HAUNTED: A New Kind of Magic Show at The Lost Dice

Something a little darker has moved into our building.

If you have been to see us on a Saturday night, you know The Lost Dice as a warm room full of laughter, close-up magic and the smell of someone's burger arriving halfway through a card trick. On Thursday nights, the same room turns colder. A show called HAUNTED has just started up, and it is a very different kind of magic.

So what is HAUNTED?

HAUNTED is a ghost stories and magic show, performed every Thursday at 8pm by Kevin Kopfstein, a Scottish storyteller and magician who bills himself, fairly, as a master of the macabre. This is not card tricks and one-liners. It is dark history, storytelling and magic woven into something closer to a séance than a stage show.

The heart of it is Kevin's collection of what he calls hauntiques: real, accursed-looking relics, each with a story attached. Vampire hunting kits. Voodoo dolls. Cemetery padlocks. Haunted dolls you will wish you had not looked at quite so closely. He brings them out one at a time, tells you where they came from, and then things begin to happen. Chills, thrills, and, if you take him at his word, the occasional brush with the other side.

A new kind of magic for Adelaide

We get asked all the time whether there is more magic in Adelaide beyond our Saturday show. Now there is, and it could hardly be more different in tone. Our close-up nights are bright, funny and built on sleight of hand happening right in your hands. HAUNTED is atmospheric, eerie and built on story. Same intimate room, opposite mood.

If you have ever wanted the version of a magic night that leans into the shadows instead of the punchlines, this is it. And it turns out The Lost Dice is exactly the right room for it. The venue is said to come with its own resident ghost, which Kevin seems perfectly happy about. For the case in favour of magic performed up close, in a small room, we made it here.

What the critics say

Kevin has been doing this a while, and the reviews have kept pace. The Advertiser called it "Freaky, a spellbinding show." Glam Adelaide called him "a mesmerising, dream like storyteller." Weekend Notes put the risk plainly: "a perfect storyteller who just might give us nightmares." Our favourite line comes from Such Cliche, who reckoned Kevin "could read the shipping forecast and make it sound eerie."

Tickets and the meal deal

General admission is $39, concession is $35, and groups of four or more are $32 per person. Companion Card holders come in free. Seats are limited, which suits a show like this. The spirits prefer an intimate gathering.

To make a full night of it, the Show and Meal Deal is $74 per person. You arrive by 7pm, get a burger or pizza and a drink, and have the run of the venue's 650-plus board games before the lights go down. Tickets, the trailer and all the details are on the HAUNTED website.

Which night is for you?

Honestly, come to both. Bring a date on a Thursday if you like your evenings with a shiver in them. Our Adelaide date night guide would happily add this one to the list. Then keep Saturday for when you would rather laugh than look over your shoulder. Either way you are in the same little room off King William Street, watching something you cannot quite explain.

Do you dare believe in spirits? Find out at hauntedshow.com.au.