Inside Mag Mile's upscale magic theater The Hand & The Eye

A high-end magic theater — a $50 million passion project from entrepreneur Glen Tullman — will open in Streeterville on Saturday.

The Hand & The Eye requires visitors to shell out at least $225 and don their finest threads for a three-hour experience at the 35,000-square-foot McCormick Mansion, 100 E. Ontario St.

There’s no main stage or audience at The Hand & The Eye, Tullman said. Instead, it’s a series of experiences that include entering secret passageways and viewing intimate performances by highly-skilled magicians.

“There are big theaters that you can go to and see magic performed,” he said. “That's not what this is about. You're a part of the magic. You're experiencing it yourself. It's happening to you in your hands and around you.”

Tullman doesn’t think another venue like his exists in the world, in terms of size and scope. He said the closest experience is possibly the Magic Castle, the Los Angeles magician's club where guests must be invited or accompanied by a member.

The McCormick Mansion, decorated with a 1920s flair, is completely bejeweled, with each room displaying different wallpapers and designs. Velvet and gold accents are as plentiful as the secret passageways.

There's five performance spaces, two dining rooms and seven bars, along with a strict cocktail attire dress code.

Tickets start at $225, which includes a $75 dining credit. Memberships will soon be available, with perks like access to more rooms inside the mansion.

Tullman, CEO of health tech platform Transcarent, has a long history in the health care industry and is a serial entrepreneur. He founded Livongo, a consumer digital health company that was acquired by Teledoc Health in 2020, and was one of the founders of River North-based venture capital fund 7Wire Ventures.

But another of his passions is magic. Tullman said he started practicing when he was 8 years old and considers himself an amateur magician.

“Whether I saw young people or old people, men or women, all ethnicities, everyone loved magic,” Tullman, 66, said. “And there was this sense of returning them back to this time when you had complete focus and just a sense of joy that was being created.”

He had been been looking for an “opportunity to create the best place to experience magic in the entire world,” and found the McCormick Mansion, once the long-time home of Lawry's The Prime Rib before it closed in 2020. Tullman worked with architect David Rockwell, who has designed Nobu restaurants and the Dolby Theatre, home of the Academy Awards, in Los Angeles.

Tullman said the new venture is a chance “to give back to Chicago and the world of magic.”

Bre Smith, The Hand & The Eye’s executive vice president, said about 20 to 30 magicians will perform each evening. Guest capacity will start at around 250 people, she said.

“This is really building that third home,” Smith said. “It's taking you away from work. It's taking you away from your home and coming to a place where you completely disconnect. There are very limited windows in the mansion. We don't allow photos … and you hardly see any illuminated screens.”

The venue has a magic collection, which includes items from famous magicians like Harry Houdini, as well as a retail store where guests can shop and learn their own tricks.

“Glen gave me the key and basically said, ‘Build the experience,’” Smith said.

Jim Steinmeyer, an illusionist and magic historian who has served as the president of Magic Castle, said The Hand & The Eye is "incredibly ambitious." Steinmeyer has served as a magic consultant to heavyweights like Siegfried & Roy and David Copperfield.

"Magic looks great when the audience is close to it,” Steinmeyer said. “You want to be close enough to appreciate [it], and you don't want to be looking from the back row."

Over the last decade, more magic clubs and theaters have been opening but each are very different, he said.

Steinmeyer said ultimately, the real test will be how the public responds to The Hand & The Eye and whether they want to keep coming back.

”It’s admirable that the hospitality aspect and the magic are both of a high quality,” he said. "They're trying to match the quality of the performance with the quality of the dinner, with the quality of the environment. That's ambitious and that shows a lot of respect for the public.”