Spooky summer seances are bringing thrills and chills to the Winchester Mystery House.
Illusionist creates spooky summer seance at Winchester Mystery House
We step through the front door and into an enigma, which is not unexpected given the setting. But on this warm June night at San Jose’s legendary Winchester Mystery House, it feels as if we’ve been invited by Sarah Winchester herself.
Victorian-gowned ushers escort us into the great beyond of the ballroom, where everyday tour visitors ne’er dare step past the velvet ropes. Faux candles flicker, illuminating the wood-paneled ceiling and twinkling off cryptic sayings in the stained-glass windows that flank the mirrored mantel: “Wide Unclasp the Tables of Their Thoughts; These Same Thoughts People This Little World.”
What does that mean? Only Sarah knows for sure. And now, we have a chance to ask her.
Indeed, this mansion with its byzantine halls and stairs to nowhere make the perfect backdrop for this summer’s “Illusions of the Passed: A Theatrical Seance,” with illusionistmentalist Aiden Sinclair.
It’s a magic show, but not the kind with water-tank escapes, feather-boa’d showgirls or people sawed in half. Rather, apropos of the mansion’s era, the stage is a simple platform with a small draped table and two chairs — a quiet setting one might have encountered at a spiritualist gathering at the turn of the last century.
Just as quietly, Sinclair emerges from an antechamber, a compact man in white tie and tails, tattoos peeking from his cuffs and a mini mohawk
upon his otherwise shaved head. You may have seen him a few years back when he baffled judges on “America’s Got Talent” and “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.” Over time, he has developed his own performance niche, doing his act in historic places like the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, or the Queen Mary in Long Beach — spots that are high on the haunt scale.
Now he’s at the Winchester mansion for at least two more shows this summer — at 7 and 9 p.m. July 17 — with the possibility of more to come.
“Some of the things presented for you this evening are tricks. Some are not,” Sinclair says softly. He’s low-key, but has a quickclip delivery that keeps the audience lingering on every word. “You will not leave here haunted or possessed by demons.”
He pauses for a beat and a raised eyebrow: “Unless you do.”
He tells the audience about Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms gun fortune, who never really got over the deaths of her husband and infant daughter.
“Some people come to this house to learn of an amazing woman, who was interested in architecture and art, who built stairs oddly because of her health. Others come here hoping to see ghosts. It all depends on what you believe.
“Let’s be courteous enough to invite Sarah into this room tonight,” he says. “It is her house, after all.”
With that, he spreads a deck of cards face-up on the table, then picks 10 audience members, one-byone, to look at the cards, pick one mentally — but not touch it — and remember it.
“See and remember,” he says each time. “See and remember.” They return to their seats, but remain standing. Then he asks them to think of a famous person who is dead and who held some meaning for them. One chooses Marilyn Monroe, another Alan Turing. They’re told to concentrate on that person and on their chosen card. Sinclair returns to the deck of cards, waves his hand over them, then — presumably with help from Sarah Winchester — announces 10 card names and says, “If I’ve named your card, please sit down.”
They all do!
Indeed, Sinclair is a bit of a mystery himself with his own puzzling past. As the story goes, he lived life as a con artist for decades under many names in many towns. He says he turned himself over to authorities in 2007 and did time in federal prison, where he spent those years teaching himself card tricks. Once out, he had a chance meeting with Penn Jillette in Las Vegas that inspired his new career; Jillette confirmed that encounter on the “Fool Us” show.
Now Sinclair is a master magician and even gives talks to at-risk youth about walking the straight and narrow. It’s a true story of redemption — if it’s a true story. Only Sinclair knows for sure.
Whatever the case, it adds to the drama. And he’s clearly a skilled magician and storyteller, weaving humor and Winchester history throughout his astonishing tricks. Though reports of Sarah Winchester’s ghost — and of her penchant for seances — may be greatly exaggerated, according to Winchester house historian Janan Boehme, Sinclair loves the mystery, the magic and the lore of the place.
“I want my performances to be more connective than the average magic show, to be about the place I’m performing,” the Los Angelesbased illusionist says by phone a few days before the first show.
“At Winchester, I want people to really understand Sarah’s story. This was a woman who endured a great deal of heartbreak. But it’s a tremendous love story, as well. She never remarried. Always wore black. Kept a lock of her little girl’s hair in a safe. It’s a very touching story. She carried that grief with her. How do you escape those ghosts when they’re always with you?
“The house is not a scary place,” he says. “It’s a place haunted by a great deal of love. I like to convey that feeling to the audience, so when you leave, you feel a little closer to Sarah.”
“I want my performances to be more connective than the average magic show, to be about the place I’m performing.” — Aiden Sinclair, illusionist