The crowd is reduced to a murmur as the stage lights close in on transfer student Junior Daniel Berry, who quells his stage fright by shuffling a deck of playing cards and preparing a special illusion to bewitch his first large audience.
In elementary school, eight year-old Berry had a short-lived fascination with magic. His true calling stirred two summers ago while he was browsing the internet. Eventually, he came across an assortment of websites that provided tutorials on simple card tricks and effects.
After honing the basics, Berry continued his pursuit through purchasing magic tools and entertaining occasional peers. Tricks such as vanishing cards and coin manipulation came easily to him and crowd reactions often motivated his efforts.
“I do it mostly for fun, but I am an entertainer,” Berry said. “I have found great passion in performing and acting, and it’s just really fun to see how people are astounded by magic. It makes them think a little differently and I enjoy that experience.”
Provided that he has the chance, Berry will pull out his trademark deck and perform during class time. His fellow Brighter Side singers and other classmates often find his shows amazing.
“At first, I was like ‘what in the world is he doing?’” Junior Danielle Potestad said. “But after he did his tricks, I was kind of impressed.”
There is no exclusive tactic that Berry favors, but some of his more frequent tricks include the Arm Twisting Illusion and Ambitious Card Trick, a popular move in which a spectator signs a card and sends it back into the deck, only to have it reappear at the top. His most recent technique is a hypnotism trick he bought online.
“The easiest trick I’ve ever done is one of those cheap ones you buy from the dollar store,” Berry said. “You put this fake pencil inside this box with slots in it. You push the box a certain way and it looks like you split the pencil in three different pieces, when the actual pencil is hiding somewhere else in the container. I thought it was so cool at the time and showed my friends.”
Two days every week, Berry works on either mastering old maneuvers or developing new ones. Whenever he’s in the mood or done with his homework, he spends time reviewing his arsenal.
However, sometimes, magic is misinterpreted as a skill for people who are not very outgoing.
“Magic is not an introverted skill,” Berry said. “It’s actually very extroverted. There is a certain charisma and personality that you have to have in this trade.”
The move from Maynard, Massachusetts to Temple City did not deter Berry’s enthusiasm for magic. In fact, the crowds have only multiplied and he even took the opportunity to join Street Magic Club.
“I came from a small high school with a very small population,” Berry said. “It was actually an all indoor campus. It was very interesting moving here because it’s so hot and dry.”
Berry is currently considering acting as a future occupation and believes that magic will continue to be a large part of his life, if only to serve as an important skill in building stage presence.
“I don’t know how charismatic I am,” Berry said. “But I do have a lot of fun up on stage and I definitely think that magic will benefit me. I might even possibly consider magic as a career.”
TCHS School Newspaper