I Am Not a Spy. This Is a Magic Show. (Okay, Maybe a Little Bit of Bot

I Am Not a Spy. This Is a Magic Show. (Okay, Maybe a Little Bit of Both.)

Woohoo. I finally previewed the show I've been quietly — okay, not so quietly — obsessing over for months. And friends, I am still buzzing.

I Am Not a Spy. This Is a Magic Show. is the thing I've been chasing in my head for a very long time. Yes, it's a magic show. But it's also this strange, glamorous, slightly unhinged one-woman thing with more twists and turns than I know what to do with. It's part spy thriller, part feelings, part comedy, and part what on earth is going to happen next?!Basically, it's my brain — out loud, on a stage, in a great outfit. (Also, fair warning: it is very Buffy the Vampire Slayer inspired. Obviously.)

I've spent years performing all over the world — close-up tables, big stages, corporate ballrooms, TV. Somewhere along the way I started craving something that felt like all of me in one room. Not just a string of tricks. A story. A character. A reason to gasp that isn't only "how did she do that," but also "wait... who IS she?"

That's the show. And it's finally real.

What actually happens in there

Without giving too much away (I am, allegedly, a spy), the show plays out as a single narrative from the first beat to the last. There's mentalism. There's sleight of hand. There are illusions stitched into the plot so they actually mean something instead of just sitting there being impressive for impressive's sake. You get pulled into the story — and then, gently and glamorously, recruited as an accomplice.

As a Los Angeles Magician, I've worked in just about every format there is. I've performed for Formula 1 and the Olympics, run team-building workshops for rooms of five and five hundred, fooled Penn & Teller, toured with Champions of Magic, popped up on Masters of Illusion, and yes, conjured a little something for a music video or two. I love all of it. But a full-length, story-driven, one-woman show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival is the most me thing I have ever built. It's the version of magic I always wished existed when I was a kid first falling in love with the impossible.

Most magic, when you strip it back, is a series of moments designed to make you go whoa. I wanted to keep the whoa— I'm not a monster — but hang it on a character you actually care about, inside a story you actually want to follow. So I gave myself a heroine who is sharp, a little dangerous, very stylish, and possibly lying to you the entire time. Then I let the tricks do the talking on her behalf.

Stuff went wrong. It was the best part.

Let me be honest with you, because pretending the preview was flawless would be deeply off-brand.

A few little things went sideways. My stomach dropped in those moments — not because I didn't know what to do, but because I know exactly what this show CAN and WILL be eventually, and in that moment I wanted you to see thatversion. The polished one. The one that lives in my head, fully formed and perfect and lit beautifully.

But here's the plot twist: those wobbles turned into the best parts of the night. I recovered. I figured things out on the fly. I leaned into the chaos the way the character would, because a spy improvises — that's sort of the whole job. And afterward, people came up to tell me they got completely lost in it. In the good way. The "I forgot I was watching a show" way.

I nearly cried — tears of exhaustion and joy, that elite combination — reading the very first reviews on the Hollywood Fringe site:

"So cool to see a magic show that plays out over a whole narrative. Very well done."

"A fast-paced one-person show that masterfully blends magic, comedy, and espionage. Katrina actively engages the audience and delivers one surprise after another. Highly recommend this clever, crowd-pleasing show that is well worth investigating. We left entertained, amazed, and still wondering: is she actually a spy?"

"This was a highlight of the Fringe Festival for me! A unique show unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It combined a storyline with magic tricks and illusions in a way that was different and entertaining. Highly recommended."

This is the vision I've been chasing for years. And it is, somehow, actually happening.

Why a spy? Why now?

People keep asking why espionage, of all things. The honest answer is that being a magician and being a spy are basically the same job description with different wardrobes. Both rely on misdirection. Both depend on you noticing what everyone else misses. Both involve walking into a room, reading it instantly, and getting people to hand you exactly what you need without ever realizing they did it.

I've built a whole career on that skill set — as a performer, a mentalist, and a keynote speaker who talks to companies about attention, persuasion, and the tiny human tells we all give away. The spy show is the most playful, theatrical version of everything I find fascinating about people. It just happens to come with secret messages, a little danger, and an excellent coat.

A few things people asking me

Is there audience participation? Be honest with me.

Yes — but I promise I'm kind about it. Nobody gets humiliated, nobody gets dragged on stage against their will, and you will never, ever be asked to sing. You might, however, get quietly recruited into a little light espionage from the comfort of your seat. Some of the best moments of the show happen because someone in the audience said yes to being part of the mission.

What actually makes this different from a "normal" magic show?

A normal magic show is a playlist. This one's an album — a story with a beginning, a middle, and a few endings you absolutely will not see coming. The magic serves the plot, the plot serves the character, and the character is... well. Possibly a spy. You'll have to come decide for yourself.

Where does the show go after this?

This Fringe run is the very first public outing, but she's got a passport. Right after the Hollywood Fringe Festival, the show heads to the Melbourne Magic Festival. So this is genuinely your chance to catch it at the start — before it crosses an ocean and grows up.

Come be a spy with me

June 11 is opening night — the first of six public shows this month — and after everything the preview taught me, it is going to be so much better. Sharper. Tighter. More dangerous. More fun.

This is the very first real run of this weird, wonderful little obsession of mine, and I would love for you to be in the room while I grow it into something bigger. You'll get to say you saw it here first, before it travels, before the kinks are gone, while it's still a little wild around the edges in the best possible way.

I Am Not a Spy. This Is a Magic Show. runs June 11–26 at the Madnani Theater as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival in the heart of Los Angeles. Grab your tickets, bring someone curious, and come find out for yourself whether your friendly neighborhood Los Angeles Magician is, in fact, a spy.

I want you there. Genuinely. Bring a friend, bring a date, bring someone who claims they "can't be fooled."

Let's go be spies. 🕵️‍♀️