Meet the Wagsters
Meet Brandon and Hannah Wagster, the husband-and-wife team working to make Williamsburg magical. Together, they own the Wagsters Magic Theatre — Williamsburg’s one and only magic venue on Olde Town Road — that has captivated thousands since it opened in June 2022. Continue reading to learn about the Wagsters’ journey to magic, Williamsburg, and each other.
Brandon and Hannah Wagster are a dynamic duo, both on stage and behind the scenes. Together they own the Wagsters Magic Theatre in Williamsburg, VA., just a few minutes off Richmond Road. Since they opened their 67-seat theater in June 2022, over 7,500 guests have walked through their doors.
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Opening the theater was a dream 25 years in the making, set in motion the morning Brandon received his first magic kit at the age of six.
“That kind of sent everything spiraling — in a good way,” Brandon explained.
Brandon grew up drawing pictures of what he wanted his future theater to look like, bought equipment with the money he made doing commercials here and there, and, by age 11, had performed in his first birthday show.
Hannah, on the other hand, hated magic growing up because of a show gone wrong. However, all it took to change this aversion forever was “a cute magician.”
“If I could look back at young me and be like, ‘You’re going to be a professional magician one day,’ I would sincerely laugh,” Hannah said. “I would have never thought I’d be onstage, and I hated magic . . . But it’s been the best thing ever.”
Hannah recalled that before she and Brandon started dating, she would often see Brandon performing at parties, but since she wasn’t a magic fan, she would go outside to avoid the show. Later on, Hannah’s best friend fell in love with Brandon and dragged Hannah along to his shows. Hannah remembered talking to him after one show and him snubbing her. While Hannah’s friend and Brandon didn’t work out, Brandon and Hannah did.
“It’s okay, I still chased you down,” Hannah teased her husband. “It worked, obviously, because. . . November will be 14 years.” The couple also recently celebrated ten years of marriage, renewing their vows in front of Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios.
Two months after they started dating, Brandon fired his two assistants. Hannah, seeing performing with him as a way to spend more time together, begged to be his new assistant. Brandon, on the other hand, initially refused, fearing that it would be a recipe for disaster if they ever broke up (which, as Hannah recalls, they did at one point — for six months — but they performed through it, reconciled, and grew stronger than before).
Brandon and Hannah estimate that they have performed anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 shows together since Hannah first became Brandon’s assistant in March 2010.
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The weekend after Hannah graduated high school, they moved together to Myrtle Beach, S.C. to perform together, and they were there for almost ten years until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. March 16th, 2020 was their last performance at The Carolina Opry, where they’d worked for almost six years.
“I looked at her, and I still don’t know why I said it, but I just came off stage and looked at her and said, ‘I think that was the last time we’re ever going to perform on this stage,’” Brandon recalled.
The next day, they were notified that the city was shutting down and that their show was canceled, a blessing in disguise — the lockdown gave them the time to consider the next chapter in their lives. After an eight-hour-long Zoom call with friends who owned a theater, Hannah and Brandon decided to sell their house and open their own.
Brandon recalled that before the Zoom call, he had been watching “The Imagineering Story,” a documentary series detailing the journey of Walt Disney, one of his biggest heroes.
“They talked about how Walt sold one of his homes to get the park open,” Brandon explained. “He cashed out life insurance policies. He borrowed money. He sold stock in it to employees. He did everything he could to get this park open. And with that kind of lingering in my mind, I looked at Hannah. I knew what our house was going to sell for . . . I was like, we could do this.”
The Wagsters originally planned to open their theater in Myrtle Beach and were getting ready to sign a lease on a building when Brandon got a gut feeling that something was wrong. They pulled out of the deal at the last minute.
“It felt like everything went up in flames,” Hannah recalled. At that point, they had already sold their house and were living in a detached garage without heating or air conditioning, and they were working odd jobs to make ends meet. Hannah recalled working as a nanny, barista, baker, and travel agent during that time.
