Victor Barbosa
Staff Writer
Some Springfield College students got a much needed break from mid-semester studying and heavy stress on Wednesday night, as laughter and amazement was provided by magician Daniel Martin in the Fuller Arts Center.
Martin, who was born and raised in Chicago, performs his magic shows all over the world. He started gaining interest in magic when he was 6-years-old and has been performing ever since.
One of the more popular acts from Wednesday night’s show was one that was started at the beginning of the show, continued through the middle stages, and concluded near the end.
Near the start of the show, Martin asked an audience member to think of any beverage in the world and the young man picked Dr. Pepper. A little while later, a young woman was told to think of any card in a standard playing deck, and she thought of the seven of hearts. Later, an audience member named the car that he owned as a black Land Rover. Finally, another audience member was asked to write down on a large piece of foam board, the serial number on a dollar bill that they had.
Near the conclusion of the show, Martin cued up a video on the big screen of a previously recorded trailer of his future appearance on the television show, “MTV Cribs.” In the preview, astonishingly, a single bottle of Dr. Pepper appeared in his fridge, a seven of hearts lay on his dining room table, and was a black Land Rover in his driveway.
To top it off, the license plate was the same numbers as the last seven digits of the serial number on the dollar bill earlier in the show. Although this was a very popular act from the night, it may not have even been Martin’s favorite to perform.
“I change my show for every audience. Usually I set up two or three hours of show, and I know within the first five minutes what direction I’m going to take the show based on the audience and their reaction,” said Martin. “It really changes night to night, but tonight the invisible man trick that I do was definitely a lot of fun.”
One of the two volunteers for the invisible man trick was freshman Ryan Louis.
“I’ve been to magic shows, but I’ve never been the one who gets on the stage. This was the first time,” Louis said.
Coming into the show, Louis had a little bit of skepticism about magic, but seeing the look of utter shock after his co-volunteer disappeared on stage, his views may have changed, even if he won’t completely admit it.
“I definitely believe in magic, but at the same time I believe that magic shows have a trick to it,” Louis said.
Overall, Martin, who has been nominated for “Entertainer of the Year” by Campus Activities Magazine, and was recently, nominated for the third-consecutive year for “Best Male Performer” was a big hit with all of those who attended. Martin has appeared on CBS, NBC, ESPN and VH1, and by judging his performance on Wednesday, it’s not hard to see why.
Martin is currently traveling the country on his ABRA-frickin’-CADABRA Tour, and he leaves the Springfield College campus with rave reviews.