Adventure Team, assemble! Our mission: to infiltrate the Magic Castle, a private Hollywood clubhouse open only to accredited magicians, wizards and their honored guests.

The Academy of Magical Arts gathers in what was once a private mansion, built in 1909. The manor is teeming with Victorian paintings, howling gargoyles, red-velvet-and-gold theaters and other accouterments fit for Harry Potter.

To enter the castle, the Adventure Team had to whisper a secret password to an owl sculpture: “Open Sesame.” Our journey though the labyrinthine halls was full of inexplicable phenomena. A piano played by Irma, the Castle’s resident ghost. Tables that spun; portraits of ancestors with moving eyes.

In the Close-Up Gallery, we sat before Jheff, a young magician who bewitched us with his sleight-of-hand. He was usually a whiz at remembering names, but ours (understandably) gave him some trouble. “Your name is what? Carmina? Ok, and Yu… how do you say it? Yoo-kee-roh. And your names are… Lemon. Ementhy. Oh Jesus.”

Jheff: “What brings you to the Magic Castle?”
Me: “We are the Undead Heavy Metal Adventure Team, and this is a stop on our epic journey!”

Next, we saw 23-year-old Nathan (winner of 22 awards) perform close-up magic in the Parlor of Prestidigitation. He wowed us by shuffling a deck with one hand, predicting our pick and pulling the card out of thin air. “And that’s just ridiculous,” he’d exclaim to the cheering audience.

Onward to M Cafe on Melrose — my stomach rumbles as I recall our macrobiotic, organic feast! (It’s one of our favorite places in LA to eat — remember these photos from last fall?) Brown rice sushi, soy lattes, eggplant and shiitake inari… heaven.

No meal at M Cafe is complete without dessert. The strawberry cupcake is amazing, and the chocolate raspberry fudgy cake… you may have to fight over it!

Are you enchanted by magic? Have you or anyone you know been inside the elusive Magic Castle in Hollywood?