They knew that these odd jobs were not what they were meant to be doing, so they desperately reached out to a friend who suggested they try working at Busch Gardens. They automatically assumed she was talking about Busch Gardens Tampa, but they didn’t want to go back to Florida, they said. They’d spent enough time there performing after the shutdowns ended.
“Busch Gardens Williamsburg,” their friend replied.
“Where’s that?” Hannah asked.
The Wagsters decided to give Williamsburg, Va. a shot. After some research, they realized Williamsburg not only was a tourist town with plenty to do but also had no live theater competition. They decided to check out the area, and as soon as they arrived, they fell in love with the town and the community and decided to move to Williamsburg. None of the buildings they had scouted would work as a theater, so they decided they’d search for a building when they went back to South Carolina.
Before they went home, though, Brandon made one last ditch effort — googling old church buildings in the area. They found one and met with the owner, who asked them what they wanted to do with it.
“We told her, we want to open a magic theater,” Brandon recalled. “And she gave us the same look and response that almost everybody did at first: ‘Huh…that’s interesting.’”
She told the Wagsters that she would ask around and see if people thought a magic theater would be a good fit for the area.
“She told us that she talked to a lot of people, and they said, ‘Yes,’” Hannah recalled. “She just told us last week that every single person told her she was crazy, and we’re like, ‘You did not tell us that.’”
But she wanted to give them a chance.
“She said when she and her husband were really young, if there hadn’t been someone who had given them a chance, they would have never done what they did, and so she was like, ‘I just wanted to return the favor,’” Hannah explained. “We’re extremely grateful to our landlady because if it hadn’t been for her, we would not be here.”
The timing was almost magical. The day they booked their Airbnb to visit Williamsburg for the first time was the same day the church had handed in the keys to the building that is now their theater. And the day they moved to Williamsburg — March 16th — was the same day their non-compete agreement in Myrtle Beach expired. 316 also happens to be their apartment number.
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Despite finding the perfect building, their journey was far from over. The Wagsters recall working 80 hours a week for three months while preparing for their opening, all the while living in the theater because they couldn’t find an apartment. Because the building didn’t have full bathrooms, they had to shower at the YMCA, which was a humbling experience. When they finally opened, they immediately launched into a rigorous schedule of shows six days a week.
“It was a chaotic season of our life,” Hannah recalled. “I don't think we could do it again now because I don’t have the energy for it. But it was worth it to get where we are.”
“That was a time where we were not growing closer together,” Brandon laughed.
Once they got into their flow and opened the doors on June 17th, 2022, they knew they were where they needed to be.
“Our first show here was super emotional,” Hannah said. “I cried my makeup off like seven times.”
Brandon recalled thinking, “We did it. We made it.”
Not only was Brandon finally where he wanted to be, but so was Hannah.
“While [a magic theater] wasn’t my dream originally, it merged, and it became my dream too,” Hannah said. “But just getting to watch [Brandon] step into the role that he’s always wanted to have has just been a really cool experience.”
And no two shows are the same.
“[People] ask us, how often do you change the show?” Brandon said. “And, you know, it’s never going to be the same show because you never know what somebody is going to say, what they’re going to do, what comment’s going to happen.”
This unpredictability can lead to distracting and, sometimes, even shocking responses from the audience.
“I hand the balloon [to the boy], and I was like, ‘Ever seen a clown take these balloons and make them into animals? Cool, go find a clown,’” Brandon said. “I hand the kid the balloon, and he looks out into the audience and goes ‘Dad?’”
In addition to the spontaneity, the small, intimate size of the performance space keeps them on their toes. According to Hannah, downsizing has been the “hardest transition” for them — they were accustomed to a 1,600-seat theater where people were too far away to interact with.
“We can hear every single thing that people do, whether or not they realize it,” she said, something which can be distracting and make it more difficult for them to remember their lines.
