With the help of an assistant, David Seebach performs one of his magical acts for his show, “Illusions in the Night.” This is the 12th year Seebach has performed at the historic Modjeska Theater in Milwaukee.

Within the walls of the historic Modjeska Theater, audiences may not be rolling in the aisles, but their heads might be.

At least, on the stage.

For the 12th year, illusionist and magician David Seebach brings "Illusions in the Night" to the Modjeska to amaze audiences and bring them to a new level of spectacular acts in a dazzling Halloween show.

Seebach’s acts are not "pick a card, any card." There is a human cannonball act, the guillotine and pyrotechnics. Amidst the backdrop of an old cemetery, watch an innocent assistant get burned alive ... or is she?

"This is a different sort of show," Seebach said. "We find we can do acts in this show you can’t do other times of the year. We go back to the ‘30s when the phenomenon of ghost shows or spook shows - midnight attractions in movie theaters - were popular. Magicians usually put them together and the audiences loved them."

These old "spook shows" were usually comprised of some comedy and magic acts with a "spooky motif," Seebach explained. The climax of the show was a blackout where lights were extinguished and anything could happen. This form of theater lasted for about 30 years, Seebach explained, and then faded away.

The owner of the Modjeska was a professor of Seebach’s at the School of Fine Arts at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He contacted Seebach, originally for a Christmas show, but ended up with a Halloween show.

"It’s scarier and I have loftier goals," Seebach said of the show. "My approach to the fine arts is of a high caliber. I put the blackout in my show, but even though they were gone and forgotten, I did my research. We read books and learned about it and tried it, and I never thought it would last, but this is our 12th year."

Seebach said that "Illusions in the Night" is the single most elaborate show he and his team put on every year. The nicest comments he said he gets is when people say "I didn’t have any idea there was anything like this in Milwaukee."

When it comes to music, performing, scenic elements and the acts themselves, Seebach said he is very particular to put together a well-constructed show.

"We change it every year to the extent that we’re able," Seebach said. "There are certain acts people want to see again and again ... and (others) we do a couple years in a row and then bring them back."

The audience favorites are the "crematorium" act, the levitation and the guillotine.

"Some acts we create just for the show, do them one year and they’ll never be seen again," Seebach said.

As an added bonus, the Halloween show will include a special surprise for the audience - Seebach will be giving away a dead body.

"It’s 100 percent real and 100 percent dead, and it’s free. People can do with it what they want," Seebach chuckled.

The best part of the show is the audiences’s reactions, Seebach said, and the moments "where they’re so shocked they forget to applaud initially" or the laughter and when things happen in the show "that make everyone jump."

"That’s when we know we’ve done something right in the show," Seebach said. "But I love the blackout. I describe it as a roller coaster, especially when the ghosts appear and you know some of the screams are genuine."

The Modjeska Theater itself adds to the element of the show since it’s in the National Directory of Haunted Places. Seebach noted that if the show was held somewhere more modern, it might lose a bit of its character. But the "cavernous, crumbling building" are advantages for "Illusions in the Night."

The show is appropriate for children, Seebach added, if they can sit through a show of its length. It’s not blood and gore, but just because it says magic doesn’t mean it was created for kids, he said. This magic will thrill audiences of all ages.

"Illusions in the night take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31 (with a special Halloween surprise act), 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Modjeska Theater, 1134 W. Mitchell St., Milwaukee.

For more information, call (414) 299-0021. To order tickets, call (414) 645-0700.