Abracadabra! I just turned an ace into king

GURGAON: Nine-year-old Lakshay Gupta, a student of DPS Gurgaon, could not hide his excitement when he successfully turned an ace into a king, in a trice. For some kids in Gurgaon, magic was the dominant theme for the weekend, as popular magician Mandy visited Ambience Mall and conducted a small workshop on magic. “I love watching card tricks but never imagined that doing one myself would be more fun,” said Gupta, while rehearsing for his next.
Mandy, who worked as an art director for an advertisement firm based in Gurgaon before turning a full-time magician for a kids’ TV channel, reminisced his first tryst with magic as he “learned from pocket books sold at railway stations because there was no formal school for someone who wanted to be a magician”.
Mandy works with children all the time and therefore has to work carefully on his communication skills, because unlike adults, children react to everything in a very unpredictable manner, and it’s more difficult to retain their attention for a long time.
“No matter how good a magician you are, with children, you have to be very relevant as they appreciate things that they can see and touch in their immediate surroundings. For example, it won’t excite them much if I make Parliament disappear, but if I can flip a coin that they are holding tight in their palms, they’ll be exhilarated,” said Mandy.
The children proved to be challenging as they watched him carefully and even questioned some of his tricks. Vrinda Dhingra, 9, a student of Shikshantar, who seemed well-versed with her magic kit, checked Mandy’s equipment as she doubted that the material he used was designed for magic.
“He pulled a stretched rubber band over another, and it looked as if the band turned transparent for a while. I thought he used some special material, so I asked him to try the stunt on me,” said Dhingra, who seemed satisfied after she herself checked both the bands.
Abhyut Agarwal, 9, who aspires to be a magician, watches magic shows on TV that decode tricks for beginners to start learning on their own.
“My father enrolled me in a magic class during my summer holidays last year and that’s where I learned the basics. As soon as I got back to school, I performed some of the tricks in class. Everyone from my classmates to teachers, and even the school principal, loved it and encouraged me to learn magic professionally,” said Abhyut, who can work with cards, sticks, and a number of other small items. “Learning a trick is simple, but the challenge is to engross your audience with your gestures and speech so that they don’t notice the details while you perform,” added Agarwal.