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The NBA Pacific Division is fascinating from a futures perspective.

Last season, this division gave us the team with the best record in the NBA in the Suns, whose 64-18 record was a full eight games better than any other team in the NBA and 11 games better than the second place team in the division… the Warriors, the team that would win the 2021-22 NBA Championship.

Add in the Clippers, who everyone has been waiting on to pop since they paired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George four seasons ago, and the Pacific was expected to be absolutely loaded and extremely close at the top. You know, much like the AFC West in the NFL.

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Instead, more than halfway through the season, the only team in the division with a winning record is the Sacramento Kings, who are currently operating on the longest NBA playoffs drought of all time with 16 seasons (and counting?).

And of course, bringing up the rear are the Lakers, whose season ended in the first month when they got out the gates with five straight losses and a 2-10 record through November 9. The Lakers entered the season with obvious flaws like lack of shooting, redundant ball-dominant talent, and aging/injury-prone superstars. Outside of watching LeBron James walk down Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record for most points in NBA history, there’s no reason to pay attention to them at all… wait, did you say they’re only five games back?

And there-in lies the most intriguing angle for me, when I look at the Futures for this division: it is absolutely anybody’s division to win. Here are the current odds to win the division according to Caesars Sportsbook, as well as how our Basketball Power Index (BPI) evaluates the teams at present and how many games back (GB) from first place each team at present:

TeamOddsBPIGBWarriors+1753.63.0Clippers+42533.0Kings+1902.10.0Suns+50004.5Lakers+1500-0.55.0

Let’s unpack. This list is in order of their BPI score. BPI has proven very effective at accurately estimating team caliber, particularly when projecting wins on a game-to-game basis. One of the strengths of BPI is that it builds from individual player impact (as measured by Real Plus Minus, RPM), and is thus agile in the face of injury.

Stephen Curry always measures out as one of the highest impact players in the league, particularly for what his presence and shot-making wizardry is able to do for a team offense, so it’s not surprising that his return has boosted the Warriors back to the top of these rankings.

Similar story with the Clippers, now that Leonard and George are both back on the team as far as BPI is concerned. And, I’d agree that both the Warriors and Clippers have a higher ceiling than the Kings, who are playing well and lead the division but haven’t had to deal with the injuries that either of the other four teams have.

But, what of the Suns? Their BPI is low, in large part because current injuries to best players Devin Booker and Chris Paul depress their score. But Booker, Paul, Cameron Johnson and Cameron Payne are all expected to return this month. This Suns team won 78% of their games last season with largely the same core. If they were to get healthy with 30 games to play, and go back to winning at that pace, they would still be on pace for 49 wins this season.

Editor’s Picks

The division-leading Kings are currently on 47-win pace. So, with the fourth-longest odds in the division, the Suns could end up being a value play.

But the most intriguing, potentially highest value play in the bunch might just be the Lakers at +1500. After that 2-10 start, the Lakers have won at a 56% clip that is roughly equivalent to the 57% clip that the Kings have managed.

But, that time window includes an almost 2-week injury absence from LeBron in November and a one-month (and counting) absence from Anthony Davis from mid-December to present. Davis is scheduled to return early next month, and both he and LeBron have played at MVP levels for extended stretches this season.

Add in how effective Russell Westbrook has been since embracing the sixth man role, and if (huge, monster ‘if’) their main guys can stay healthy for the last two-plus months of the season, I’m quietly not sure that the Lakers shouldn’t be considered the favorite to win right now, despite their current placement. On FanDuel, their odds to win are even longer at 20:1…could be worth a longshot flyer, with the way this season has gone on the West Coast.

Now, let’s take an early look at how the Awards races look at this point in the season.

Most Valuable Player

Luka Doncic is on the heels of Nikola Jokic for MVP. Steph Chambers/Getty Images

LeaderNikola Jokic (+130)

In the huntLuka Doncic (+225)Jayson Tatum (+450)

Long shots of interestJoel Embiid (+1000)Ja Morant (+3000)LeBron James (+15,000)

Two-time defending MVP Nikola Jokic has moved into the lead in the odds race, setting up what would be a surprising third win in a row with a nightly brilliance that can’t be ignored. Jokic had led the Nuggets to the best record in the West so far, just a game behind the Celtics for best record in the NBA. He continues to be a nightly triple-double threat that puts up eye-popping stat lines (like his 40/27/10 triple-double last month) on the regular, and he remains third in our RPM stat to indicate that his presence on the court still correlates with as many wins for his team as the top players in the league.

