NYC’s pop-up comedy show Underground Overground Comedy has a sibling: The show’s creators, Ethan Mansoor and David Levine, also launched Underground Overground Magic in November 2025, an experience where guests head to places like a scuba shop, an abandoned barbeque restaurant, or Zabar’s to see some magic.
“For a lot of our comedy shows’ after-parties, we’ve had magicians come perform, and over time we realized, ‘We’ve gotta do something bigger with them,’” Mansoor told People magazine about their expansion.
Levine added that they “realized there are not many magic shows happening in New York City” (a perspective that may seem surprising to Genii readers) and that after they saw people responding to close-up magic at their after-parties, knew that there was excitement around the art form. That, combined with their desire “to use magic to take advantage of more cool, unique locations we love that comedy may not work as well in,” caused the duo to create the magic (and sword swallowing)-only experience.
Both shows appear to be going strong. “I see a big future ahead as we expand into magic, digital, and different cities,” Levine said. “I still don’t know what’s going to happen in five years, but I believe that if we keep putting our heads down and making small progress every day, good things will come.”
Images courtesy of Mike Monti