Bella Vista youth perfecting his prestidigitation
ANDRA ATTEBERRY Staff Writer andraa@nwanews.com
Posted on Wednesday, November 5, 2008
http://www.nwanews.com/bvwv/Community/7429
Levitating a card between two hands held about a foot apart looks easy when Bella Vistan Matt Whitson does his magic.
It looks easy because the Bentonville High School junior has been practicing card tricks for three years.
He got hooked on the tricks after watching his pastor perform one in Oklahoma, where Whitson lived before moving to northwest Arkansas.
But creating magic meant he had to learn to shuffle cards - one of the hardest things he had to learn, Whitson said. He had to practice making the bridge by bending the cards in the middle, letting them fall and weaving them together.
Just riffling the cards wasn't enough for the budding magician. He also had to learn to cascade them from one hand to the other while holding his hands a foot apart.
He opened a brand new deck of cards to demonstrate his shuffling and tricks.
"I have to warm up first or that happens," he said as the cards flew out of his hand onto the table and the floor. After working with the cards for a couple of minutes, they fell perfectly in a long stream from one hand to another.
Next, he shuffled the cards with one hand by taking a few out of the deck and slipping them into the middle of the pile. His nimble fingers handled the chore easily.
After the cards were mixed well, he demonstrated several card tricks where a person chooses one and hides it in the deck. Whitson then reveals what the original choice was.
One way Whitson revealed the chosen card was to tap the deck with his finger until the card rose to the top.
His mother, Joyce Abrams, has a favorite trick. First, she picks a card and puts it back in the middle of the deck. Her son then gives her a different card to hold between her hands. After shuffling the deck, he taps her hands, and when Abrams looks at the card she's holding, she discovers it's the one she originally chose.
"I can't figure out how he does it," Abrams said.
Just as he practices shuffling cards, Whitson rehearses these and other tricks every day. Oftentimes, he can be found in front of a mirror, making sure his hand movements can't be detected. He has to be smooth, Whitson said.
When he first began learning this brand of magic, Whitson would get frustrated and quit. But he always went back to the tricks after a break, he said.
"I started getting better and better."
He learned the tricks from a basic magic kit.
A trip to Branson, Mo., to see magician Kirby Van-Burch provided Whitson with both inspiration and an offer. The magician said that when Whitson is older, he could work as VanBurch's assistant.
Whitson has already performed his own show for about 70 people at Decision Point in Bentonville. He enjoyed the experience so much, he wants to entertain at birthday parties and other children's events and get paid for it.
Anyone interested in hiring Whitson can contact him at mattsmagic2007@yahoo.com, or call 586-9199 or 586-9299.
Although he loves magic and wants to perform card shows, Whitson is grounded in reality when it comes to his future. After graduating from high school, he plans to go to college to study accounting and marketing.
"I'm really good with numbers, and I love money," he said.
Posted on Wednesday, November 5, 2008
http://www.nwanews.com/bvwv/Community/7429
Levitating a card between two hands held about a foot apart looks easy when Bella Vistan Matt Whitson does his magic.
It looks easy because the Bentonville High School junior has been practicing card tricks for three years.
He got hooked on the tricks after watching his pastor perform one in Oklahoma, where Whitson lived before moving to northwest Arkansas.
But creating magic meant he had to learn to shuffle cards - one of the hardest things he had to learn, Whitson said. He had to practice making the bridge by bending the cards in the middle, letting them fall and weaving them together.
Just riffling the cards wasn't enough for the budding magician. He also had to learn to cascade them from one hand to the other while holding his hands a foot apart.
He opened a brand new deck of cards to demonstrate his shuffling and tricks.
"I have to warm up first or that happens," he said as the cards flew out of his hand onto the table and the floor. After working with the cards for a couple of minutes, they fell perfectly in a long stream from one hand to another.
Next, he shuffled the cards with one hand by taking a few out of the deck and slipping them into the middle of the pile. His nimble fingers handled the chore easily.
After the cards were mixed well, he demonstrated several card tricks where a person chooses one and hides it in the deck. Whitson then reveals what the original choice was.
One way Whitson revealed the chosen card was to tap the deck with his finger until the card rose to the top.
His mother, Joyce Abrams, has a favorite trick. First, she picks a card and puts it back in the middle of the deck. Her son then gives her a different card to hold between her hands. After shuffling the deck, he taps her hands, and when Abrams looks at the card she's holding, she discovers it's the one she originally chose.
"I can't figure out how he does it," Abrams said.
Just as he practices shuffling cards, Whitson rehearses these and other tricks every day. Oftentimes, he can be found in front of a mirror, making sure his hand movements can't be detected. He has to be smooth, Whitson said.
When he first began learning this brand of magic, Whitson would get frustrated and quit. But he always went back to the tricks after a break, he said.
"I started getting better and better."
He learned the tricks from a basic magic kit.
A trip to Branson, Mo., to see magician Kirby Van-Burch provided Whitson with both inspiration and an offer. The magician said that when Whitson is older, he could work as VanBurch's assistant.
Whitson has already performed his own show for about 70 people at Decision Point in Bentonville. He enjoyed the experience so much, he wants to entertain at birthday parties and other children's events and get paid for it.
Anyone interested in hiring Whitson can contact him at mattsmagic2007@yahoo.com, or call 586-9199 or 586-9299.
Although he loves magic and wants to perform card shows, Whitson is grounded in reality when it comes to his future. After graduating from high school, he plans to go to college to study accounting and marketing.
"I'm really good with numbers, and I love money," he said.
Published by KirbyVanBurch.com
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