Tatum and Doncic are 1-2 in the NBA in RPM at the moment. Tatum continues to lead the team with the best record in the league, and has even more on his plate of late with Jaylen Brown sidelined. Doncic is the only player in the league putting up more eye-popping stats than Jokic (60/20/10 triple-double!?), but the Mavs being further down the standings hurts his case.

On the longshot front, Morant is currently 30-1 despite him leading the Grizzlies to within a half-game of the Nuggets’ record. If he’s able to get the Grizz into a clear first place position and his own scoring average up closer to 30 PPG (he’s at 30.1 PPG in the ten games since Christmas), Morant could make himself a stronger contender for the award in the second half of the season.

LeBron earns a mention because he’s a whopping 150-1, but as I laid out above, it’s possible the Lakers could get back into the race to win the Pacific. If LeBron were able to lead them to a shocking division win while averaging anywhere near the 32 PPG, 8 RPG and 7 APG that he’s posted in his last 23 games, and oh-by-the-way breaking the biggest record in NBA history on the way, he’d at least get mentioned.

But, my biggest dark horse for MVP is Joel Embiid. Embiid has been second to Jokic in each of the last two MVP votes, and he currently has the 76ers within 4.5 games of the best record in the NBA. Considering the unofficial impediment of “the culture” to Jokic winning a third straight MVP without having ever won a ring, and that Embiid is also posting remarkable stat lines nightly and may have a bit of “it’s his turn” sentiment, and I like him to make a hard charge for this award down the stretch.

Rookie of the Year

Paolo Banchero continues to be the big favorite for ROY. Alika Jenner/Getty Images

LeaderPaolo Banchero (-1200)

In the huntBennedict Mathurin (+800)

Longer shotJaden Ivey (+3,000)

The odds here have moved to the extreme. Barring injury, Banchero will be the runaway Rookie of the Year selection. And if he maintains for another month or so, even injury might not be enough to derail him. Shaping up toward a potential unanimous vote. Mathurin and Ivey are still playing well, though, and should be First Team All Rookie selections if they maintain their pace.

Defensive Player of the Year

Jaren Jackson Jr. has been a force in the paint for the Grizzlies. Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

LeaderJaren Jackson Jr. (-160)

In the huntBrook Lopez (+500)Nic Claxton (+900)

Longer shotO.G. Anunoby (+1600)Bam Adebayo (+1800)Evan Mobley (+2200)

There has been a shakeup at the top in the last month, with Jaren Jackson Jr. returning from injury to anchor a Grizzlies’ that has the best team defensive rating in the NBA. He is also blocking 3.3 shots per game, which would lead the league if he had enough games to be eligible, and he led the league in blocks last season. That’s probably a more important stat to the voters than the fact that he only ranks a respectable but not dominant 11th in Defensive RPM on the season.

Nic Claxton has jumped into the race by leading the NBA in blocked shots on an upstart Nets defense that helped make them the hottest team in the NBA before Kevin Durant‘s injury, and he ranks seventh in DRPM.

Adebayo and Mobley may have the best overall cases, with Adebayo sporting the fifth-best DRPM score and Mobley the third-best on teams with the fifth and second-best team defensive ratings in the league. Mobley, in fact, likely has the best individual case for the award, but the presence of teammate Jarrett Allen (also +2200 to win) may split the vote and keep him from getting the credit he deserves for what has been a remarkable defensive season to date.

Sixth Man of the Year

Moving Russell Westbrook to the bench has worked well for Westbrook and the Lakers. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

LeaderRussell Westbrook (-165)

In the huntJordan Poole (+450)Malcolm Brogdon (+400)

Longer shotBobby Portis (+2500)Christian Wood (+7500)Immanuel Quickley (+7500)

Westbrook has grabbed hold of this race in the last month, moving to odds-on favorite status and expanding the gap with Poole.

Brogdon has moved up a bit recently, particularly with how he’s performed since Jaylen Brown’s injury.

Portis is a nightly double-double who is carrying more responsibility with the Bucks’ frontcourt injuries, and Quickley has stepped up as a big spark plug off the bench for a surprisingly successful Knicks squad.

But keep an eye on Wood. His odds are so long because he has started in recent weeks and may not end up eligible for the award. But, keep in mind, Wood didn’t move into the starting lineup until Dorian Finney-Smith goth injured, and Finney-Smith is expected back soon. There are five Mavericks with a higher start percentage than Wood’s 16 starts in 41 games, and if Wood does remain eligible, his 18.3 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.8 3PG and 1.2 BPG on a likely playoffs-bound Mavericks squad could make him much more competitive for this award than 75-1 would suggest.

