When Donna and Mike Guthrie started planning their 50th wedding anniversary, they didn’t want a banquet hall or a band.

They wanted magic.

So they invited 42 guests for a private performance, aiming to fill every seat at Cosmo’s Magic Theater, 1045 Garden of the Gods Road.

“We wanted a clean family show that would be equally entertaining for a 12-year-old and an 80-year-old,” said Donna. 

With his quick wit and professional patter, Cosmo Solano amazed the audience with sleight-of-hand using cards, cups and balls.

“I don’t particularly care to know how he does a trick,” Donna said. “I just like the magic of it all.”

That wide-eyed reaction is why Solano, 62, still performs. For many magicians and their audiences, magic is more than a show. It’s a craft that demands dedication and keeps curiosity alive well into later years.

THE ROAD OF WONDER

It’s also what drove Pueblo magician Ed Groves for more than 50 years, before he retired in 2022 after his 9,000th show.

Groves, known to audiences as “Mr. E,” spent decades performing at fairs and festivals, trade shows, and private events across the country. His wife, Kathy, served as his stage assistant for many of the act’s biggest illusions.

“When we started, she was supportive of me, but not so supportive of the idea that she should be a part of the show,” said  Groves, 77. 

For their first gig, they practiced for 30 days straight. Over the years, Groves sawed her in half, floated her in a water tank and performed a transformation trunk routine that ended with Kathy freed and him locked inside.

Groves' interest in magic started at age 10 when a magician invited him onstage to help with a trick. Growing up near Bozeman, Montana, he didn’t have many ways to learn, so he went to the library and checked out whatever books he could find.

“I just thought that being a magician was the coolest job in the whole world,” he said. “When you’re young, especially in those days, everything was magic.”

Even as an adult, Groves continued to build his skills the old-fashioned way, studying books on sleight-of-hand and misdirection. One of his signature illusions was the linking rings, which he learned from acclaimed magician Marian Chavez at the Chavez College of Magic in California.

“It was the go-to place for anyone wanting to be a magician,” he said.

Groves worked shows along Union Avenue in Pueblo, did table-hopping card tricks at local restaurants and booked birthday parties, sometimes three to five in a single weekend. He later expanded the act with fire breathing, sword swallowing and a lineup of characters tailored to different crowds and venues. 

“Mr. E was the main character, but we also had Ole Doc EZee, a flimflam con man who traveled the Old West selling miracle concoctions that would cure everything from ingrown toenails to baldness,” Groves said. “Another was Dr. Simon Beckett, a spiritualist who staged seances.”

PASSING THE WAND

For Groves, magic wasn’t about the trick or the big reveal. It was about the people watching and the people who brought them in.

That’s why retiring from magic wasn’t a decision he made lightly. 

“Our show was fairly large and carrying the stuff in and out…it just became too much work,” he said.

Kathy supported his decision to retire, even if the stage still calls to them now and then.

“She loved it—she would still like to be doing it,” said Groves. “We kind of joke that it’s like a disease. If we did it just once, then we’d have the bug all over again.”

With grandkids in Dallas and Pueblo, Groves isn’t in a hurry to fill the space magic left behind. Still, his legacy continues through their son, Kyle Groves, 51, a full-time magician with the Amarillo Magic Company in Texas. 

As a child, Kyle handled lights and sound for his parents’ traveling show and picked up some of his dad’s tricks and routines. 

“He learned by osmosis, as well as some magic videos,” Groves said. “I’m glad to see him doing well.”

Offstage, Groves and Kathy balanced performing with full-time jobs, plus the work of booking gigs and marketing the act. Groves later retired from the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, where trade shows were part of the job and, at times, he found ways to work in some magic.

A HOME FOR MAGIC

While Groves spent years hauling a show from place to place, Solano built a home for magic where the audience comes to him.

On show nights, Solano greets guests in the theater’s museum-like rooms before his wife, Carrie, ushers them into the venue. Once the audience is seated, Solano often asks for a show of hands from returning patrons. There are usually several.

“We have one couple who has seen our show 23 times. Apparently, they don’t have Netflix,” he joked.

Solano astonishes audiences with card tricks, a touch of mentalism and polished sleight of hand. He rotates three interactive shows each week and weaves in some magic history. Most performances skew adult, but the theater also offers a family friendly matinee on Saturday afternoons.

Having a theater has changed Solano’s experience of performing. Instead of working an event and slipping out into the night, he enjoys getting to know audience members and show regulars.

“What I like most about being a magician is the relationships we’ve been building,” Solano said. “That’s rare in this line of work. Even if you tour and perform for the public, you don’t really get to know anyone.”

LESSONS FROM LEGENDS

Solano’s love of magic started early. At 6, he performed his first trick during show-and-tell at Pueblo’s Highland Park Elementary School. By 12, he was booking paid shows, starting with a neighborhood barbecue.

“I was drawn to all types of variety entertainment, but magic specifically seemed to be something I understood immediately,” said Solano.

Seven years later, he moved to Los Angeles to study acting and theater at the Chavez College of Magic. At 21, he became a member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, an exclusive club for magicians where he met and learned from legends he grew up idolizing.

“It was mind-blowing to meet my heroes,” he said.

Solano counts Dai Vernon, known as “The Professor,” among his biggest influences.

“My dream was to someday meet him in person,” Solano said. “That would’ve been enough. But I got to spend about a decade around him at the Magic Castle.”

He also learned from David Neighbors, a Denver magician widely regarded as one of the world’s top coin magicians.

After two decades in Los Angeles and two years in Las Vegas, Solano and Carrie returned to Colorado to raise their family and open a theater of their own. 

For Solano, that’s the real magic: not just the tricks, but the familiar faces that return, ready to be amazed again. 

Watch the Magic Happen at Cosmo' Magic Theater.

1045 Garden of the Gods Road
719-800-2780
CosmosMagicTheater.com

Tickets range from $13.50 at kids' shows to $45 for a front-row experience. 

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