By Timothy Roe, Staff Writer
Whether you believe in magic or not, the first time you see that card disappear in front of your face is a real magical moment. It’s something out of the ordinary; it flips your perception of everything normal upside-down and excites you because of it. And there are some, here at FVHS, who practice the art of magic, filling spectators with wonder through their performance.
One of those magicians is senior Andrew Cunningham, who has been practicing magic for around a year and a half since the summer of his junior year.
“I’ve always liked magic, since I was little,” said Cunningham. “And I actually didn’t know how to shuffle cards before the summer of my junior year, and that was one of the things I’ve always wanted to try, so I just kept practicing and ended up getting really good at shuffling the cards, and I was like, ‘Oh, guess it’s time to try magic.’”
There are many variations of magic tricks, and different magicians tend to favor certain types of tricks. Many, including Cunningham, perform card tricks due to their affordability and visually-flourishing appeal.
“[The trick] is usually some variation of cards or mentalism… like reading your mind, that type of stuff,” said Cunningham.
The process to finding magic tricks isn’t entirely difficult either. An Internet search can connect you to thousands of stunning, free tricks in a matter of seconds. The hard part is having the patience to understand and master them.
“If you know what you’re looking for, it’s relatively simple to find material, but it’s a lot of coordination with your hands and memorization of everything,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham even creates his own magic, finding techniques on his own and then developing tricks based on them. A true mark of mastery over card-handling, many notable magicians learn to revise basic magic tricks to fit their own unique style and create new tricks off of them. Some of those people, like renowned magician David Blaine, use their magic in front of large audiences or on the street to make a living off of. For others, magic is a more recreational art.
“I kind of have a reputation of being the guy who does the magic tricks, so a lot of people always ask to see them. I usually do it for either family members or just people at school too… but no, not usually people in the street. I prefer blowing my friends’ minds,” said Cunningham.
Instances of magic are incredible, as when a magician pulls the final string of a trick and makes the impossible possible. Sometimes, though, the audience isn’t the only one that’s amazed.
“There was one time I had someone pull a card, and I said I would guess their card. Just as a fun thing, because there’s a one out of 52 chance I would get it right. And I [guessed] a card, and it was that card. Since then, I’ve always kept the four of diamonds (it was that card) as my lucky card,” said Cunningham.
One out of 52; there’s a 1.9 percent chance of such an event happening. Perhaps true magic does exist, here at FVHS.
This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of the Baron Banner.
