Aaliyah BowdenTwo small mysterious black boxes were left on the stage as the lights dimmed in N.C. Central’s B. N. Duke Auditorium.
Students gathered in the auditorium on August 19 eager to see a Magic Show, hosted by N.C. Central’s Student Activities Board, the first event in the Welcome to the Nest activities for new and returning students.
“The Week of Welcome for SAB used to be an old tradition,” junior Business Marketing major and SAB President Alexis Gainey explained.
“One of SAB’s executive members, Mya Bass, who is over Special Events, really wanted to bring it back to SAB. Jordyn [SAB Vice President] and I, felt the same way, we decided to bring the Week of Welcome back to SAB. The Magic Show is not only different but also very interesting to watch. Our goal this year is to bring new events to SAB.”
The event kicked off with Junior Mass Communication major Jaquez Williams, hosting the Magic Show before the first magician took the stage.
The first act opened up with comedy magician Ran’D Shine. He premiered on the television show Penn & Teller Fool Us and was honored as the 2019 Magician of the Year.
Shine started off his performance with a warm-up exercise in which he asked the crowd if anyone had one hundred-dollar bill. One student came forth with the said bill in his possession.
Shine instructed the male student to write his initials on the one-hundred-dollar bill then to fold it several times in a different way.
“If it’s going to be a great show, nothing will happen,” Shine told the audience. But If’s it’s going to be an awesome show, not only [do] your initials vanish, but your one-hundred-dollar bill changes into a one-dollar bill.” To the crowd’s surprise, the one-hundred-dollar bill had turned into a one-dollar bill!
The crowd erupted in amazement. Luckily, at the end of Shine’s act, he was able to turn the student’s bill back to a one-hundred-dollar bill.
Shine used a rope, a fake egg, a black mysterious bag, a book, a sharpie, and a deck of cards for props while on stage.
He performed a series of tricks that predicted future events such as predicting a student’s birthday, the name of a student’s mother, and the name of a country from which a student had visited.
The last act featured comedy illusionist Reggie Rice. The three-time comedy magician winner opened up for former first lady Michelle Obama and singer-songwriter Jordin Sparks, and has been featured on television on the Travel Channel.
Rice came out on stage wearing a gold suit with purple pants.
The first magic trick Rice performed was having the audience focus on a circular spinning object for fifteen seconds. After those fifteen seconds, the crowd looked back at Rice, and the size of his head had appeared to have enlarged.
Throughout the show, Rice humored the audience with witty comments as he performed each act. Rice also invited several students on stage to participate in his mysterious acts.
Rice impressed the crowd with this one cool trick in which he turned an empty brown paper bag upside down and a black bowling bowl came out making a loud thud on the stage. Rice then picked up the ball and chucked it into the crowd, and the object turned into a balloon.
According to Gainey, there were over 400 students and staff present at the event. This number was gathered from Engaged, N.C. Central’s newest registration system that allows students to RSVP for events and on-campus organizations to count attendance at events.
“The Magic show was very entertaining for the audience and staff, we had a lot of crowd participation, which made it enjoyable,” Gainey said. “Everyone was shocked by the acts of the magicians.”
Gainey added that the show was a “success” and that SAB will most likely host another magic show in the future.
