There’s no marquee, no ticket window, and no stage lights spilling onto the sidewalk. Just a bookshelf, tucked below The Stanley Hotel’s carriage house, that quietly swings open to reveal one of the most unusual performance spaces in Colorado: Aiden Sinclair’s Underground.
Now in its fourth year, the 75-seat subterranean theater has transformed what began as a one-man magic show into a fully developed venue with year-round programming, an international roster of guest performers, and a reputation for offering audiences something far more immersive than a standard night of tricks.
“Magic is intended to be an escape,” said founder Aiden Sinclair. “An experience that can’t be explained. Most audiences don’t seek to be fooled, they want to be transported.”
That ethos drives everything about the Underground, from its speakeasy-inspired entrance to the storytelling-rich shows that unfold within. Upstairs, guests can grab drinks at The Post Mountain House, a fried chicken restaurant in the renovated carriage house. Drinks can be brought downstairs into the theater, but late arrivals and reentry during the show are not allowed—just one of several rules designed to protect the intimate, distraction-free environment.
For those looking for a reason to make the trip this season, summer programming runs nightly through early September, showcasing performances from some of the world’s most accomplished sleight-of-hand artists, including Nick Wallace (July 28–Aug. 9) and Siegfried Tieber (Sept. 9–20).
“The Underground isn’t birthday party magic,” said Becca Knight, owner and manager of the venue. “All of our performers are storytellers. They aren’t doing tricks for trick’s sake. There’s always a reason, and that makes the magic feel more real.”
Sinclair first brought his theatrical style of magic to The Stanley Hotel in April 2014. For several years, he staged shows wherever space allowed. That changed in 2021, when the hotel’s renovation of the carriage house allowed for the creation of a dedicated performance space.
The Underground officially opened on July 2, 2021. “It originally was just Aiden seating the guests and doing the shows,” Knight said. “We now perform seven days a week in the busy summer season, with a staff of 10 and bring in guest magicians from all around the world to perform for folks here, and provide a seance experience over in the main hotel as well.”
One of the Underground’s signature experiences is Fate and Futility, a narrative theatrical experience led by Sinclair that takes the audience on an interactive journey into the supernatural world of destiny. Blending mysterious artifacts, fortune-telling traditions, and illusions that toy with the boundary between fate and free will.
“The whole show is a kind of experiment,” Knight said. “It’s about discovering whether everyone in the room was meant to be there. And that’s the magic.”
Another anchor of the Underground’s programming is Tales & Fables: A Life in Magic, a Sunday night solo performance from resident magician Hannibal, known for his appearances at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, Calif. The autobiographical show mixes classic sleight-of-hand with personal storytelling, offering a heartfelt journey through Hannibal’s life.
When the Underground opened in 2021, it also began offering a séance experience inside the main hotel. Originally hosted by Sinclair, the event takes place in what was once F.O. Stanley’s private office, which has been transformed into a candlelit chamber for communicating with the dead. Since June 2022, the séances have been led by Hannibal, who also serves as the hotel’s Resident Apparitionist.
“It’s cool that a space that is so connected to the proprietor of the hotel is now the séance chamber, especially in a hotel that is worldwide famous for being haunted and having paranormal experiences as well as all the history that is tied along with it,” Knight said. “That space specifically has stories that still linger.”
Despite the theater’s strong creative growth, Knight noted that recent economic conditions have had a noticeable impact.
“Tourism is definitely down,” she said. “It’s not necessarily that foot traffic is down, but people aren’t spending money. Estes Park does a good job of providing studies that they’ve taken in, and they have shown hospitality seems to increase every year, even if it’s just a couple of percentages, but everybody’s really seeing the downturn in support of the arts and things that are considered frivolous spending.
Still, she believes venues like the Underground are more essential than ever. “Art is always what gets you through economic concerns,” Knight said. For those ready to be whisked away, the summer season offers plenty of reasons to step behind the bookcase. The Underground’s current guest series continues through Sept. 20 before the schedule transitions to five nights a week in the fall and weekends during the winter.
“It’s just been incredible to have this one space,” Knight said. “Most people would think that you have to gain an invitation to the Magic Castle in Hollywood, where you have to be a member to see this caliber of magic, so the fact that it’s at the top of a mountain in Colorado, with the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park, is a gift to Estes. The Underground is a very unique space to be able to see world-class magicians in a space that’s been built for magic.”
Aiden’s shows are always surprising and fantastic! We have been to several over the years and we’re wowed every time.
Becky Robbins