We think uptown’s new Instagram-ready museum is worth a visit. But do our eyes deceive us?
There’s a rudimentary yet fairly appropriate way to determine whether you’ll personally find the new Museum of Illusions’ Charlotte location to be worth the price of admission:
Remember The Dress? The one that made the internet lose its mind, because people couldn’t agree on whether it was black and blue or white and gold?
Basically, if you took the time back then to read something that explained this visual Jedi mind trick (or even if you just shared the photo of the garment on social media to declare it was definitely those two colors and not the others), we’re guessing your brain will be tickled by enough of this place’s various illusions to justify a visit.
The museum is unique in Charlotte, but the concept is not unique to Charlotte.
Museum of Illusions is actually a chain of private museums that started in Croatia in 2015 (which, coincidentally, was also the year of The Dress) and has experienced rapid growth. The Charlotte location is the 39th in the world and the seventh in the U.S, and it opened its doors — on the south-side ground floor of the Ally Center at 601 S. Tryon St. — just long enough to invite a few dozen people in for a sneak peek at its collection of illusions before the official opening in early December.
Here are the four things that stood out to us most during our visit.
1. The Vortex Tunnel
hejdoa fads nwuio ugf aluhny ncp.
Oops, sorry. That was me trying to take notes on my iPhone while trying to navigate this tunnel, which uses laser lights to create an illusion that tricks your inner ear into thinking that the room is quite literally spinning.
You can find similar versions of this attraction at amusement parks or high-end haunted houses (as well as at many other Museum of Illusions locations), so yes, it’s possible you’ve walked through one of these before. But CEO Jonathan Benjamin said the one in Charlotte is the chain’s longest, biggest, quietest model, with “extra-high rails” for increased safety.
“I’ve been through hundreds of times, and I still have to catch my balance,” he said.
Or, to put it more bluntly: “Once you’re in, you’re screwed.”
There are, by the way, two sets of short stairs that lead up and into it. Be sure to take the set closer to the entrance to the museum, so you trip the motion sensor that activates the spin cycle. The far set of stairs is technically the “exit,” but for an even bigger head trip, do a 180 when you reach the end of the tunnel and turn around. Just be sure to hang on.
Obviously, guests prone to motion sickness should pass, but if you can tolerate the sensation of being dizzy, this is a mind-blowing must-try that will have you laughing (and possibly screaming) as you try to maintain your balance.
2. The extraordinary photo opps
That’s kind of the point of this place, it seems like.
Sure, you could spend a good half-hour browsing the various illusions mounted to the outer walls (holograms, mirrors, illustrations, etc., mostly the size of the average art-museum painting). But those are just appetizers for the main courses — the room-sized installations staffed by “Illusion Experts” ... who are essentially there not to explain how the illusion works but to help you and your companions pose for photos ... and who know the best angles from which to take the shots.
All you have to worry about is how creative you want to get.
Probably the most popular among Instagrammers will be The Ames Room, which creates an image making a person standing in one corner appear to be much bigger than another person standing in the other corner — by using angled floors and ceilings, forced perspective and distortion; and The Beuchet Chair Illusion, which uses similar tricks to make anyone in the “chair,” when photographed, appear to be much smaller than they actually are.
There are also rooms that turn perception almost literally on its head. For example, there’s an installation that features a room that only appears to be right-side-up after a photo is taken and the image is rotated on your phone ... so you can pose in ways that will make it look like you’re defying gravity.
It’s hardly a stretch to predict that, overnight, this place will probably become one of the most Instagrammed venues in all of Charlotte.
3. The Chief Illusionist
In many of its press materials, Charlotte’s Museum of Illusions has touted Caleb Morgan as its “chief illusionist.”
He’s appeared in interviews to promote the opening on multiple local TV news broadcasts, and he played a big role in Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting event by presenting an elaborate magic trick that spanned several minutes and legitimately wowed the crowd. Later, he was seen in various parts of the museum doing some pretty impressive close-up magic tricks for attendees.
For us, he had us name a “favorite” card (we picked the queen of hearts), put a different card face down in our palm, then — without touching the card or our hand — replaced the card in it with the queen of hearts. He then had us name another “favorite” card (we picked the six of clubs this time), which we expected he’d magically make appear in our hand to replace the queen of hearts.
When we turned it over again, it was still the queen of hearts. He seemed surprised. He tried again. Still the queen of hearts.
Then he said, “OH, you know why? There’s no six of clubs. ... Because when I pull the cards out of the box, I take the plastic off, and then I do one thing; I take one card and I put that in my pocket.” He reached into his pocket, and — OF COURSE — pulled out the six of clubs.
We asked Morgan, a native Charlottean who graduated from J.M. Robinson High in Concord and UNC Charlotte, what being chief illusionist meant. Did he help design the place? Would he be at the museum all the time? The answer to both questions was no.
“I’m a full time performer, so I travel all over the country performing,” Morgan said. But “we’re kind of talking about how we can work together (more) ... so we’ll definitely see.”
All I can say is if the museum can afford to pay him to be there all the time, it should absolutely do it. He’s “America’s Got Talent”-level good. We told him his tricks were the most impressive illusions we’d seen that morning.
“This? Oh,” he said, laughing, as he looked over his shoulder. “Don’t say that out loud. ...”
4. The finishing touches
Jason Harper, morning anchor at Queen City News, kicked off his opening remarks as emcee of the ribbon-cutting event by saying the Museum of Illusions staff in Charlotte was “probably not sleeping in the last two weeks preparing,” and noting that “all the construction crews ... have been working to get everything painted and hung on the wall just right.”
And it was clear at the time that there was still more work to be done.
Perhaps most notably, The Infinity Room — which arranges an array of mirrors in such a way that there appear to be clones of you multiplying off into infinite space — was taped off and shuttered. Apparently, there was a delay in getting some of the mirrors, which in this case obviously are pretty important to the finished product.
In addition, at least a few exhibit names and descriptions were missing. One of them was for The Vortex Tunnel, which also was at the time waiting on a very large safety warning sign to be posted.
It’ll say something along the lines of: “Any persons with any medical conditions such as back or neck problems, heart problems, recent surgery, or women who are pregnant should not enter the Vortex. No food or drinks.”
I’d add this, also for women: Don’t go through if you’re wearing high heels!
A few other quick things worth noting:
- According to Benjamin, the company CEO, Charlotte’s 6,300-square-foot location is the largest of the American museums. He said in his remarks on Tuesday that the Museum of Illusions has signed a lease “for at least 10 years.”
- Press materials have repeatedly referred to the new attraction as “the first new museum Charlotte has seen in over a decade.” This is technically true. It’s the first to open since the Mint Museum Uptown opened in October 2010. One key difference worth noting, though, is that the Mint — and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, which opened in January 2010 — are publicly funded, nonprofit institutions. The Museum of Illusions is a private museum, and the concept has clearly been quite profitable.
- The museum will be open from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $24 for ages 13 and older, $22 for seniors ages 60 and older, and $20 for ages 5-12. Children 4 and younger are free. The museum has no designated parking. Guests will have to pay to park in the Ally Center’s garage, or in lots or metered spots nearby. More details: moicharlotte.com.
This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
