“The Enigmatist” at The Rep’s Will Stretch

Your Brain and Boggle Your Mind

                          by Pat Lindsey

An evening with David Kwong, “The Enigmatist,” is a rigorous workout in brain gymnastics. Kwong is super smart and his brilliance lights up the stage and dazzles the audience for two mind-boggling hours. Before I witnessed his genius in the intimate Emerson Studio Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton in Webster Groves, I didn’t even know what an enigmatist is. After experiencing Kwong’s magic, puzzle-solving, crossword construction, and story-telling, I can tell you he’s not a nerdy egghead. He’s a master puzzle creator and solver, who loves to tease your brain. (He’s also easy on the eyes!)

Audiences are encouraged to come to the theater at least half an hour early to go through the puzzle garden in the lobby to try to solve four puzzles that are on display. Each time you correctly decipher the one word answer to a puzzle, you will receive a hole punch in your answer card. The puzzles aren’t easy, but given enough time, most people can eventually solve them. The 15-minute intermission midway through the show can be additional time for puzzle-solving.

Kwong’s stage set with book shelves, curios, and a couple of tables makes the small theater even more intimate. Audience participation is essential to the success of the evening and Kwong is gifted in putting his audience at ease and making them eager to surrender their dollar bills for magic tricks, solve puzzles, or compete with others to be able to stand up first with a correct answer.

The brain games are strung together with history and biochemistry. Kwong is an excellent storyteller and begins his show by telling his own history of how he first became interested in magic tricks and how his extremely smart parents unknowingly put him on a career path that led to creating escape rooms and writing the crossword puzzles for the New York Times.

The show gradually transitions into a true story about wealthy businessman, George Fabyan, who invited experts in science, codes, agriculture, Shakespeare, and more to work at his Riverbend estate in Geneva, Illinois in the late 1800s. Among those scientists were William Friedman and Elizabeth Smith, who fell in love, married, and became cryptologists. They decoded many of the mysteries of the universe, but were unsuccessful in solving the infamous Gold Code. Kwong tried to crack the code, too, but it still remains unsolved.

During the second half of the show, Kwong asks several members of the audience to take enough Scrabble tiles to fill a cup. He then spills them out on a table, turns the tiles right side up, sets a timer for 2-1/2 minutes, and shows the audience how to build a crossword puzzle in record time. He manages to use every tile, except two. An overhead projector gives the audience a bird’s eye view of Kwong’s nimble fingers and quick thinking to create a perfect crossword puzzle.

David Kwong, “The Enigmatist,” says “knowledge is power.” His knowledge of magic, math, chemistry, cryptology and all things puzzling has been creatively woven together in a show that will blow your mind. It’s powerful and it’s fascinatingly fun!

“The Enigmatist” is working his magic in the Emerson Studio Theatre at The Rep March 7- April 5. You can call the box office at 314-968-4925 Mon.-Fri., noon until 5 p.m. or go there in person Wed.-Fri. noon until 5 p.m. to reserve your seat. Tickets are also available at repstl.org.

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