Most Improved Player

Lauri Markkanen has been everything the Jazz wanted — and more — in his first season in Utah. Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports

LeaderLauri Markkanen (-110)

In the huntShai Gilgeous-Alexander (+100)Jalen Brunson (+1400)

Longer shotTyrese Haliburton (+1800)Desmond Bane (+8000)Anfernee Simons (+10000)Tyrese Maxey (+3000)Anthony Edwards (+10000)

Along with MVP, this is probably the most competitive award on the board. There are a series of amazing candidates in the midst of huge breakout seasons, currently led by new odds-on favorite Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen has averaged 30.3 PPG and 9.4 RPG in his last month of play, and has a Jazz team that was expected to lead the Wembanyama sweepstakes in postseason contention.

SGA also continues to put up All NBA numbers on a game Thunder squad that would be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today. Brunson is putting up MVP numbers since the calendar flipped to 2023, averaging 31.6 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 5.3 APG for a Knicks team currently in the playoffs, not even the play-in.

Haliburton was in a prime position as the NBA leader in assists on a Pacers team in the postseason race, but his recent injury pushed him down this list. Injury also derailed Desmond Bane, who was averaging more than 28 PPG when he got injured in December and is just rounding into shape after his return. But, keep an eye on Anthony Edwards, who is playing through injury but has yet to miss a game.

Edwards’ Timberwolves are also in postseason position, and if he can get them into the playoffs while averaging near the 26.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 5.1 APG he’s posted in the last month he has much better than 100-1 odds even in this crowded field.

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Joakim Noah takes just seconds to cast his mind back and remembers his first time seeing an NBA team. It was 1997, and the Chicago Bulls were in Paris for the McDonald’s Championship, a tournament that brought together the best teams from various parts of the world to face off against each other. The tickets had been bought by his dad, Yannick, a French tennis hero who little over 10 years earlier had become the first Frenchman in 37 years to win the French Open at Roland Garros. What the Noahs did not realise was they were witnessing the beginning of what would become The Last Dance and the most famous season in Bulls’ history.

At just 12 years old, Joakim got to see it live and up close: Jordan’s 27 points against Olympiakos in the final, seeing him crowned MVP in front of over 1,000 reporters from over 50 countries. It was where Noah’s NBA dreams began, a path that took him to be a first-round draft pick for the Bulls in 2007, a two-time All Star and an All-NBA first-team selection in 2014.

“Every time Michael Jordan steps on to a court it’s inspiring,” Noah recalls now in conversation with ESPN. Noah is back in Paris as an ambassador for the Bulls, who are in town for Thursday’s regular season match-up against the Detroit Pistons. The hope, for the NBA and the teams, is that they inspire more Joakims of the future as well as getting more fans to fall in love with the game.

Noah remembers being asked a question at the end of that 1997. His family wanted to know: Did he want to be like his Dad, the French tennis icon, or Michael Jordan — the guy who seemed like he’d brought Paris to a standstill.

He can recall his answer, too: “I wanna be like Mike!”

The NBA has long strived to grow the game outside North America. It has hosted over 200 events in more than 20 countries. There have been more exhibition games in more countries than you could remember – the first happening in Israel in 1978, and from then on continuing in a range of countries, from Beijing to South Africa. There have been preseason games in four different continents, with Africa edging closer to holding one in the years ahead. And there have been regular-season games, too, with regular season games in London between 2011 and 2019.

Thursday sees a second regular season game in the French capital, and the NBA’s first since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joakim Noah (right) meets with NBA Legend Ben Wallace of the Detroit Pistons and Andre Drummond of the Chicago Bulls. Catherine Steenkeste/NBAE via Getty Images

Why return?

As the world shut down in February and March 2020, so did the NBA. For Ralph Rivera, managing editor of NBA Europe and Middle East, it was a problem.

“When we actually did our last game in Paris at that time we announced that we were coming back the following year. That was in January 2020, and obviously because of COVID-19 we weren’t able to bring games,” Rivera says. “It also impacted our other on-court activities through that time.

“So this is the first opportunity for us to bring the game back to Europe, back to Paris, and we could not be more excited.”

