THE BALLOON MAN

Baraboo man takes magic act to new level

Tristan Crist performs at Circus World Museum

PART I

from:  fox11online.com
Saturday, 07 Jul 2012
ED ZAGORSKI, Baraboo News Republic
BARABOO (AP) - Tristan Crist has come a long way from performing magic in front of curtains made from sheets in his parents' basement. He has his own theater on the Circus World Museum grounds.

Since 2006, Crist has performed at Circus World Museum's Hippodrome, but this year is different.

Last fall, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point graduate, who received a technical theatre degree, transformed a building once used for viewing wagons on the circus grounds and built his own performance area named the Tristan Crist Theatre of Illusion.

"I remember one Christmas when I was a little kid and I unwrapped my first magic kit. My eyes just lit up," the 29-year-old Baraboo man said. "I had the black cape, hat and wand."

He even had his little sister as his assistant.

Crist's 24-year-old sister, Hannah, said her brother saved his money to buy his own magic and illusion kits that he tried on her.

"I remember him stuffing me into these cardboard boxes or having me put a box on my head and he would shove fake swords through it," she said. "I remember having to scream. He was a performer even when we were little kids."

Crist said even before he received his first magic kit he performed as Christopher Robin in a production of "Winnie the Pooh" at Milwaukee's First Stage Theater for children.

"I liked performing but I enjoyed performing magic a lot more," he said. "My dream when I was 13 and was performing my first paid magic show in front of a Girl Scout troop was I wanted my own theater."

Circus World's Hippodrome is fine for many circus acts, but fell short when it came time for his illusions, Crist said.

"It was enclosed for the most part but there are areas in it where the sun is able to shine through," he said. "So we couldn't use any smoke or haze for the illusions."

His new theater has changed all of that.

"I am able to control everything in here," he said. "We can add the lights, fog and haze when we need to for our show. I had someone tell me this is almost like a Las Vegas-style showroom."

And unlike the Hippodrome, the 280-seat theater has air conditioning.

(To Be Continued Monday)