Helder Guimarães

SLEIGHT-OF-HAND MAGICIAN, STORYTELLER & LOVER OF IMPOSSIBLE THINGS

About

Born in Porto, Helder Guimarães’ work sits at the intersection of magic, theater, human psychology, and storytelling. His practice moves between stage, studio, and private settings with a motto: always protecting the mystery, never rushing it.

At the age of 23, he was crowned World Champion of Card Magic, the youngest person ever to receive that title and the only Portuguese to feature in the list of title winners. Since then, he has travelled the world with his unique performance-style.

Helder’s has been called “A Master of Illusions” by the New York Times and “remarkably sincere and trustworthy for a man committed to deception” by the Los Angeles Times. He has been nominated for the LA Drama Critics Circle Awards and won a Webby for Best Narrative Experience.

Between his immersive experiences, online performances, and theatre shows, he offers creative consulting for a variety of projects. For example, Helder personally trained Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett for their roles on Ocean’s 8, teaching them about perception, cons, and pickpocketing techniques.

Now, you can be one of his 25 guests at our working studio.

I never imagined creating a theatre.
What I needed was a place to think.

For many years, magic has been my way of asking questions: about memory, about perception, about the stories we tell ourselves in order to understand the world. Most of that work happens quietly, away from the stage, surrounded by books, notes, unfinished ideas, and long moments of doubt.

Time for Magic began as a working studio: a space where new pieces could be explored without urgency, where history could be studied, and where the fragile line between reality and imagination could be observed closely.

At some point, it felt natural to open the doors. Not every day, and not too many people. just enough to share what happens here when stories meet human presence, attention, and curiosity.

The evenings you experience are not meant to be perfect performances. They are living moments, shaped by attention, by conversation, and by the energy of those who sit within arm’s reach.

If you are here, you are not simply watching. You are part of the process. Thank you for stepping into this space with curiosity and care.