Dennis Watkins

Dennis Watkins is an award-winning, third-generation magician, mentalist and classically trained actor, based in Chicago, Illinois. He has performed across the United States for corporate and private events and ceremonies, colleges and universities, trade shows, conventions and meetings. Watkins is known for his sleight of hand prowess, walking on broken glass and swallowing razor blades. Another favorite is his Balloon Trick, where he crawls inside a 7-foot wide balloon in order to complete a card trick. His long-running public show, The Magic Parlour, is in its sixth year of performances at Chicago's historic Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

Dennis Watkins is a magician and stage actor born in Dallas, TX. His grandfather, Ed Watkins, was a local magician who worked as the lead demonstrator at a storefront magic shop called Douglas Magicland in Dallas for 30 years. Somewhere around the age of 7, Dennis Watkins began studying sleight-of-hand under the instruction of his grandfather, Ed.

In 2001, Watkins graduated from SMU Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, TX, where he received the prestigious Hunt Leadership Scholars award. There, he met and worked with many of the actors and directors who would go on to found The House Theatre of Chicago. He also spent a year training at BADA, British American Drama Academy, as part of his academic studies.

Dennis Watkins is a Founding Company Member with The House Theatre of Chicago, where he originated the role of Harry Houdini in Death and Harry Houdini written and directed by Artistic Director Nathan Allen. Portraying Houdini in all 7 sold-out runs of the show, Watkins recreates some of Houdini's most well-known feats, including escaping the infamous Water Torture Cell. Watkins received a Joseph Jefferson Award for his work on the show in 2012. Death and Harry Houdini returns to The Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, FL Spring 2017.

On New Year's Eve of 2011, Watkins began performing his critically acclaimed one-man-show, The Magic Parlour, an intimate 80-minute evening of classic, close-up magic and impossible mind-reading, in a private suite at the historic Palmer House Hilton, one of downtown Chicago's most historic and noteworthy hotels. He performs Fridays and Saturdays before a small gathering of just 44 guests. The Magic Parlour currently boasts 5 shows per week and has 200 performances scheduled in 2017.

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