By Zach Jensen,
The people of Castalia had a city celebration last year, for the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic. Dubbed the “Castalia Revival,” the event featured live music, a car and tractor show, a UTV parade and more. This year’s celebration, which will be held Aug. 31, will also feature the magic and adult comedy of Nathan Tricky Allen, who once lived in Frankville.
“I briefly lived in Frankville when I was a kiddo, where my grandpa Roman Hageman was chief of their volunteer fire department for decades,” Allen said. “It must be a genetic thing, because I too like to play with fire.”
Allen, a 2002 Postville High School graduate, attended college for a short time after high school before working as a full-time performer.
“I first saw a magician at a school assembly, when I was 5-years-old and became hooked,” he said. “When I could read, I devoured every book on magic and magicians that I could get my hands on and, over the years, it became a full-blown unhealthy obsession.”
Allen began working as a professional magician for parties and town festivals around northeast Iowa when he was just 12-years-old, and he said that thankfully, his show has drastically changed since then.
“Now, it’s a comedy-magic show for adult crowds,” he said. “Back then, I was doing shows for kids’ birthdays, churches and schools. Now, I perform exclusively for adults at comedy clubs, blue-collar company parties and even biker bars. It’s a lot more fun now, but those early family-friendly shows were a great training ground, because I learned how to entertain a wide range of demographics — from preschoolers to retirement homes and from all walks of life. I think it taught me versatility as a performer, because now I can do a show for corporate CEO’s one night and a party for a motorcycle club the next and feel equally comfortable at each gig.”
Reading his name for the first time, potential fans might think “Tricky” is Allen’s stage-name or nickname, but to Allen, it became a lot more than that.
“My given name was Nathan Allen Suckow, but outside of Postville, Suckow would get mispronounced all the time, so I began performing as ‘Nathan Allen’ instead of ‘Nathan Suckow,’” he said. “The problem is, for a lot of engagements, hotel rooms are booked for entertainers by the corporate sponsor or nightclub, and they would often book it under my stage-name instead of my legal name, which meant my ID didn’t match the reservation, and I would have problems getting checked in at like midnight, in a strange town. So, I legally changed my name. And I always thought those cheesy ‘danger is my middle name’ lines in movies were funny, so I leaned into that. ‘Tricky’ is my middle name. Legally.”
Allen said his shows combine adult comedy with slight-of-hand magic, dangerous tricks, stunts, pranks as well as hilarious — and sometimes unpredictable — audience interaction, making each Nathan Tricky Allen show “one of the very few magic shows in all of America that is both geared for adults and funny.”
Allen will perform at 7 p.m. Aug. 31, during Castalia Tractor Day, on a flatbed trailer, under a tent, and he guaranteed it will be fun for all who attend.
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