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Adrian Banuelos creates the illusion of floating a 10-dollar bill between his hands Tuesday in the Albuquerque Magic and Juggling shop. He decided three months ago to become a professional magician, and has mastered tricks such as the disappearing cups and balls.

Defying Physics, Reality

Local magic shop deals in the impossible, amazing

Employees fan out playing cards, make burning paper disappear and levitate dollar bills. A customer screams as a dangling plastic spider is lowered onto her head by a thin wire hooked up to a pulley on the ceiling.

Hidden behind a jewelry store in Nob Hill, the Albuquerque Magic and Juggling Shop is chock-full of surprises, said manager Wayne Hicks. Owner Jery White said the appeal of magic is universal.
“Ninety-five percent of the population is interested in seeing something impossible or amazing — it’s just entertainment,” White said. “We have everyone from senior citizens to small kids, Los Alamos rocket scientists to waiters.”

Hicks said the shop mainly sells magic tricks and equipment, but prank items like fake poop and vomit and whoopee cushions attract most newcomers’ attention first. Hicks said customers inevitably become intrigued by magic, and the store employees demonstrate everything from moving cards without touching them to the most famous cups and balls tricks.

But Hicks said they never give away how a trick is done before selling it. Magician and UNM theater student Adrian Banuelos said when someone purchases a magic trick kit, he or she is purchasing the knowledge of how to do it.

“Everything that’s in a magic trick, you can put together in your house,” Banuelos said. “If I told you how it was done, you wouldn’t believe me. It involves a piece of panty hose. How do you make a card fly in the air with a piece of panty hose? That’s the thing, that’s the secret you’re buying.”

Banuelos said the appeal of magic is that it seems to defy the laws of science. He said he once completely fooled his physics teacher with a trick based on laws of atmospheric pressure.
“I love magic because it defies physics and anything logical to you, and it sparks imagination,” he said. “It makes you think really hard and I love puzzles.”

Customer Liz Castillo said she buys magic tricks to perform for her family at reunions.

“The adults are just as mesmerized as the children,” she said. “It’s always fun when you can’t figure things out. It’s my secret — you have to have some secrets. Their expressions of awe just make me smile all over.”

Banuelos said kids catch on the fastest as to how a trick is performed. He said he did a charity show at a local hospital, and one of the participants was a cancer patient who was hooked up to an IV. She was so determined to figure out the secret to one of the tricks that she grabbed onto a prop as the magician walked away and fell out of her wheelchair.

The IV was disconnected and the machine started beeping. Banuelos said the child was fine, but curiosity isn’t usually that dangerous.

White said it doesn’t affect the magician if people figure out how the tricks are done.

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“Children are the most honest,” he said. “But it’s okay — you’re not pretending to do real magic. This is just for their entertainment. They figure it out, then great. You and I are together in this. I don’t have special powers; it’s just for fun.”
Banuelos said putting on a magic show is much more about acting than rattling off tricks.

“When there’s more magic than showmanship or theater or acting, then you’re the guy showing the stuff you have in your drawer,” he said. “I’m entertaining myself, but you guys aren’t very entertained, so it has to be more showmanship than magic. That’s the hardest part. I’m still working on that.”

Student pursues professional magic career

19-year-old UNM student Adrian Banuelos decided three months ago to go into magic professionally.

He said he bought his first magic “secret” about one-and-a-half years ago at Disney World and spent six hours the same night mastering it. He then started practicing various magic tricks for about 40 hours per week and said he now practices in every minute of his spare time, about 80 hours per week.

“It is now my full-time job,” he said. “A couple years ago, when I did have to juggle between two jobs, school and work, I would actually stay up until three or four in the morning just practicing. I don’t sleep.”

He said he learned many of his tricks from employees at the Magic and Juggling Shop in Nob Hill, and many of his role models work there.

Banuelos performs a show Friday and Saturday, and in the past, he said all of his shows have sold out. He said he performs shows around Albuquerque from time to time and will travel to Hollywood this summer for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Magic Castle, a nightclub dedicated to magic performance.

He said he focused on close-up magic — interacting with a close-up viewer — and then learned parlor magic, which is performed in front of an audience of anywhere from five to 50 people. He is not sure what type of magic to focus on, but said he isn’t concerned about the viability of his career choice.

Magic and Juggling Shop owner Jery White said as far as show business goes, magic isn’t the hardest field to pursue.

“You have less of a chance to be a professional actor, and you see tons of people follow that,” he said.

Banuelos said people’s first reaction upon hearing he is a professional magician is, “Can you show me something?”

He said he always complies and never gets tired of showing off new tricks. His family is supportive of his career choice, but he said they quickly get sick of his routines.

“They’d rather not see me perform because I do it so much,” he said. “They’re like, ‘I’ve already seen this,’ and I’m like, ‘No, watch — I hold the cup differently.’ To them, it’s the same thing, but I work on little things that are different.”

“Imagine the Magic of Imagination”
Starring magician Adrian Banuelos
Friday, April 27
Saturday, April 28
7 p.m.
$15
The Filling Station
1024 Fourth St. S.W.

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