World Champ and Eagle Scout Jason Latimer Turns You Into Magician
Blue smoke swirls around Eagle Scout Jason Latimer as he holds up a card. Poof! It's gone. Whoosh! It reappears. Jason taps one card that becomes two…three…four. He links his arms, and cards start pouring out of both hands.
The audience claps wildly. And that's just one of his easy tricks.
"I was raised by a pack of wild magicians," Jason says, laughing. Well, maybe not. Actually this 24-year-old learned his first magic trick - how to separate black from red playing cards - on a cruise ship. He was 9 years old and bugged the ship's magician to teach him something, anything.
After that Jason took classes, read books and watched videos. There was no stopping him. Now Jason is a world champion, touring the world and wowing crowds with his amazing acts of prestidigitation (that's magician talk for magic tricks).
Practice, Practice, Practice
There's no big trick to becoming a great magician.
"You don't have to be double-jointed, though it helps to have some dexterity," Jason says as he pulls two giant steel hoops out of thin air. "The real trick is practice. When you've finished practicing, practice some more."
All that practice helped Jason become only the third American to win the World Championship of Magic. That, and his college education, helps him create his own tricks.
"There's a lot of physics and matt behind the magic," says Jason, who designs all his own tricks and props "You start with a goat -- like doing the famous cups and balls trick, only with clear glasses -- and work backward. If you can think it, you can draw it. If you can draw it, you can make it," he says.
Success!
Jason's ability to "reverse engineer" resulted in his invention, the Latimer Cups. "It's really a large twist on an old trick," be says as he appears to instantly move small yellow balls from one clear glass to another, One second each cup covers a ball, the next all three balls are under a single cup.
How did he do that?
He'll never tell. "It took me two years to perfect that trick," he says. But it was worth it. Now most everyone in the magic world knows Jason for his crystal cups trick.
"In Scouting I learned to set a goal like making the next rank or getting the next badge. Then you dedicate yourself to achieving the goal. Never give up," he says. "It's the same with magic, except I use my imagination to set the goal."
THE TRICKS
Like any professional magician, Jason Latimer is very secretive about his tricks. He'll reveal only that he's working on a full-stage act and would like to teleport himself to another dimension and then back to the stage, sort of like a Stargate. Can he do it? As Jason likes to say with a big smile on his face, "In magic, anything is possible."
You can find the magic here, as Jason teaches you a few beginning tricks:
A KNOTTY SITUATION
Show a handkerchief to the audience. Tie a knot in it. When the knot is untied there's a coin inside!
The trick:
Hold a coin behind the handkerchief with your thumb. Do not let the audience see the coin.
After you show the handkerchief, hold it as shown here.
Twirl the handkerchief until it looks like a Scout neckerchief rolled.
Drop the coin down the tube formed by the handkerchief.
Tie a knot in the handkerchief.
Give it to an audience member to untie.
Surprise! There's the coin inside the knot.
THE UNBROKEN TOOTHPICK
A wooden toothpick is put under a piece of cloth. Someone in the audience breaks it, but you pull it out unbroken.
The trick:
Before…
Get a piece of cloth with a wide hem. Put another toothpick in the hem before you do the trick.
Spread the cloth on the table and place another toothpick in the center. Roll the cloth…
…and have someone in your audience feel the toothpick. Be sure he feels the toothpick in the center.
Have your audience member break the toothpick.
Say some magic words. Unroll the cloth to show the unbroken toothpick, which you have sneakily removed from the hem.
Hold onto the still-wrapped broken toothpick--don't let it fall out of the cloth.
IT'S A SNAP!
Hold a piece of cloth by one corner. Give it a snap. Presto! There's a knot!
The trick:
Before…
Tie a knot in one corner of the cloth.
Hold the cloth by this corner with the knot hidden in your hand.
Now do the trick:
Show the cloth to the audience. Put the other corner in your hand.
Give the cloth a snap…
…and release the corner with the knot.
HYPNOTIZED HANKY
This handkerchief stands by itself and mysteriously moves.
The trick:
Hold the handkerchief as in this photo. Pull it up about four inches through your left hand.
Using your right hand, wrap an imaginary hair around the handkerchief.
