It’s no illusion. The Hands On museum will be open to adults only on Friday night.

On Friday night, the Hands On Children’s Museum will be packed with special treats — experiments, crafts, cupcakes and even a magic show.

But don’t tell the kids. The mix of exploration and entertainment is open only to those 21 and older, who can enjoy iridescent cocktails while they play.

Who says fun is only for the young, right?

Not magician Rick Anderson of Tacoma, who’ll be putting on mini shows Friday night as well as strolling around doing up-close tricks.

“It’s a funny thing,” Anderson said in a phone interview. “I say I’m a magician, and people say, ‘Oh, I wish my kids were here.’ They immediately associate it with some sort of kid entertainment.”

While he does do shows for young people, Anderson mostly entertains adults. He presents adult shows with more sophisticated humor, he said, but the magic itself is pretty much the same.

“It’s all about having fun,” he said. “The tricks to me are sort of unimportant. I want to fool the heck out of people, which I do, but my whole goal is to have fun with people, getting to know them so they have a great time.”

Cocktails aside, a lot of the happenings Friday night aren’t all that different than what happens at the museum every day — when adults aren’t even allowed in unless accompanied by young ones.

Grownups will explore the museum’s black-light room, print an optical illusion, use logic and teamwork to escape from a puzzle room, experience how scents and sounds can change their mood, find out just how loud they can scream, and test their taste buds with samples of mysterious liquids in an activity called Flavor Tripping.

The Saint Martin’s University Chemistry Club will be on hand to lead experiments with non-Newtonian fluid, which can behave like a solid and like a liquid, depending on conditions.

“It’s kind of confusing and really cool,” event organizer Johanna KaLhoun said in a phone interview.

“It’s a fun party atmosphere, but there are a lot of interesting science experts there, too.”

Adult Swim nights happen four times a year and typically attract between 300 and 500 revelers, who can dance to music provided by a DJ in addition to playing in the museum — climbing, sliding, floating boats and more.

“The museum is totally open,” KaLhoun said.

And they’ll see a live rabbit pulled out of a hat.

“I used to only use the bunny rabbit for kids,” Anderson said. “Then one time I did it for grownups and they were so surprised and so amazed that now at all my adult shows I do the famous rabbit-in-the-hat trick. The grownups like it as much or more than the kids do.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 3:27 AM with the headline "It’s no illusion. The Hands On museum will be open to adults only on Friday night.."