Fan interest for tickets for Thursday’s Bull-Pistons game has maintained from the league’s last Paris game three years ago. A lot of the interest is continually driven by the NBA’s current European stars, two of which — Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic — have won back-to-back MVP awards in the last four years.

“There has never been a better time to be a fan of the NBA in Europe than right now, and part of it is that we are able to distribute the games and our stories, both via broadcast and online,” Rivera adds. “There is so much content that is available, but in particular, the fact there are so many successful and MVP calibre players from Europe in the NBA obviously increases the interest.

Why Paris?

The NBA’s first landing spot for regular season games in Europe was London. The league played one game per season for eight years in the English capital before making a surprise move to Paris. Rivera says the move happened because it was time for a change.

“We only have one game in Europe each year, and we consider it to be our European All-Star game. And so, it made sense to move that game around a bit having been in London for a number of years consecutively. It made sense to move to another place in Europe.”

There is no shortage of interest from countries in hosting NBA games — the league recently hosted two preseason games in Abu Dhabi, and will move further south soon as it begins talks over hosting a preseason game in Africa. But Paris remains its European home.

Would we ever see an expansion of the regular season footprint, much as London and now Germany have become homes for multiple NFL games per season in the past 10 years? “We don’t have plans right now to host more than [the] one game that we’re doing,” Rivera says.

“A part of that is just the logistics around it. We usually play every other day, so a team could be playing three times in a week. That’s a bit different than say the NFL where they play once a week, so a part of the challenge there [for the NBA] is the travel, the adjustment, and then playing the game and doing the same thing on the way back. That’s why we’ve limited it. Never say never, but right now there are no plans to have more than the one game that we’re having.”

The NBA is yet to determine the international schedule for the 2023-24 season, though Paris is likely to be a leading contender to host once again.

Michael Jordan starred at the McDonalds Championship when the Bulls last played in Paris in 1997. John Gichigi /Allsport

Why Bulls-Pistons?

The Bulls’ story in Paris began in 1997 and the game that captured Noah and the rest of Europe. It was, quite literally, where The Last Dance began.

Adam Silver, then president of NBA Entertainment, arrived in Paris for those 1997 games with a plan to convince Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan to allow the camera into the locker room and capture everything unfiltered. If you look closely, in Episode 1, you can see Silver and Jackson in Paris talking on steps of the Bulls’ team hotel.

Almost 26 years later, that meeting has proved to bring a whole new wave of fans from across the world.

“If you think about it too, in terms of the available programming at that time, not having live sport available and to have The Last Dance coming during the period and help satisfy people’s hunger for the game,” Rivera says.

“It was extremely well done, and it’s been a global phenomenon — on ESPN it’s their most watched documentary ever. So all around the world it had a tremendous impact, and it just reminded everybody of that time, the game at that point, the Bulls, Michael Jordan, all of the other iconic teams and players during that time.”

The Bulls — ever since Jordan — have been one of the most supported NBA teams in Europe, no matter how they perform. Thursday’s game brings all those worlds together: the Bulls-Pistons rivalry for those alive to see it in real time, and those who only know it from The Last Dance.

“A lot of is about logistics and scheduling — when is the last time teams have travelled, trying to identify if there are any particular ties or interests that teams have to a certain market — and in this particular case there was interest in coming to Paris from the Bulls and the Pistons,” Rivera adds.

“Again, having the Bulls and the Pistons having that classic rivalry is great, and then we also have European players on both those teams, and they’re popular teams.”

What does it mean to players?

For all of Joakim Noah’s achievements — an NBA defensive player of the year, a France international — he never played an NBA game in his home country. This is the first time the Bulls have returned to Paris since that tournament in 1997.

“It’s a full circle moment for me and my family, just to have the Bulls playing in Paris,” Noah says. “It’s surreal to be done playing and having a moment like this to be able to share with my family and friends. It’s special.

“A lot of family weren’t able to come see my games, just to be able to give them a moment of: this is what it looks like, this is the level of competition. Even though I’m done playing, I was always proud to wear that [Bulls] jersey, and it represents a lot. It represents the greatest to ever play the game.”

The NBA continues to grow around the world, with its overseas games a chance to inspire further talent. Noah learned that at 12 years old. He still believes it now.

“I think it’s giving the next generation a chance to dream and believe,” Noah says. “We are here. The structures are here, just look at the facilities. Basketball is growing, and it’s only getting better and better.”

