Magic show on Alamo Plaza
One hour of magic by a rotating cast of touring magicians, a pre-show parlour with a scavenger hunt, free popcorn and 30 minutes afterwards to look around. Six and over; drinks are extra.
Worth it? The answer up front
Is the Alamo Plaza magic show worth it, and what happens if a show is cancelled?
Yes, if you want a light, funny hour indoors at the end of a day around the Alamo and the river. The ticket buys a one-hour show by a touring magician who changes from night to night, a parlour with a scavenger hunt to explore first, free popcorn, and half an hour afterwards to look around. Drinks cost extra. Each show also needs a minimum number of tickets sold: if a date falls short, you can move to another night or take a full refund.
What it is
A small magic theatre styled as a saloon, on Alamo Plaza and within view of the Alamo. The hour mixes sleight of hand, comedy and volunteers called up from the seats, in the parlour style of magic that works close to its audience rather than with giant stage props. Arrive early and the visit stretches to between an hour and a half and two hours.
What it isn't
A dinner show, a resident headliner or a big-stage illusion production. You cannot choose the magician, because the cast rotates, and the bar is pay-as-you-go. Under-sixes are turned away, and the show can include flashing lights and sudden sound effects.
Read this before you buy
- On stage
- One hour of magic by a rotating cast of touring magicians.
- Whole visit
- An hour and a half to two hours, parlour and the half hour afterwards included.
- Minimum sales
- A show that sells too few tickets may be cancelled, with a new date or a full refund offered.
- Ages
- From age six; anyone younger than 18 needs a grown-up along.
The visit, step by step
From the parlour door to the last trick
Your confirmation shows the start time. Everything else about the visit is built around coming early and staying a little after.
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Before
Come early, not on the dot
The rooms before the show come with your ticket, and they only work if you have time for them. The time printed on your confirmation is when the magician walks on, not when you should walk in, and leave the River Walk or your hotel with a margin.
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Parlour
A parlour with a scavenger hunt
A themed parlour opens the visit. You can poke around, follow an interactive scavenger hunt and look at a few behind-the-scenes secrets of the trade, with views of the Alamo outside. It gives older children something to do while the seats fill.
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Bar
A drink at the saloon bar
The themed bar pours signature cocktails and mocktails. Both are bought on the night and sit outside the ticket, as do meals and tips. The popcorn, on the other hand, is free.
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Show
The hour on stage
The performance runs for one hour and moves quickly: sleight of hand, tricks that bend the eye, and a good deal of laughter. The magician comes from a rotating cast drawn from across the country, so the act and its patter change from one visit to the next.
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Volunteers
Somebody gets called up
Audience participation is built into the format, so expect the magician to bring people from the seats into the act. Whether that person is you is the magician's call. If you would rather only watch, say so when you are asked.
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After
Half an hour to linger
When the show ends you can stay another 30 minutes to explore the venue and take pictures. Flash photography is not allowed during the performance, so this is the time for the camera.
Inside the craft
The kinds of magic a parlour show draws on
Which tricks you see depends on the magician on the night, and nobody can promise a particular routine. What stays constant is the family of magic this format belongs to. These are its main branches, as the English Wikipedia articles on each describe them.
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Close-up
Tricks at touching distance
Close-up magic, which some call table magic, is worked a few steps from the people watching, often over a table. It rests on sleight of hand, which also goes by prestidigitation, from the idea of quick fingers: the techniques for handling objects in secret. Coins and playing cards are the usual props, though almost anything small will serve, and some performers add cardistry flourishes, which are displays of skill rather than illusions.
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Cards
A deck of cards
Card manipulation, more often just called card magic, is the branch built on sleights with playing cards. Magicians took to cards in the 15th century, because decks were cheap, portable and already worked over by card cheats. Houdini billed himself as the King of Cards before his escapes made him famous. Among the best-known card effects are the Ambitious Card and Three-card Monte, the street hustle also called Find the Lady.
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Minds
Mentalism
A mentalist seems to read thoughts, predict choices or steer decisions. The effects come from what Wikipedia calls ordinary conjuring means, together with natural skills such as reading body language and a working grasp of psychology, not from any psychic power. Much of today's mentalism descends from the tests that 19th-century mediums and spiritualists staged, and doing it well takes years of study and practice.
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Escapes
Locks and restraints
Escapology is the art of getting free of locks, cuffs, straitjackets and sealed containers. For a long time escapes were used in secret, to make other illusions work. Harry Houdini made the escape itself into a recognised act, and his feats set the basic repertoire that escape artists still draw on, from padlocks and mail bags to prison cells.
