For teen magicians, no illusions

Harry Potter protégés enjoy hobby but don't buy fantasy.

The train ride from the summer magic camp was a scene straight off the Hogwarts Express. Students climbed aboard with cages full of doves and rabbits.

They tested new tricks, plucking cards out of thin air. Colourful handkerchiefs fluttered around the cabins, and a 10-foot pole appeared out of nowhere.

Natan Lefkowits, 17, of suburban Columbia, Maryland, remembered the bewildered stares of other passengers during his journey home last summer.

But they needn't have worried that wizards were invading Muggle – aka ordinary human – territory: The magic camp is in New Jersey. The tricks were merely sleights of hand.

And Natan is just a regular kid with a hobby who draws a big, fat line between the illusion of magic and flights of fantasy.

"I'm a hundred per cent sure it's all fake," he said.

The reality is that the life of a real, young magician is much more prosaic than that of Harry Potter and his wand-wielding crew.

While Harry and his friends face apocalyptic battles against the evil Lord Voldemort, Natan is content making a red foam ball disappear.

He grew up reading the Harry Potter books, and now, even as a lanky teenager, he plans to buy the sixth.

But experience has taught him there is little in the real world that cannot be explained away.

"I'm pretty sceptical," he said. "Most magicians tend to be."

On a recent afternoon, the collection of books and props that make his magic tricks possible were spread across his kitchen table.

There were topsy-turvy bottles as well as a squared circle and change bag, which are used to make things disappear.

He had a book titled Prethoughts – Mentalism and another by legendary magician Harry Houdini. There was a DVD called The Self-Levitation Video, which he dismissed as not worth the effort.

Instead, he placed a red foam ball into a visitor's hand and another into his own.

With a wave of his fingers, his red ball vanished and magically appeared in the visitor's palm next to the other ball.

Tricks of the trade

It's a simple effect, Natan said, but popular among children when he performs at birthday parties and other events. More complicated tricks can take months to perfect.

Natan became interested in magic during an after-school programme about the time he began reading the Harry Potter series and other fantasy books.

Learning magic seemed like a natural next step for a shy kid with long afternoons to fill.

Ellen Miller, who runs the Maryland chapter of the Society of Young Magicians, said it's hard to judge the effect the Harry Potter books have had on club membership.

But "certainly it hasn't hurt the general profile of magic," said Miller, who often overhears kids chatting about the series during monthly meetings.

The Maryland chapter is an offshoot of the national Society of American Magicians, which claims more than 7,000 adult members worldwide.

Natan, who joined the club about six years ago, said it helped him develop his skills. By sixth grade, he was performing at birthday parties and charging $30 (about Dh110) for half an hour.

"I get completely lost in it," he said. "I don't even think while I'm doing it."

Ezra Deutsch-Feldman, 17, of suburban Bethesda, Maryland, fell in love with magic after receiving a magic set when he was 6.

Soon he had a full-blown business that he dubbed Ezraldo: Magic 4 Kids By Kids.

Ezra formed the company after appearing at a birthday party at age 9. As Ezraldo, he sometimes wore glittery, gold suspenders and a top hat while he performed his illusions.

But the sparkly suspenders, and eventually the business, fell by the wayside once Ezra entered high school.

School woes

"School got really hard," he explained.

Such is the problem with young magicians: They grow up. Ezra once loved reading the Harry Potter books and has a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

But now he dismisses the series as a lame rip-off of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

"I'm a really cynical person. It's hard to believe there are things without a method to them," he said. "I'm a disillusioned teenager."

For Natan, many of the hours he spent practising magic tricks are now taken up by driving lessons, listening to his iPod and trying to master algebra.

It seems that for ordinary Muggles, magic loses its lustre when you don't need it to fend off an evil wizard who obliterated your family.

– Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service