Magic lovers inside the Grunin Center for the Arts auditorium in Toms River, NJ this Thursday, November 6, 2025 evening prepare themselves for Magic Rocks, a show which features illusions, sleight of hand, and comedy by illusionist Leon Etienne. In addition to performing live on stages around the world, Etienne has appeared on television on America’s Got Talent, Masters of Illusion, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Penn and Teller: Fool Us.
The lights dim and a video introducing Etienne plays before lights flash and Leon appears center stage and makes his assistant, Chelsea Lacongo, materialize out of an empty box.
As rock music plays, Chelsea chains Leon to a metal frame. As Chelsea begins to pull a curtain around him, Leon is suddenly seen pulling the curtain around Chelsea, who is now chained to the frame.
The crowd cheers and Leon puts Chelsea in a black box. As her hand waves through a small hole in the front, Leon skewers the box with multiple spikes before opening it to reveal that Chelsea is gone. When Leon closes the box, Chelsea appears out of the top of the box and, as the pair takes a bow, his second assistant, Mallory Miller, pops out of the same box.
Leon addresses the crowd, exclaiming, “Toms River, make some noise!” before asking, “Are you guys ready to rock?”
Leon chooses two volunteers from the audience, Mike and Tom, who take the stage. As a rock version of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana plays, the men help to restrain Chelsey while Leon uses a blade to saw her in half.
For his next trick, Leon makes multiple playing cards appear out of thin air before dropping them into a box underscored by a rhythmic arrangement of Beethoven’s Symphony №5.
Leon picks another volunteer from the audience, Karen. He explains to Karen that there are three types of audience members who come to his shows: some who relax and “go with the flow” of the magic, some who he calls “engineers” who try to figure out how the magic happens, and a third group which he describes as a “combo” of both.
Leon has Karen choose a card from a deck which she places in her pocket. When Leon guesses that her card is the ace of spades by drawing it on a pad, Karen gives him a “thumbs down” to indicate that he is incorrect. As upbeat rock music plays, the drawing on the pad changes to a deck of cards with an ace of spades on the front of the deck with a five of diamonds magically rising out of the deck.
At this point, Karen gives a thumbs up to show that Leon has correctly identified her card which she shows to the audience.
The crowd is amazed and Leon follows up by making Chelsea float horizontally beside a metal pole.
He chooses another audience member, Kristy, to join him on stage. After Kristy gives Leon her ring, he puts it in a handkerchief and blows on it to make the ring disappear. Next, Leon opens a strong box to find smaller and smaller boxes inside of it which he stacks on top of one another.
After opening the smallest box, Leon discovers Kristy’s ring inside it and the crowd reacts with avid applause.
Assistants Chelsey and Mallory return with a camera and lights as Leon goes down into the audience to perform several close-up tricks which the rest of the crowd views on a large screen above the stage. Whereas one illusion involves making small foam rabbits multiply, another amazes the audience when a volunteer, Dave, writes his name on a card and places it in the middle of a deck. Time after time, Leon magically makes Dave’s autographed card appear at the top of the deck before the same folded card magically appears inside an Altoids box which had been sitting on the card table the entire time.
Audience members avidly applaud and Leon invites 10-year-old Jake onto the stage for a humorous trick where Leon makes wads of toilet paper “disappear” in front of Jake’s eyes before making Jake’s blue croc shoe disappear and reappear again while popping a confetti-filled balloon.
Chelsea and Mallory bring out a large box and show it to Jake.
When Leon expects Jake to get in the box and Jake humorously nods that he will not do that, Leon gives Jake a gift of a Magic Rocks poster which was hidden inside the box.
Chelsea and Mallory handcuff Leon who gets inside the box. After Chelsea magically appears atop the box, Mallory lifts up a drape from the bottom of the box and, after lowering it, Leon appears unchained. When Leon opens the box, Chelsea is chained inside and the crowd cheers as the pair takes a bow.
After Leon thanks the staff of the Grunin Center along with his team, he concludes the evening’s show with a pair of mystifying rock-powered illusions which have the audience standing and cheering before he, Chelsea, and Mallory take well-deserved bows.
As audience members make their way out of the theater, several share their opinions of tonight’s show. Exclaims Lia, a youngster from Beachwood, “Magic Rocks is one of the best magic shows I’ve ever seen; it was great! I couldn’t figure out one trick — even the simple card tricks — and I had a lot of fun; it was so good!” Lia’s grandmother, Betty from Bayville, agrees, adding, “I thought it was a wonderful show, and great for the whole family.”
Karen from Manchester — who helped Leon with his “guess the card” trick — confesses, “When I first went up on stage, I felt a little uncomfortable, but after awhile, I just had a good time with what he was doing,” exclaiming, “I was in shock that he was able to identify my card and was able to do the magic with the drawing — and then he gave it to me!” prior to adding, “The whole show was fascinating and Leon was incredible!”
Mike from Waretown — who assisted Leon on the “cutting Chelsea in half” trick — admits, “It was fun getting to be a part of the show — it was such a good surprise!” in addition to revealing, “This was my first time at this beautiful venue and seeing today’s show was a really fun and exciting experience!”
Noreen, a grandmother from Toms River, observes, “It was amazing how Leon came out into the audience and did his tricks so close to us! He’s a real entertainer, and his tricks were just incredible.” Her husband, Richard, concurs, exclaiming, “No matter how hard we tried, we just couldn’t figure out how he did what he was doing!”
Lastly, Erica, a mom from Toms River, insists, “Magic Rocks was such an excellent show! It was very entertaining. I brought the whole family and we all loved it!” Whereas her husband, Joe, contends, “It was fun from start to finish; the tricks were great and the music was great — it rocked!” their son Jack, 7, reveals, “It was a good — I had fun!” and their daughter Julia, 10, exclaims, “I loved all the tricks — I give Magic Rocks 10 out of 10!”
To learn more about Magic Rocks, please go to magicrocks.com. For information on upcoming performances at the Grunin Center — including The Glenn Miller Orchestra on November 22, Chris Botti on December 3, and Cherish the Ladies on December 14 — please navigate to grunincenter.org.
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