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Laughs
Comedy and volunteers
Parlour magic is often played for laughs, with the audience written into the act. Audience-participation tricks are among the classics of the style, such as the breakaway wand that stays rigid for the magician and collapses every time the volunteer takes hold of it. Magic made for children leans on the same two tools, comedy and volunteer assistants.
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Scale
Between the table and the stage
Stage illusion is the large-scale branch, with big props, assistants and sometimes animals, built for theatres and auditoriums. Parlour or platform magic sits in the middle: shows for audiences larger than a close-up crowd and smaller than a stage show, usually performed standing, on the same level as the seats. Wikipedia notes that most working magicians belong to this middle category.
Drawn from the English Wikipedia articles on magic (illusion), close-up magic, platform magic, card manipulation, mentalism and escapology. Nothing here describes a particular performer's act.
A short history
From the Paris salon to the Texas saloon
A short history of the kind of evening this is, drawn from the English Wikipedia articles on magic, on Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and on the Western saloon.
Fairground beginnings
Until the 18th century, magic was a fairground act, sharing the crowd with sword swallowers, jugglers and fire breathers. As fear of witchcraft faded, conjuring grew respectable enough to be staged for wealthy private patrons.
A theatre of its own
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, a French clockmaker, founded his own theatre of magic in Paris in 1845 and is widely called the father of modern conjuring. He took the art from the fairground into a theatre that audiences paid to enter, and the custom of magicians performing in tails is part of his legacy.
The golden age
From the late 1800s into the early 1900s, magic was a staple of Broadway, vaudeville and the music halls, a stretch now remembered as the Golden Age of Magic. Houdini, who took his stage name from Robert-Houdin, was one of its stars.
Why a saloon
The Western saloon was a kind of bar particular to the Old West, often with a pair of batwing doors at the entrance. Its name began as a variant of the French salon, a large reception room, and had settled into its American meaning by 1841. A saloon-styled magic theatre folds the drawing-room tradition of parlour magic into the frontier bar.
Two San Antonio evenings
The magic show or a River Walk cruise
Magic show on Alamo Plaza
River Walk cruise
Length
One-hour show; 1.5 to 2 hours with the parlour
About 35 minutes on the water
Setting
Indoors, in a saloon-styled theatre
An open boat on the San Antonio River
Who talks
A touring magician, different from night to night
A live guide, in English
What can stop it
Too few tickets sold (new date or refund)
Weather; boats run daily otherwise
At the bar
Cocktails and mocktails, paid separately
Food and drinks not included
Step-free for wheelchairs
Yes
Yes
Cancelling without charge
Until a day ahead
Until a day ahead
Terms that come with the magic ticket
What the ticket covers, and the conditions that come with it
The terms that shape the evening, gathered in one place so nothing surprises you on the night.
- Who runs it
- The theatre is The Magic Saloon on Alamo Plaza. The GetYourGuide ticket is sold by Historic Tours of America – San Antonio, and the booking, changes and refunds are handled through GetYourGuide.
- In the ticket
- Entry to the one-hour show, the pre-show parlour with its interactive scavenger hunt, free popcorn, and 30 minutes after the performance to explore the venue.
- Paid on the night
- Cocktails, mocktails and anything to eat, plus tips. None of these are part of the ticket price.
- The minimum
- The venue requires a minimum number of tickets sold for every performance. If a show falls short, that day's performance may be called off, and everyone holding a ticket is offered a fresh date or their money back.
- Changing your mind
- Cancel no later than 24 hours ahead and the money comes back in full. Paying can also wait: the ticket lets you hold seats first and settle up nearer the date.
- Ages
- Nobody under six is admitted. Teenagers and younger children need an adult with them, the venue says, up to the age of 18.
- Access
- The venue is wheelchair accessible.
- Lights and sound
- Shows may contain flashing lights and sudden sound effects.
- Photos
- No flash photography during the show. The half hour afterwards is set aside for exploring and taking pictures.
- Time to allow
- Between an hour and a half and two hours from arrival to leaving.
Plaza and river
The plaza, the river and the missions
The places around a show night: the Alamo across the plaza, the River Walk a level below the streets, and the four missions that share its World Heritage listing.
Book the show, or build an evening around it
The magic show, a river cruise, an art gallery and the missions
The magic show comes first. Beside it sit the narrated river cruise it is most often weighed against, an interactive art gallery a few blocks away, and a guided tour of the four missions south of downtown.
Narrated River Walk cruise
About 35 minutes on the San Antonio River with a live guide speaking English. The ticket is good for any public tour, the boarding docks are listed on your voucher, and boats run daily, weather permitting.
