{"id":767916,"date":"2026-05-02T09:52:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767916\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T09:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:52:47","slug":"this-lincoln-square-mentalist-is-reviving-chicago-tavern-magic-one-brewery-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/767916\/","title":{"rendered":"This Lincoln Square Mentalist Is Reviving Chicago Tavern Magic, One Brewery At A Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

LINCOLN SQUARE \u2014 Inside the barrel loft of Dovetail Brewery on the North Side, a magician named Brielle<\/a> holds out a lock and asks, \u201cOn a scale of 1 to 10, how much faith do you have in my ability to influence a choice that you make?\u201d<\/p>\n

If you catch her monthly show at Dovetail, 1800 W. Belle Plaine Ave., Brielle might ask you to lock away a personal item and trust her to help you retrieve it. She\u2019ll place three keys in your hands, instruct you to move them around behind your back and choose one at a time. Moments later, she\u2019ll ask you to open the lock with the middle key \u2014 the one you picked at random and the only one that clicks open the lock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To watch Brielle \u2014 whose full name is Brielle Kawalek \u2014 perform mentalism is to feel two instincts rise at once: the flickering delight of a child who wants to believe \u2014 and the adult skepticism that insists there must be an explanation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a misconception about magic is it\u2019s meant to fool you and trick you,\u201d Brielle said. \u201cI really see it as a way of connecting with our inner whimsy and having a good time together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brielle, 34, grew up in Bunker Hill, West Virginia, following curiosity wherever it led. She studied psychology and German at West Virginia University, then spent five years in Germany, where she worked a range of jobs, including teaching English and assisting at a clinic for people with obsessive compulsive disorder and phobias.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At one point, Brielle even considered becoming a professor. But it wasn\u2019t until her late 20s that she imagined herself performing magic at bachelorette parties and bars or reading strangers\u2019 minds with a deck of cards and everyday objects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of magicians get interested in magic when they\u2019re children. They\u2019ll get a kit and it just kind of takes off,\u201d Brielle said. \u201cBut as a kid, magicians didn\u2019t look like me. They were all men.\u201d<\/p>\n

In summer 2022, when Brielle landed a tech job for a language-learning company in Chicago, she sat at a magic show among strangers. After years studying the human mind, she was struck by how the performance slowed down time in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just sitting there looking around and in awe of everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t thinking about their grocery list or what they had to do when they got home. They were just in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brielle\u2019s first brush with magic arrived at 28, while she was substitute teaching in her hometown. It followed a particularly grueling day in the classroom \u2014 one that left her distraught after a student screamed in her face. As she sat there, shaken, a colleague and local magician named Michael T. Myers suggested a different way to engage the students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw me after school and was like, \u2018You know, I show the kids a magic trick to keep their attention. Let\u2019s go to McDonald\u2019s and I\u2019ll teach you some magic,\u2019\u201d Brielle said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Myers planted the mystic seed in a McDonalds booth, Brielle described later seeing magic in Chicago as feeling like \u201clove at second sight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went up to the magician after the show, and I said, \u2018I want to be a magician. Take my money,\u2019 and he was like, \u2018What is wrong with you?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt was just this knowing moment. I had gone through all these other things where it felt kind of right but not fully my thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Brielle quit her tech job and saved six months of rent to pursue magic full time. She began cutting her teeth at bars, restaurants and birthday parties across Chicago \u2014 a journey that eventually led her to the stage of the nationally televised magic competition show \u201cPenn & Teller: Fool Us\u201d in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 700 people, all these studio cameras in your face and you\u2019re meeting Penn and Teller on stage for the first time,\u201d Brielle said. \u201cI had been watching them since I was a kid, so it was just terrifying. But I was also just so happy to be there, and looking back now, it doesn\u2019t feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Brielle didn\u2019t fool the magicians, the opportunity led her to monthly residencies at North Side venues such as Dovetail; Beard & Belly, 6157 N. Broadway; Hop Butcher for the World, 4257 N. Lincoln Ave.; and Hexe Coffee, 2000 W. Diversey Parkway. She\u2019s stepping into a long-standing tradition of Chicago-style tavern magic, a close-up sleight-of-hand table magic born in the city\u2019s German bar scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Quartell, Dovetail\u2019s taproom manager, said bringing Brielle in for a tavern magic event last year was a way to \u201cbring that history back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how engaged everyone was at that event, it seemed like a no-brainer to go on showcasing such a distinctive and uniquely Chicago style of magic every month in our taproom,\u201d Quartell said. <\/p>\n

Brielle\u2019s residency is bringing back \u201cthat sense of wonder we all had before we started taking ourselves so seriously all the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brielle\u2019s next performances are 6-9 p.m. May 5 at Dovetail; 6-9 p.m. May 6 at Beard & Belly; 6-9 p.m. May 7 at Hop Butcher For The World and 3-6 p.m. May 15 at Hexe Coffee.<\/p>\n

While she respects the history of the craft, Brielle isn\u2019t interested in cliches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease stop asking me if I can bring my rabbit to your party,\u201d Brielle said with a laugh. \u201cI don\u2019t use animals in my magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those waiting for the \u201cperfect\u201d moment to follow a similar spark, Brielle\u2019s advice is simple: don\u2019t wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s never a right time to do something,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you feel deep down, \u2018I really want to do this,\u2019 do it. Do it terrified.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Chicago-basedChicago-based magician Brielle Kawalek poses for a picture at Dovetail Brewery on Thursday, Apr. 9, 2026. Kawalek\u2019s monthly residency at the brewery aims to revive the city\u2019s historic tradition of tavern magic. Credit: Kimberly Rosette<\/p>\n

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