and reminds audiences of the beauty and wonder in everyday life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0This fall, Vitaly returns to Queens Theatre for two performances ONLY, bringing his hit show to the venue in Flushing Meadows Corona Park on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vitaly is one of only five acts to have stumped Penn & Teller on their hit CW series Penn & Teller: Fool Us three times. His wins came in 2016, 2021,\u00a0and 2025, when he created a painting that matched, item for item, the objects a guest host had just arranged on stage, and the legendary duo still\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0explain it.\u00a0\u201cThis is so complicated and so original, we\u00a0don\u2019t have any experience with it,\u201d\u00a0Penn told him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople assume that in the age of AI nothing is hidden anymore, that every secret is one prompt away. But you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0generate the feeling of watching something impossible happen a few feet from you.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the point of an Evening of Wonders,\u201d\u00a0said Vitaly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0An engineer who chose magic, Vitaly discovered the art of illusion as a teenager. His parents hoped for a more practical future and steered him toward engineering, and he indeed earned a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, never intending to use it. Today, as AI reshapes everything around us, Vitaly sees a twist.\u00a0\u201cInstead of building bridges as an engineer, I realized I could better bridge the gap between imagination and reality,\u201d\u00a0said Vitaly.\u00a0\u201cThat labor of love might be the one thing AI can\u2019t replace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His engineering background still shows up in the work.\u00a0Vitaly designs and builds his own illusions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Performance details\u00a0<\/p>\n
VITALY: An Evening of Wonders\u00a00n\u00a0Saturday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.\u00a0and\u00a0Sunday, Nov. 15, 2 p.m.\u00a0at\u00a0The Claire Shulman Theater, Queens Theatre, 14 United Nations Ave. South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.\u00a0Tickets: $40\u2013$45 (includes $2 per-ticket service fee), at queenstheatre.org.\u00a0Recommended\u00a0for: Ages 12+\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Vitaly returns to Queens\u00a0Theatre\u00a0bringing his hit show to the venue in Flushing Meadows Corona Park on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a world where AI can answer almost any question in seconds, illusionist Vitaly Beckman has built a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-386462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}