TA-DA! AND OTHER QUEER MAGIC TRICKS

For Josh Sharp, “ta-da!” is code for gay. As a twelve-year-old magician, it was his entrance line: “ta-da!” Yeah, totally gay. But growing up in the South, Sharp knew an even bigger magic trick—keeping that part of himself hidden until much later. Now, in his solo show ta-da!, he spills it all—minus the fake “I’m just chatting with you” casual vibe of bad stand-up. Instead, he wraps his story in an actual theatre piece—”that’s theatre with an -re! Off-Broadway! Greenwich House Theater!”

And what a piece it is: 80 minutes, 2,000 slides, 2,000 memorized cues. The manic format matches Sharp’s endearingly over-caffeinated brain as he ping-pongs from childhood dreams to a tête-à-tête with God, from being slightly bullied out of the closet by his mother, to his dad’s obsession with Adele, to three “minor homo attacks” courtesy of drunk white women, to his mom’s battle with cancer, to the time he misplaced 40 minutes of his life. Ending with a magic trick that either implodes or transcends—depending on your belief in quantum physics.

Sharp is pure delight. He takes the familiar coming-out arc and spins it into a three-act story structure with surprise, conflict, rising action, climax. When you’re not laughing out loud, you’ll be grinning ear to ear with sore cheeks.

Director Sam Pinkleton (Tony winner for Oh, Mary!) keeps the pace manic yet crisp and precise. The whole thing feels improvised, but every beat is nailed like clockwork. Proven by the slides following his words and/or subtext. Down the street at Soho Playhouse, Pinkleton is also directing another one-person, high-speed comedy. Oddly enough, Sharp and Morgan Bassichis are similar looking and manic. Between ta-da!, Oh, Mary!, and Can I Be Frank?, Pinkleton is basically running a pop-up comedy empire across Manhattan.

The design team matches Sharp’s energy beat for beat: co–video designer Stivo Arnoczy keeps those 2,000 slides snapping into place. (I’m assuming the other co-video designer is Sharp himself. At least he’s the one in control with the wireless remote.) Meredith Ries’s giant wall-to-wall screen is the perfect canvas; Cha See’s lighting shifts like a mood ring in a nightclub; and magic consultant Skylar Fox rescues a “failed” card trick in the finale with a flourish that leaves the audience cheering.

Bottom line: ta-da! is part stand-up, part coming-out story, part life-is-short pep talk. What do we do with the precious little time we have on Earth? I’d highly recommend spending 80 minutes with Josh Sharp. You’ll leave beaming with joy.

photos by Emilio Madrid

ta-da!
Josh Sharp
The Greenwich House Theater at 27 Barrow Street
Mon-Fri at 7; Sat at 5 & 8
ends on September 11, 2025
for tickets, visit Josh Sharp

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Gregory Fletcher is an author, theater professor, playwright, director, and stage manager. His publishing credits include a craft book on playwriting entitled Shorts and Briefs, as well as a collection entitled A Playwright’s Dozen: 13 short plays. Other publishing includes two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and five essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.