MUNSTER - You’ve heard of the luck of
the Irish. How about the magic of the Irish? Leprechauns, you know about. How
about magician Elliott O’Smith?
You may not recognize the
name Elliott O’Smith but that’s because he usually goes by the name Elliott
Smith who has been a magician for four decades. It was only for his St.
Patrick’s Day performance on March 17 at the Munster branch of the Ottawa Public Library
that he assumed his Irish identity.
He told the more than 40
youngsters and dozen adults who attended his March Break performance that he
was only six years old when he saw a magician on television and decided that he
also wanted to be a magician. He started by getting books on magic at the
public library and he noted that the Munster
library had some books on magic on display that day.
Elliott then performed a
number of magic tricks for the audience, always involving an audience member as
his helper for a particular trick. These involved turning a $20 bill into a
$100 bill (and back again into a $20 bill); transporting a blue handkerchief
from his hand into a coke bottle that was inside a container; transforming
three pieces of rope of different length into the same length; using a
Mongolian pop knot to make just one piece of rope out of the previous pieces,
although not before having all those present take the magician’s oath of
secrecy (“I promise not to tell anyone how it’s done); welcoming Kermit the
Frog, a suitable green presence on St. Patrick’s Day, and turning him white;
demonstrating a “trap door” through the use of elastics; and magically
combining a red handkerchief with two blue ones in his Scarlett Hanky Trick.
His 30 minute performance
sent the youngsters – and the adults – away wondering “How did he do that?” with
regard to his magic. And that’s the real magic of a magician – the wonderment
created. And when it happens on St. Patrick’s Day, those who witness the magic
consider themselves lucky. That’s how the luck of the Irish meshes with magic
on St. Patrick’s Day.