Professional magician whisks magic around Poplarville
Published 7:00 am Saturday, June 10, 2017
Amory Hermetz starts off the magic show with a jaw dropping disappearing act with a ball, a bowl and his trusty magic stick. Photo by Taylor Welsh
As this young helper opened his hand, he was shocked to see that an extra ball magically slipped into his hand during one of the magician's tricks. Photo by Taylor Welsh
After making a metal ring separate from a tied rope, Amory Hermetz magically made the ring go back into the tied rope, displaying it for the crowd to see. Photo by Taylor Welsh
One of Amory Hermetz volunteer helpers during the magic show at the Poplarville Public Library. Photo by Taylor Welsh
D.J. shows the audience the card inside of a sealed envelope with his signature on the face of the card during one of Amory Hermetz’s performances. Photo by Taylor Welsh
Toward the end of his show, Amory Hermetz showed the children how to conduct their own magic trick.
Amory Hermetz finds a half dollar in one of the audience's hair. Photo by Taylor Welsh
As the magician made his rounds around the room, he found multiple half dollars in unusual places, like underneath this child's arm. Photo by Taylor Welsh
As objects disappeared, children began scratching their heads only to see professional magician Amory Hermetz magically make them reappear in jaw-dropping places during the Build a Better World summer reading program at the Poplarville Public Library Thursday.
In his hour-long performance for a packed room of 50 or more children, Hermetz was able to get every child involved in the show that featured many different tricks.
To start, Hermetz performed what he said was an ancient Egyptian illusion used to trick others out of money.
“The point is to make them believe their money is underneath the bowl, only to lift it and it disappear,” he said.
Instead of money, Hermetz used two soft red balls and asked for a volunteer from the highly engaged crowd.
As he placed one ball underneath the bowl, he also asked the child volunteer to hold the other ball tightly in his hand high in the air. After gently tapping the bowl with his magic stick, he lifted the bowl only to find the ball vanished in thin air.
“Why don’t you open your hand,” he said.
As the volunteer opened his hand, he found not one, but two balls.
After that, the magician made an orange and two limes appear underneath the bowl.
The crowd gasped in amazement.
“How is he doing this?” some of the children asked.
A few of the sepctators said it was their first time seeing a live magic show.
Then, Hermetz followed his disappearing act with a brain-bending rope trick, involving a long, thick piece of rope and a metal ring.
Before putting the ring through the rope, Hermetz passed the metal ring to the crowd to verify it was in fact a solid ring. Then he tied the two ends of the rope to lock the ring inside of the rope.
But then, with all eyes on his hands, the magician mysteriously unraveled the ring from the rope without untying the ends.
“Oh I forgot to tell everyone, I have a pair of scissors in my pocket,” Hermetz said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out nothing, but making his hand in the shape of scissors.
When he did that, he began cutting sections of the rope off with just his fingers and those sections began flying in the air, prompting a roaring round of applause from the crowd.
Then, he followed up with a card trick. After asking another volunteer to step up on the stage with him, he asked his helper, D.J., to pick his favorite card, a king of spades, from the deck and, while Hermetz was not looking, write his name on the face of the card and put it back into the deck.
He repeatedly made the card magically fly around the room only to land in his right coat pocket. Each time, the card still had D.J.’s signature on it.
Later, the magician told D.J. to pay close attention, and bet that if the card didn’t reappear in his pocket again, he would give him all the money in his wallet.
As D.J. reached into Hermetz’s pocket, he discovered nothing to be there.
“Huh, that’s weird,” Hermetz said, laughing off the fact that it wasn’t in his pocket. “Well here I guess I owe you some money.”
As he pulled out his wallet, and zipped open the part where he keeps his money, a sealed envelope appeared, with a surprise inside for his volunteer.
“Open it up and see what’s inside,” Hermetz said, after telling D.J. to make sure it was in fact sealed.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the king of spades with D.J.’s signature was inside.
As the finale, Hermetz showed the crowd an empty bucket and told the crowd he is extremely good at finding loose change in unusual places.
Each time he searched a child’s hair, under their arm or asked them to blow their nose, a half dollar would shoot into the metal bucket, making a loud clinging noise.
In the end, the crowd was astounded by the performance, saying they wished the show could go on.