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For the uninitiated like I was, just entering the Chicago Magic Lounge on a chilly Wednesday evening was a thrill. Via a secret door, the faux-laundromat entry gives way to a luxe theater both steeped in history with posters of illusionists past and very much alive with a small army of close-up magicians working the room. Rebecca Spectre and Benjamin Barnes capably entertained my guest and I during cocktail hour, warming us up for artist in residence Harrison Lampert’s “maelstrom of insanity” (his apt words). 

MixtapeThrough 3/29: Wed 7 PM, Chicago Magic Lounge, 5050 N. Clark, 312-366-4500, chicagomagiclounge.com, $40-$45

Harrison Lampert is awkward in the vein of some of my favorite cringe comedians (Nathan Fielder, Norm Macdonald) but likeably so, growing on you as you root for his bumbling tricks to pay off. And then realize they’re really a way into some uniquely absurd comedy. If he does one thing he commits to a bit, like his flat “thanks” after every round of applause and using the time it takes to pull out a ridiculously long handkerchief to have a breakdown about the monotony of his childhood chicken dinners. After a string of well-executed, more traditional tricks involving cards, disappearing eggs, linked rings, etc., he goes off script in an improv interlude. Prior to the show, audience members are asked to write phrases on scraps of paper, and he pulls them out of a fishbowl to create his own “mad libs” origin story as a magician. His quick thinking was fun to watch, as was the window into the predictably strange minds of all of us watching magic on a Wednesday.

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In Witold Gombrowicz’s fictional kingdom of Burgundia, the royal court is bored. One day Prince Phillip (Keith Surney) and his consort, Simon (Gus Thomas) happen upon Ivona (Laura Nelson), a cowering and often mute peasant girl. Having nothing better to do and looking to outrage his family and friends, the prince announces that Ivona will be his bride. He gets a lot more than he bargained for.

While rarely speaking, Ivona has an ironclad will and an unerring instinct to do the opposite of what is expected of her. She bewitches and confounds King Ignatius (Bill Gordon) and Queen Margaret (Manuela Rentea) while enraging the Lord Chamberlain (Kevin Webb) and Isobel (Cat Evans). Each has ambitions and schemes which Ivona upends by her arrival. She’s a chaos agent they all want to snuff out for individual motives, but every plot is a threat to all the others. It’s a mess and that’s the point.

Princess Ivona Through 2/18: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, trapdoortheatre.com, $25 (two for one Thu)

The stage design by J. Michael Griggs is minimal even by Trap Door’s spartan standards: some semitransparent white drapery and a couple of clothing trunks—one long enough to hold a small body. There’s also a picture frame that functions as a mirror one minute, a camera the next. The nonspace in which these privileged little monsters frolic is mostly furnished by their fantasies and desires that seem to mutate and transform whichever way the winds blow. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Rachel Sypniewski’s costumes reminded me of Dr. Seuss and Edward Gorey by turns. They’re as loud as the set is quiet. Lord Chamberlain’s habit of shedding gloves only to find a different colored set underneath is a visual summation of the self-delusion and fickleness of everyone in this royal court. By the time he peels the last pair to expose his hands, he’s both horrified and surprised by their appearance. Neither the chamberlain nor anyone else knows or wants to know who they truly are. Ivona might know but is silenced before she can say.

Burgundia feels like a very familiar kingdom in Jenny Beacraft’s staging. A place where loud hollow pronouncements reign and there’s little patience for inwardness or doubt. A country addicted to self-promotion, and one that will backstab anyone who pushes back on the official narrative. 

Ever been to a place like that?

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It would be hard to find a more appealing trio to embody Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical tick, tick . . . BOOM! than the ones in BoHo Theatre’s production—and “embody” is very much the relevant word. Director Bo Frazier chose to cast trans and gender nonconforming actors as aspiring composer Jon, his girlfriend Susan, and his best friend Michael. Some cisgender audience members might find these choices startling to begin with, but before the end of the first number they’ll have transcended their shock and be rooting for youth and raw talent in all its forms.  

Tick, tick . . . BOOM! Through 2/5: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also industry night Mon 1/30 7:30 PM; open captions Sat 1/21 and 1/28 3 PM; Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, bohotheatre.com, $35 general, $20 seniors, military, and first responders, $12 transgender and gender nonconforming people, students, and educational professionals

Alec Phan as Jon takes the part—a composer on the verge of his 30th birthday, trying to decide whether to “sell out” or keep waiting tables to write music—and infuses it with all the passion and terror of anyone who’s ever discovered that life doesn’t unspool as predicted. As Michael, Crystal Claros has a knockout voice and the comic chops to turn into any number of supporting characters, while Luke Halpern is both a persuasive Susie and an indelible neglectful cigarette-smoking New York agent.

