Free Magic Secrets Revealed. Mark Leiren-Young

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Free Magic Secrets Revealed - Mark Leiren-Young

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phrased it like a question, so I said, “Yeah”—but now I was getting nervous.

      “And you were in Kendini’s class,” said Randy. “You know magic.”

      “Well, I haven’t practised since we were kids, except for some escapes but …”

      Randy and Kyle exchanged smiles, then Randy grinned like a game show host. “Wanna be a star?”

      Before I could answer, Kyle chimed in again. “He’ll look great with the beard.”

      “Get up here,” said Randy. “You’ve got lines to learn.”

      It never crossed my mind to do anything besides what I did next—jump onstage. I only had one question. I asked Kyle when Randy went outside to get Lisa. What did a magic show about a demon dimension have to do with the Jewish Community Centre?

      “Randy’s dad works here. As long as no one else has it booked we get the place for free.”

      By the time Lisa was back from her smoke break I had Barry’s goatee glued to my chin.

      I soon discovered that I had to wear a helmet, too. And so did the grade eight kid, Marvin.

      Although everyone remembers Houdini for his underwater escapes and handcuff challenges, the trick that first made him famous was “The Metamorphosis,” which was his classic escape. It’s pretty much the classic escape—and the prototype for almost everything every magician has miraculously escaped from ever since. Houdini was chained, stuffed into a sack and thrown into a crate. His assistant—originally his wife, Beth, would stand over the crate, lift a curtain and one, two, three …

      When the curtain fell Houdini was there, posing triumphantly on the box.

      Magic.

      Then Houdini would undo all the locks and open the crate to reveal that Beth was inside, now wearing the same shackles the master escape artist had miraculously shed.

      Randy couldn’t afford to buy the box—it would have cost thousands of dollars from a big US magic shop—and he wasn’t sure he could build one, but he’d figured out a way to perform his own Metamorphosis. Instead of a crate he’d use a helmet. Oryon would summon another powerful good wizard, or demigod, or spirit, or benevolent all-powerful mystic creature to help in the battle against Santar and, in order to conjure this ally, he would need Zephyr’s help. Marvin/Zephyr would put on a helmet that covered his head and Randy/Oryon would circle around him, holding his mother’s purple silk bedsheet. Zephyr would take one end of the sheet. The other would be held by Oryon until it was passed to Norman—who had no secret identity and was holding it offstage. As soon as Norman had his end of the bedsheet, Adoma (that would be me) crawled as quickly as possible onstage and slipped under the helmet Zephyr was holding. Then Zephyr crawled offstage—hidden by the sheet—and Randy wrapped the sheet around me, although the audience assumed he was wrapping Zephyr/Marvin.

      Magicians aren’t supposed to share their secrets, even under threat of death, so I wouldn’t normally reveal the tricks to a magic trick, but I doubt there are a lot of magicians building their careers around an illusion that requires their mom’s bedsheet.

      After I was in place, Oryon would do his mystic summoning ritual and Zephyr would slowly, ever so slowly, begin to grow. Marvin was a shade over 4'. I was almost 6'2". That’s why Kyle was so excited about my height. While Oryon was still gawking at his minion’s transformation, I’d start to laugh—a maniacal evil villain cackle—then throw off my helmet to reveal …

      “Adoma!” Oryon would shout. “How did you breach my mystical defences? What have you done to Zephyr?”

      It sounded cheesy and obvious and when I rehearsed it, it felt cheesy and obvious. I definitely got how this would have cracked Barry up. It made me want to laugh, too, and I wasn’t stoned. But by dress rehearsal, Marvin and I managed to get the switch down to a few seconds. Even Kyle was impressed. Randy had figured out how to do the Metamorphosis—a legendary transformation—with a borrowed bedsheet and a toy helmet he’d liberated from the JCC daycare.

      Once I appeared, I delivered my message from Santar in quasi-olde English telling Oryon he was doomed and would never rescue Gamatria. Then, as I screamed, “Prepare to d …” Oryon would zap me with a mystic whammy and I’d wander offstage like a zombie. Very cool. After Zephyr and I conquered our transformation, it was time for Randy to rehearse the big finale.

      Oryon was finally, finally, leaning over to kiss Gamatria when Lisa pulled away. “Why do I have to kiss you?”

      “Because it’s in the script. Oryon just rescued you and …” Randy looked like he was drowning.

      “I know it’s in the script,” said Lisa, “but it doesn’t make sense. I mean, she’s Santar’s disciple, right? He’s been brainwashing her for, like, years. So why would she suddenly be all over Oryon? Wouldn’t she think he was the villain?”

      “But she was supposed to be Oryon’s disciple and Santar kidnapped her and …” Randy pleaded, almost whined, “they’re soulmates.”

      Lisa wasn’t sold. “I think she’d be afraid of him. Mark, you’re a writer. Do you think it makes sense?”

      It was the first time Lisa had really spoken to me. And she wasn’t just acknowledging me, she knew I was a writer. We’d been in a few classes together, but I didn’t think she’d ever noticed me. My zombie trance shattered. I looked over at her and tried to focus on her eyes and not her low-cut top.

      “Well, Oryon does rescue her,” I said.

      “Exactly,” said Randy. “See, Oryon rescues her.”

      “But Gamatria still wouldn’t trust him,” I continued. “It might be more powerful if Oryon is desperately in love with her but …” I grinned, I really liked this next idea. “She doesn’t remember him. Like a mystic amnesia spell.”

      “That’s cool,” said Lisa. “I like that.”

      “Me too,” said Kyle. “It’s way more powerful.”

      I couldn’t believe the girl in the harem outfit was excited about my ideas. “You know what might be really cool? If Gamatria made out with Santar and Oryon had to watch—so you’d see his heart breaking. Then he’d really want to kill Santar.”

      “I like that,” said Lisa. “That’s nasty.”

      “Yeah,” said Kyle. “That has layers to it.”

      “No,” said Randy with surprising intensity. “It’s too late to make changes.”

      “Well, I’m not kissing Oryon,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

      “Let’s just try it once,” suggested Randy. “I mean, Oryon is rescuing you.”

      “But she thinks he’s kidnapping her,” I said. “Wouldn’t she try to kill him?”

      If Randy had any real magic powers he would have made the rest of us disappear while he rehearsed his big love scene with Lisa.

      Instead, Norman interrupted. “We’ve got to get back to it. They’re kicking us out at ten.”

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