David Kwong was a teenager when he first met The New York Times crossword puzzle creator Will Shortz and determined to perfect the art. At Harvard, after watching one lecture by the master magician Ricky Jay, Kwong changed his major to the history of magic. Those formative influences blended and stuck: his trademark as a performance artist is a seamless mingling of sleight-of-hand and puzzle creation—all of it overlaid with charming, erudite storytelling that makes audience members feel smart even as they are dumbstruck by his illusions. Kwong’s one-man show, The Enigmatist, sold out a year-long run in New York City in 2019. It reappears this fall for its West Coast premiere. —Alessandra Stanley

Tickets go on sale June 2 to Geffen Playhouse subscribers and August 10 to the general public