Felix Wong, a second-year mathematics of computation student, shows a card. Several iterations prove that he can find the card anywhere in the deck.
But the deck was, in fact, a deceptive piece of glass, and there was only one card to find.
On Wednesday, the Magic and Illusion Student Team, also known as MIST, will hold “An Evening of Magic,” a showcase for its members’ tricks which will involve decks of cards, mesmerism and a giant card version of three-card monte, the confidence game where a mark picks from one of three cards and rearranges them so that the player can’t tell which is which.
While the group has performed at events for other campus communities before, this is the first time it has hosted an event specifically dedicated to its organization and magic. After touring Taiwan with his magic, UCLA medical student and former MIST president Jason Chang co-founded the club as an undergraduate at UCLA in 2011.
Current MIST president and fourth-year civil engineering student Sam Zabb-Parmley joined the team after meeting Chang in their dorm when he was a freshman.
Zabb-Parmley said he credits his magic skills for some of his successes in his professional life – confident, public presentation and a smooth speaking voice are a key part of successful trickery.
“I was actually petrified of public speaking,” Zabb-Parmley said. “Magic brought me out of my shell.”
Zabb-Parmley said this year, MIST has 10 members, eight of whom will be performing at the event. Next year, he said the group hopes to hold further events.
“It’s a chance to show what we’ve learned throughout the year,” Zabb-Parmley said.
MIST has members of all skill levels, Zabb-Parmley said. Third-year neuroscience student Ada Yu, who will be performing for the first time this year, only started learning magic last year.
“I’m not practicing hardcore magic,” Yu said. “I love talking to the other magicians, and giving critiques.”
On Wednesday, Zabb-Parmley plans on swallowing needles – and while he said he wouldn’t reveal the exact nature of the trick, he implied the potential danger of accidentally swallowing a needle. He said the group keeps to the old illusionist tradition of not revealing its tricks.
First-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student Johnny Dang said that a good magic trick plays on the viewer’s expectations.
“When you see magic it makes you rethink and re-see the world in different ways,” Dang said.
Third-year economics and psychology student Mike Li, who will host the event and helped organize the acts for “An Evening of Magic,” said he believes that the difference between magic and other performing arts is that magic is focused on mystery – the internal gasp when the performer reveals his or her tricks.
“I don’t think people are exposed to magic as a performance art,” Li said. “Because it’s a live theater performance … it’s transient in a way that’s valuable to the campus community.”