The Bisbee Seance Room Provides Strange Magic

OutBack

This is one in a series that uncovers the untold stories of LGBTQ+ life beyond the city, celebrating queer businesses and community in Arizona's suburban and rural areas. Read more stories here.

October is the busiest month of the year for The Bisbee Seance Room. Owner Magic Kenny Bang Bang regularly sells out the intimate space during the spooky season, delighting and flabbergasting visitors with tales of the haunted city of Bisbee, Arizona, and mind-bending magic tricks.

The dimly lit room is done up to resemble a Victorian-style parlor adorned with vintage photos, ghostly paintings, a real human medical skeleton (named Henrietta) in a coffin hanging on a wall, and abundant oddities and taxidermy, including a bear, a bobcat and a turkey—the latter of which gazes out from its perch on an old Wurlitzer jukebox.

In the center of the room is a red velvet-draped table that can seat 20. Scattered on top are various sizes of wood boxes, metal tins, books, decks of cards and a Ouija board.

“You learn a lot about Bisbee’s rich, haunted history and you get to see a close-up magic show,” Kenny said, with a few elements from the “golden age of seance” in the 1900s.

Kenny added, “Am I contacting the spirits? Maybe; maybe not. We don’t know. You have to see for yourself.”

Showmanship key to success

The Bisbee Seance Room is not strictly an LGBTQ+ business. But Bisbee has become a queer destination, with its rainbow crosswalks and frequent drag shows, an increasingly popular Gay Pride Parade in June, and the Mineshaft Bear Week. And Kenny’s business is the number one attraction there.

“Bisbee is very accepting,” Kenny said. “It’s eclectic; it’s a complete artists community. There are a lot of artists and people like myself pursuing their dream and making a good go of it. There’s a lot of gay business owners there.”

One of the things that Kenny has mastered is showmanship, which any fan of drag can appreciate.

Kenny exudes an old-timey Wild West gambler aesthetic, from his real rattlesnake hat to a bullet bracelet with live rounds. His Ouija board belt buckle was custom-made at The Mad Cow Company in Bisbee.

“I’m an outlaw first and foremost,” he said. “I play by my own rules.”

As the roughly 45-minute immersive show begins, he shines a flashlight on old photos and spins yarns about local lore, murders and ghosts. He draws the audience into the tricks, calling them by name and spellbinding them with seemingly impossible feats of mind-reading.

“There are magicians who are technically good at what they do,” he said, “but they may not have the personality for it.”

Alex Mastrangelo, who owns queer hotspot Gene’s Place bar next door with his partner, Katie, said, “You don’t always feel comfortable sitting at a table with strangers, but he makes that experience work. Kenny’s very good at making everyone in the room feel included.”

He added that Kenny is always in character and is “the kind of guy you want at your party because he gets people to talk to each other.”

Bisbee, in deep red Cochise County, ironically is one of Arizona's most LGBTQ+-friendly cities. (Photo by Geri Koeppel)

Haunted Bisbee makes perfect backdrop

Originally from New Jersey, Kenny got the magic bug as a child when his grandfather showed him his first card trick.

“It was always sort of a hobby that became an obsession that is now a career,” he said.

It’s not surprising that Kenny has worked as a sommelier, which also requires a fair amount of flamboyance. He also has a degree in English literature from the University of Colorado, which lends itself to a talent for storytelling.

Kenny, who splits his time between Bisbee and Tucson, started the show as a seasonal attraction at the Hotel Congress in Tucson in October 2014 and soon wanted to do it full-time all year.

The Bisbee Seance Room officially opened in August 2016. Kenny chose to launch in the quirky, artsy outpost partly because of its haunted history and its connection to Harry Houdini.

The legendary magician performed at the Lyric Theater in Bisbee in 1919, when it was one of the biggest, most glamorous towns in the West during the heyday of the gold, silver and copper mines. The original hand-painted sign advertising the show leans against the back wall of the room.

Next year marks the business’s 10th anniversary, and it’s also the 100th anniversary of Houdini’s death on Halloween, so look for some special events.

The Bisbee Seance Room is open Thursday through Saturday evenings 52 weeks a year. Book ahead for the Halloween season. Kenny also does a residency twice a year in New Orleans.

He’s also doing some exclusive shows in February at the reportedly haunted Oliver House in Bisbee, so contact them for information.

“I love what I do,” Kenny said. “I want to share my talent with everyone.”