But being able to more closely interact with a smaller audience is worth it in the end because, as Brandon said, “most people only ever get to see these big illusions from really far away.”
Though performing together has brought them closer, it can also be stressful at times, especially when things go wrong during a live performance.
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“Working backstage is stressful,” Brandon explained. “In live entertainment, there are a hundred different things that can go wrong at any given moment. Then you put a magic trick into it, and a thousand things can go wrong at any given moment.”
“There was one night where I knocked [Brandon] off the box, [then] I fell off the box,” Hannah recalled.
Hannah once even twisted her ankle but kept going as if nothing had happened, and the audience, like usual, was none the wiser.
“It was one of those things where Brandon and I were still covering the trick because even when something goes wrong, we’re still trying to protect the magic,” Hannah explained.
Although they love performing, it can be draining, both physically and mentally, especially for Hannah, who, unlike Brandon, is an introvert.
“Hannah Lynne on stage and Hannah Wagster off-stage are two very different people. I love them both,” Brandon said.
“We are at a point in our relationship, and honestly, have been for a long time, where we can separate the ‘performing couple us’ versus ‘offstage us,’” Hannah said. “We can be fighting offstage about something trivial, but then we get onstage, and you would never know that because we know our roles, and we would never sabotage the magic.”
The worst fights they get in tend to be over new illusions, which Hannah joked is a good sign for their relationship.
“I want a certain song; she doesn’t,” Brandon explained. “I want her to do this choreography. She wants me to wear that. I want to say this joke. She doesn’t think I should say that joke.”
The Wagsters are constantly updating their magic to keep it fresh and alive — they see stagnation as artistic death.
“We outgrow our magic because we create it in a younger mindset and creative space, and we just age out of it,” Hannah explained. “It just doesn’t perform the same way.”
For the Wagsters, a show is more than just that— it’s a chance to take their audience on a journey.
“I want [people] to let go of their problems from the moment that curtain opens to the moment it closes,” Brandon said. “I want them to forget about their life. I want them to shut off their phone. Disconnect from technology. Enter into our world for a little bit.”
For one hour, the Wagsters’ audience can do just that: enter a world of magic and wonder, where anything is possible. Brandon, though, wants that feeling to last longer than the fall of the curtain.
“I want them to hear our story on stage and leave knowing that that crazy dream or hope that they have for their life, that they can do that too, that it’s not unreachable, it’s not unattainable,” Brandon said.
With that being said, they feel it’s important to recognize the sacrifice needed to make that “crazy dream” a reality.
“I don’t think people realize the sacrifice that goes with it sometimes,” Hannah said. “It’s hard, but you have to make those sacrifices now so that you can reap the rewards later. Sometimes, you gotta push through tough seasons.”
Sacrifice wasn’t only driving an old car and foregoing expensive vacations and new clothes, Brandon explained.
“For Hannah and I, [sacrifice] was eating ramen noodles, hot dogs, rice and beans, living in a garage apartment, living here in the theater, selling our house, walking away from our glamorous jobs to do what we had to do.”
For them, though, it has been worth it.
“You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice a little bit,” Brandon said. “And how long?”
“That’s up to you,” Hannah answered. “How bad do you want your dream?”
The Wagsters’ dream took years to become a reality, but now, they’re where they want to be. Their theater was recently nominated for six categories in Coastal Virginia Magazine’s “Best of Readers’ Choice Awards”: Best Nightlife, Best Performing Arts Venue, Best New Business, Best Family Friendly Attraction/Activity, Best Local Attraction, and Best Place to Take Out-of-Towners. Their newest show, “Finding Magic,” which launched March 3, 2023, is bigger and better than ever after a $20,000 upgrade in illusions, lighting, and tech equipment.
Book your tickets to the Wagsters Magic Theatre and experience the Wagsters’ magic for yourself.
COURTESY IMAGE // THE WAGSTERS