Interactive art gallery downtown
Entry to a large immersive gallery built from light, colour, sculpture and new media, with a lounge, bar and patio alongside. Bring ID, and expect to sign a safety waiver before you go in.
The four missions, guided
Three and a half hours with pickup from city-centre hotels: Missions Concepción, San José, San Juan and Espada, a short film, and the Espada aqueduct. Food and tips are extra.
Other San Antonio tours and tickets
Before you set out for the plaza
Getting there, parking, children and access
Arrive with time to spare
The start time is on your confirmation. Aim to be there well before it, because the parlour, the scavenger hunt and the bar all come before the show, and allow an hour and a half to two hours in total.
On foot from the river
The River Walk runs one level below the streets along the San Antonio River. From its downtown stretch, Alamo Plaza is a short walk up, and a landscaped connector called the Paseo del Alamo links the plaza with the river.
Parking
The venue points drivers to public parking garages and metered street parking, all within walking distance of the plaza.
Children
There is a firm lower age limit of six, and minors need an adult in the party. The scavenger hunt in the parlour gives older children something to do before the show starts.
Lights, sound and access
Expect flashing lights and sudden sound effects, which matters for anyone sensitive to either. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
Pair it with the river
A narrated cruise on the San Antonio River lasts about 35 minutes, so it fits before the show without a rush. The comparison guide weighs one against the other.
Reading for the night
Six guides to a night of magic on the Plaza
- Start here Alamo Plaza magic: worth it? Whether the saloon-styled magic show on Alamo Plaza earns an evening: the hour on stage, the parlour, rotating magicians, drinks, ages and cancellations. Read before the curtain →
- Compare Magic show or river cruise? The Alamo Plaza magic show or a narrated River Walk cruise: length, setting, who does the talking, weather, cancellations and doing both in one evening. Read before the curtain →
- The craft Close-up, cards and minds A first-timer's primer on the branches of magic a parlour show draws from: sleight of hand, card magic, the cups and balls, mentalism and escapes. Read before the curtain →
- History From salon to saloon How magic moved from fairgrounds to Paris theatres, vaudeville and the music hall, and why a saloon-styled room on a Texas plaza fits that story. Read before the curtain →
- The neighbourhood Alamo Plaza and the river The ground around the show: the Alamo and its plaza, the historic buildings that face it, and the River Walk a level below, with the way between them. Read before the curtain →
- Plan Planning a magic night The practical side of a show night on Alamo Plaza: booking ahead, arriving early, children, access, lights and sound, parking, and what to pair it with. Read before the curtain →
FAQ
Questions before the curtain goes up
Is the Alamo Plaza magic show worth it?
For a light, funny evening indoors, yes. You get a one-hour show by a touring magician, a parlour with a scavenger hunt beforehand, free popcorn and half an hour afterwards to look around, all within view of the Alamo. Drinks cost extra, and a show can be cancelled if too few tickets sell.
What happens if the show is cancelled for low sales?
Each performance needs a minimum number of tickets sold. If that minimum is not met, the show may be cancelled for the day, and ticket holders are offered a reschedule or a full refund. Booking ahead gives the show you want the best chance of running.
Can I choose which magician I see?
No. The venue runs a rotating cast that brings in magicians from across the country, so each visit can bring a different performer and a different act. Nobody can promise a particular name or routine for a given night.
How much time should I set aside?
The show itself lasts one hour. With the parlour beforehand and the 30 minutes you can stay afterwards, the visit runs between an hour and a half and two hours from arrival.
Are drinks or food included?
No. Signature cocktails and mocktails are sold at the themed bar, and meals and tips sit outside the ticket. Popcorn is free.
Can children come?
From their sixth birthday, yes. Anyone younger than six stays out, and under-18s need a parent or another adult beside them.
Is it suitable for someone sensitive to flashing lights or loud noises?
Take care. Shows may include flashing lights and sudden sound effects, so think twice if either is a problem for anyone in your party.
Can I take photos?
Not with flash during the show. You can stay for 30 minutes after the performance to explore the venue and take pictures.
Can wheelchair users get in?
Yes. The theatre is wheelchair accessible, so a wheelchair user can join the evening from the parlour onward.
How do I get there from the River Walk?
Climb up to street level from the downtown stretch of the River Walk and head for Alamo Plaza, a short walk away. Your confirmation gives the start time.
Is this the venue's own website?
No. This site is an independent guide written about the show, not by it: neither the venue nor the ticket seller has any hand in it, and it has no affiliation with them. When you book from here, the purchase happens on GetYourGuide, which looks after payment, changes and refunds.