Secretly use your left thumb to move the handkerchief back and forth. Ta-da!
Catch Jason on the Web: www.jasonlatimer.com
The audience claps wildly. And that's just one of his easy tricks.
"I was raised by a pack of wild magicians," Jason says, laughing. Well, maybe not. Actually this 24-year-old learned his first magic trick - how to separate black from red playing cards - on a cruise ship. He was 9 years old and bugged the ship's magician to teach him something, anything.
After that Jason took classes, read books and watched videos. There was no stopping him. Now Jason is a world champion, touring the world and wowing crowds with his amazing acts of prestidigitation (that's magician talk for magic tricks).
Practice, Practice, Practice
There's no big trick to becoming a great magician.
"You don't have to be double-jointed, though it helps to have some dexterity," Jason says as he pulls two giant steel hoops out of thin air. "The real trick is practice. When you've finished practicing, practice some more."
All that practice helped Jason become only the third American to win the World Championship of Magic. That, and his college education, helps him create his own tricks.
"There's a lot of physics and matt behind the magic," says Jason, who designs all his own tricks and props "You start with a goat -- like doing the famous cups and balls trick, only with clear glasses -- and work backward. If you can think it, you can draw it. If you can draw it, you can make it," he says.
Success!
Jason's ability to "reverse engineer" resulted in his invention, the Latimer Cups. "It's really a large twist on an old trick," be says as he appears to instantly move small yellow balls from one clear glass to another, One second each cup covers a ball, the next all three balls are under a single cup.
How did he do that?
He'll never tell. "It took me two years to perfect that trick," he says. But it was worth it. Now most everyone in the magic world knows Jason for his crystal cups trick.
"In Scouting I learned to set a goal like making the next rank or getting the next badge. Then you dedicate yourself to achieving the goal. Never give up," he says. "It's the same with magic, except I use my imagination to set the goal."
THE TRICKS
Like any professional magician, Jason Latimer is very secretive about his tricks. He'll reveal only that he's working on a full-stage act and would like to teleport himself to another dimension and then back to the stage, sort of like a Stargate. Can he do it? As Jason likes to say with a big smile on his face, "In magic, anything is possible."
You can find the magic here, as Jason teaches you a few beginning tricks:
A KNOTTY SITUATION
Show a handkerchief to the audience. Tie a knot in it. When the knot is untied there's a coin inside!
The trick:
Hold a coin behind the handkerchief with your thumb. Do not let the audience see the coin.
After you show the handkerchief, hold it as shown here.
Twirl the handkerchief until it looks like a Scout neckerchief rolled.
Drop the coin down the tube formed by the handkerchief.
Tie a knot in the handkerchief.
Give it to an audience member to untie.
Surprise! There's the coin inside the knot.
THE UNBROKEN TOOTHPICK
A wooden toothpick is put under a piece of cloth. Someone in the audience breaks it, but you pull it out unbroken.
The trick:
Before…
Get a piece of cloth with a wide hem. Put another toothpick in the hem before you do the trick.
Spread the cloth on the table and place another toothpick in the center. Roll the cloth…
…and have someone in your audience feel the toothpick. Be sure he feels the toothpick in the center.
Have your audience member break the toothpick.
Say some magic words. Unroll the cloth to show the unbroken toothpick, which you have sneakily removed from the hem.
Hold onto the still-wrapped broken toothpick--don't let it fall out of the cloth.
IT'S A SNAP!
Hold a piece of cloth by one corner. Give it a snap. Presto! There's a knot!
The trick:
Before…
Tie a knot in one corner of the cloth.
Hold the cloth by this corner with the knot hidden in your hand.
Now do the trick:
Show the cloth to the audience. Put the other corner in your hand.
Give the cloth a snap…
…and release the corner with the knot.
HYPNOTIZED HANKY
This handkerchief stands by itself and mysteriously moves.
The trick:
Hold the handkerchief as in this photo. Pull it up about four inches through your left hand.
Using your right hand, wrap an imaginary hair around the handkerchief.
Secretly use your left thumb to move the handkerchief back and forth. Ta-da!
Catch Jason on the Web: www.jasonlatimer.com
By: Daily, Laura, Boys' Life, Sep2006
posted by Mary Mezack at 12:15 PM
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