The illustrious copper ceiling beckons in all odd angles, as if trying to give the small audience below a welcoming hug. Suspended above their heads, like heavenly bodies, are soft glowing lamps that cast a shy light that slinks its way over the fat cushions and low tables. Shielded from the garish aroma, noise and bustle of San Francisco, you forget you’re in the city at all.

Named after an ancient imperial city, the Marrakech Magic Theater lays claim to the title of first Moroccan restaurant in California. It’s here that the magician of Marrakech begins to circulate among the tables, transforming cards before ones eyes, melting small coins into a single large disc, and de-materializing objects in one hand only to re-materialize them in another.

Brentwood’s Peter Morrison, now starring at the Marrakech, began performing magic by the age of 6. “My babysitter Gabriel would come over and perform tricks for me,” said Morrison. “It always fascinated me, and I continued to learn how to perform these tricks.”

When he was 8, Morrison saw magician Doug Henning perform at the Curran Theater. The show made a lasting impression on the young Morrison, and with the encouragement of his parents, he was soon performing shows in his backyard. By the age of 11, he landed his first paying show at the Lafayette Rotary Club.

However, the Marrakech Magic Theater is what Morrison always wanted. While his successful career has settled him in Brentwood, Morrison is anything but satisfied, and always ready to improve. “The advantages of having your venue are great,” he said. “You no longer just become a guy who performs at company parties; you are a guy who is a headliner in San Francisco.

“Magic is the art form that releases the inner child of people,” said Morrison. “Since people associate magic acts with kids, they also associate their childhood memories with the acts.”

While his repertoire of deception and sleight of hand is extensive, Morrison claims he’s an “honest magician” with a mischievous grin as he makes coins pop out of him like a vending machine.

“Tricks really have nothing to do with it. It is about entertainment,” he said. “Jean Robert-Houdin once said that a magician is merely playing the role of an actor who does impossible things.

“I think that people sometimes forget how entertaining magic can be. The tricks are very secondary, and my act really has little to do with them, and more about entertaining the audience.”

At the Marrakech, the audience is ushered into a small, 38-seat room that’s illuminated by lights that dance on the wall like fireflies. As the lights disappear, Morrison emerges from behind a red curtain and proceeds to defy the laws of gravity, physics and common sense. Cards float, recorded voices predict the future, and rings meld together as if they were made out of liquid silver. That last trick, the Chinese Rings, is a reference to Doug Henning, and Morrison explained to the audience that it was the one trick he most vividly remembers.

However, Morrison rarely uses the word “trick.” Instead, he populates his shows with “mysteries,” a fitting term as audiences leave both exhilarated and scratching their heads.

Rebecca Hummel-Moore brought brother and sister Dashiell and Fay Winer to a recent show. “We were discussing the tricks after the show and puzzling over how he could have done all those tricks!” Hummel-Moore said, adding that the intimacy and small audience intensified the experience. “For the magic tricks Peter is performing, you can really see and experience everything, and for those skeptics in the audience, we are all keeping a close eye on his hands and wrists … We all felt we were participating and sharing in something magical.”

The Marrakech Magic Theater is located on 419 O’Farrell St. in San Francisco. Morrison performs every Friday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 6:30 p.m. To contact him, call 877-624-4264.