Magic, a word that is constantly questioned with today’s society from religion, science and the fairy tales told to children. As a child, Mike Super, like many other children, told his teacher he wanted to be a magician when he grew up; too many times a teacher or someone may crush that dream. However, Super didn’t give up his dream that day, because his mother told him, “You can be anything you want to be."
On Saturday, Lancer Productions hosted Mike Super, a magician who left students and their families and friends in the audience during Family Weekend in awe.
By using magic tricks that usually would seem ordinary or beginner style, Super was able to give each trick a new twist and received cheers from the crowd. Super started out the tricks simply by giving the crowd a sense that they were following what he was doing during the act. However, what the crowd didn’t expect was the twist and variations each trick had, and how it could be performed in multiple ways by a single person.
One act that stood out to the audience was the “voodoo doll” trick. Even though the crowd questioned the voodoo doll (one of his many props), there wasn’t a moment of hesitation after the trick was performed. For this trick, Super started off simply with just transferring energy from the doll to a volunteer from the audience and vice versa. However, by the end of the act Super had the volunteer squirming as though he was being poked by an invisible stick. In which the “voodoo doll” act received lots of responses from the audience after the act was done.
With constant jokes, interacting with the crowd and bringing volunteers on stage, it was exciting and mesmerizing to watch Super’s performance. Especially during the moments where it seemed that an illusion didn’t go according to plan only for that one messed up illusion to turn into another amazing one.
There were moments where a backstory would be given for one of the tricks or illusions during the show. There were other moments in which souvenirs were given to volunteers and participants. Such souvenirs ranged from a new can of Coca-Cola soda, balloons that posed as lottery balls and a drawing done by Super himself.
In a way Super let the crowd see parts of his life from his stories and through the little comments he made every so often. For example, when describing his imaginary friend Desmond, Super explained that they first met in his playroom in which each morning the name, Desmond, was written for him on a chalkboard. Desmond would visit Super during the shows, but to make Desmond’s presence known, Super needed a little bit of energy from the crowd. He did this by first finding a volunteer from the crowd to hold a glass pitcher in a plastic box. Super then asked the remaining audience to rub their hands together to create some heat, then he informed the audience to push that energy towards the stage when he said to. After a few tries, all were caught off guard when the pitcher exploded in the plastic box, leaving only the handle of the pitcher in the volunteer’s hand. After the act Super informed the crowd that if they liked Desmond, they could “open” themselves to him by saying or thinking of the name, Desmond, while looking in the mirror to open that connection.
At the end of the show, Super told the audience that it was his mom who told him he could be whatever he wanted to be when he was six years-old; her words were the only inspiration Super needed. He honored his mother (who passed when he was young) by telling a story of how she loved the snow and on one Christmas Eve, Super asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Her response was for it to snow, and when it snowed that night, she woke Super and his sister up around 3 a.m. to go outside and play. In remembrance of her and to show love and support at the end of every show, he uses his bare hands to make snow, which was a touching way to end the performance during Family Weekend.
Students and family members anxiously wait outside of Jarman for the show of Mike Super.
These four lucky students were given the chance to participate in a few of Super's acts.
