Dark Deceptions: Dead Funny

Todd Robbins is a fake. A phony. A total fraud. And he'd be the first to tell you so. Actually, he describes himself as a deceptionist. "I fool people for a living", he openly admits to his audience.

Chairman of the non-profit Coney Island USA and a leader in preserving sideshow entertainment as a uniquely American art form, Robbins' first theatrical venture, Carnival Knowledge, was a hit of the 2000 New York International Fringe Festival and transferred to Off-Broadway. Now he's back with Dark Deceptions, a show that recreates the experience of a 19th Century seance. Though no secrets are revealed, Robbins assures us that anyone who claims to communicate with those on the other side is a con artist. "They do talk to the dead", he notes, "but the dead don't talk back to them."

A pleasant, easy-going host with an appropriately dark sense of humor, Robbins begins with a brief lesson in the history of spiritualistic flim-flam in America. In the mid-1800's the average life expectancy in this country was only 37. Nearly everyone had a relative or loved one who had died at a young age and some clever people learned how to combine hucksterism and showmanship to take advantage of those longing to reconnect with someone on the other side.

With a few costume adjustments he assumes the role of Reverend T. L. Robbins of the Church of the Parted Veil, allowing him to conduct the seance in full sincerity. Since the audience is forewarned that everything we see is fake, we can laugh at the proceedings while still being amazed. How did he make the table levitate? How did that message just appear on the chalk board? How did he make his own pulse, and the pulse of several in the audience, seem to stop.

I won't reveal too much, but I will say that the last 15 minutes, performed with the entire house in total darkness, provides the same impulsive excitement as a roller coaster or haunted house. For those willing to suspend disbelief Dark Deceptions is terrific, scary fun.