The show itself is more revue than true musical: originally performed solo by Larson himself, its narrative was later supplied by playwright David Auburn. But some of the songs are truly moving (“Real Life”) and others witty, and all get their due and then some from the cast and band under music director Harper Caruso. As the characters struggle with their fear of getting old, it’s hard not to reflect on the fact Larson himself never did, dying at age 35 the day before the first Broadway preview of his signature piece Rent.

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I remember when rock was young. So, evidently, does Chicago playwright Katie Coleman, as she well attests in her intelligent, heartfelt play about two young Soviets, hopping and bopping to a thing called capitalist rock (Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, etc.). Coleman actually tells three stories here. There’s a bittersweet one about Svetlana and Vitaly (two Soviet kids doing the best that they can); another, much angrier one about the economic and cultural stagnation of Leonid Brezhnev-era Soviet Union (a teenage wasteland for sure); and a third about the history of Krugozor, a state-owned—and thus state-sanctioned—music magazine that brought carefully vetted Western music into Russian homes via the flexi discs that came with the magazine. Krugozor, initiated by Nikita Khrushchev, must have been an attempt to control the flow of western European ideas into the state without threatening the ossifying bureaucratic power elite. How well it worked is one of the themes Coleman explores in this show. (See Berlin circa 1989.)

Krugozor! Through 2/4: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard, theatreevolve.com, pay what you can $5-$100

My summary is making the show sound like something only a history buff would enjoy. But actually, the show is immensely entertaining. The production has a loose Second City feel to it. Scenes are acted out with a bare minimum of props and set pieces.There is also a live band on stage, to give the show a jolt of rock ’n’ roll when things start to get too dark—or light. As if that could happen in a wild, energetic production that mixes performance styles, tone, and mood with the wild, carefree abandon of someone changing stations every few seconds on a car radio. Yet somehow, director Anna Rachel Troy and her cast keep it together, mixing strictly naturalistic scenes, with ones with a more Brechtian tinge, as when the script breaks the narrative flow to relate some facts about Soviet history, or Krugozor, or the myriad ways rock ’n’ rollers overcame government attempts to keep that “decadence” out of the country. (These included “bone music”—the underground trading of bootleg recordings pressed into discarded X-rays.) 

Troy has assembled a strong multitalented cast here, most of whom, at one point or another, join the band to sing or shred guitar, and all of whom know how to mine the emotional ups and downs of Coleman’s story for maximum effect. At the center of it all are Andy Ricci’s Vitaly—he’s just a poor boy but needs no sympathy—and Caroline Kidwell’s Svetlana. She’s the rebellious daughter of a Communist Party official, the Soviet equivalent of a poor little rich girl. As performers, Ricci and Kidwell are riveting, and their story—which shows the lie behind the claims that the USSR was a classless society—is, in the end, utterly devastating.

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For the uninitiated like I was, just entering the Chicago Magic Lounge on a chilly Wednesday evening was a thrill. Via a secret door, the faux-laundromat entry gives way to a luxe theater both steeped in history with posters of illusionists past and very much alive with a small army of close-up magicians working the room. Rebecca Spectre and Benjamin Barnes capably entertained my guest and I during cocktail hour, warming us up for artist in residence Harrison Lampert’s “maelstrom of insanity” (his apt words). 

MixtapeThrough 3/29: Wed 7 PM, Chicago Magic Lounge, 5050 N. Clark, 312-366-4500, chicagomagiclounge.com, $40-$45

Harrison Lampert is awkward in the vein of some of my favorite cringe comedians (Nathan Fielder, Norm Macdonald) but likeably so, growing on you as you root for his bumbling tricks to pay off. And then realize they’re really a way into some uniquely absurd comedy. If he does one thing he commits to a bit, like his flat “thanks” after every round of applause and using the time it takes to pull out a ridiculously long handkerchief to have a breakdown about the monotony of his childhood chicken dinners. After a string of well-executed, more traditional tricks involving cards, disappearing eggs, linked rings, etc., he goes off script in an improv interlude. Prior to the show, audience members are asked to write phrases on scraps of paper, and he pulls them out of a fishbowl to create his own “mad libs” origin story as a magician. His quick thinking was fun to watch, as was the window into the predictably strange minds of all of us watching magic on a Wednesday.

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