Local magician performs at the Coon Rapids Campus
By Gail Wilson, Editor
Photos by Chris Dang, Staff Photographer
On Wednesday, magician Charles Misenheimer, “Chaz,” performed for students at the Coon Rapids Campus throughout the day.
Chaz was invited by the ARCC Student Activities Director Joyce Traczyk, to perform magic for the student body in the Student Center and outside the bookstore.
“They asked me to entertain the line at the bookstore and it makes their stay a little nicer to do that,” said Chaz.
Chaz, who is from North Carolina, first got interested in magic when he was in the Cub Scouts and his mother encouraged him. His mother took him to the library and checked out a book on magic.
“We would go to magic shops when we took vacations and over the years I have picked up a small repertoire of tricks and apparatus,” said Chaz.
Chaz, who was mentored by a couple of professional magicians, feels that is a great way to learn magic.
“If you see someone doing something that you think is really wonderful, if you could get some help from them then they are going to lead you in a direction that you think is wonderful,” said Chaz.
According to Chaz, the real secret to magic is not exactly how the trick works, but making it special to people. He said to do magic you must love it.
“I just appreciate people who enjoy doing what I do. It’s something that I love. I guess it keeps me doing it. I can’t imagine not doing it. I like it that much. I think you are lucky if you have something like that in your life,” said Chaz.
Chaz said his favorite is a slight of hand trick with three pennies that he has performed several times. He calls it the three penny trick.
“It’s a classic magic trick that I added my own spin to. My way is a little different than everybody else’s. But a magician would know it as two in the hand and one in the pocket. That’s where I learned to do magic, from that trick,” said Chaz.
Chaz said to be a good magician you have to be willing to do poorly at it. He said one will never get good at anything immediately.
“You have got to be willing to be bad before you can be good. If you are going to quit when you get bad you will never get good. That’s the number one advice I give for young magicians and anybody else that wants to get good at something,” said Chaz.
For further information students can go to Chaz’s website at Magic by Chaz. He is also on Facebook. To see a couple of seven minute clips of his magic shows go to his YouTube channel.