A visit to Australia is one of the items on Sheldon Scatliffe’s bucket list.
Mr. Scatliffe had never met Mr. Spencer, who performed several magic tricks for attendees of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s 20th Performing Arts Series on Friday.
“I’ve never been [to Australia] before and I’m very curious to know how he knew what I was thinking,” Mr. Scatliffe said after the performance. “It was a really good show, though: He kept me thinking the whole time.”
For nearly two hours on Friday, Mr. Spencer performed tricks for a receptive audience that included many children.
In one instance, he cut a dollar bill in two, and then led an audience member to find half of it inside a lemon.
Other tricks were more complicated. At one point, he called on another attendee to lie down on a table of spikes. No injuries resulted.
Throughout the evening, comedy was a major part of the show.
“If I say something that you think is supposed to be funny, just go with it,” he told the audience at the start of the performance. “You are going to enjoy it so much more if you do.”
The illusionist also invited attendees to participate.
“If you are one of those people who do not like to volunteer, relax and enjoy the show,” he said. “But do not hesitate to volunteer the person sitting right next to you.”
Volunteers
Nicholas Rerrie, 11, had his hands up in the air and even got up from his seat each time Mr. Spencer asked for a volunteer.
“I wanted to go on stage and see what would happen to me,” said Nicholas, a student at St. George’s Primary School. “The magic was amazing and those tricks looked impossible.”
The “impossible” tricks took Mr. Spencer most of his life to perfect. The magician began practising magic when he was a little boy, he told the audience.
After the show, he went into more detail on how to become a magician, giving advice to several HLSCC students who crowded around him backstage.
Ricardo Ragnauth and Kishon Pope, who were among them, told Mr. Spencer they often perform card tricks for their peers.
The magician encouraged the teenagers to take classes in speech, presentation and acting to help hone their skills.
“Not that you are ever going to get up on a stage and be acting, but you have to know how to communicate with your audience,” he said. “If you don’t know how to communicate with them, it doesn’t matter how great your tricks are.”
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