A successful magic show is more than just a bag of tricks.
It also includes comedy, banter, timing, music and special effects.
Magician Adam Trent blended all of these elements Thursday night to produce an enjoyable performance for a packed house at the Savannah Center.
He peeled an orange and pulled out a $100 bill, sawed off his own legs before reattaching them, made tissue dance in mid-air and swallowed a blown-up balloon.
He called up several audience members to the stage to assist, including Terry Harris, president of The Villages Magic Club. Harris and Trent each tore up pieces of toilet paper, stuffing it in their mouths. Harris pulled the paper out of his mouth in pieces, but Trent’s came out his in a connected piece more than 50-feet long.
Close-up magic, often featuring card and coin tricks, is difficult to present on stage, but Trent used a camera to project his hands and a deck of cards on a large screen to show these effects. He also showed home movies of himself as a boy magician and the show was punctuated by music throughout, such as Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World,” controlled by a small four-button remote in Trent’s pocket.
Afterward, Trent signed copies of his CD that offers more tricks and met with members of the local magic club.
His interest in magic began at age 9 and he became a fan of magician David Copperfield.
“Seeing him made me want to do magic,” he said, adding that he later met Copperfield – an occasion he described as a “big moment for me, not a big moment for him.”
He became fascinated with close-up magic when he watched a magician perform for people waiting in line at a Six Flags amusement park.
Trent said he enjoyed performing on cruise ships for six years.
“It’s a full house, they’re drunk and ready to laugh,” he said.
He also spent two years entertaining college crowds, an experience he found awful.
“It’s the worst environment,” he said, finding his audiences too distracted and politically correct. Some responded to his toilet paper trick, for example, by telling him not to waste toilet paper.
But Trent said difficult crowds helped sharpen his performances.
“That really hardened my skin a lot,” he said.
Trent is among a half dozen magicians participating in “The Illusionists,” a show expected to open on Broadway in New York City this fall. He said he’s cut back from a peak of about 250 shows a year and about half of his performances are corporate events. After his appearance in The Villages, he immediately flew back to Los Angeles for a Friday night show.
When it’s done right, Trent said, magic causes an audience reaction that is unequaled.
“The response to magic is the most powerful that art forms can give,” he said. “It does something to the mind that’s very rare.”
