Community Corner
Magician Leaves Mineola Audiences Astonished
Robert Austin thrills children and parents at PTA-sponsored event.
Children and parents alike were catapulted into the land of magic and make believe Saturday afternoon, sitting through crowd-pleasing illusions and unexplainable magic tricks. In a packed auditorium at the , professional magician and host Robert Austin masterfully performed his set, "The Magic of Robert Austin," as he interacted with children who ages ranged from kindergarten to fifth grade.
“It’s packed compared to last time,” one member of the Mineola School District’s Cultural Arts Committee admitted, referring to an earlier production, the modern interpretation of Judy Bloom’s where the auditorium seating was half filled at best.
Austin first asked the audience if any person had a fifty or twenty dollar bill. As children went wild searching for money from their parents, Austin settled on a young man named Nicholas, whose arm shot up, proudly holding up a $20 bill his parents had just handed him. Bursting with excitement, the children were eager to see just what Austin would do with the money.
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Calling Nicholas on stage, Austin had the young boy fold the dollar bill four times, and place it into one of several envelopes. He had the boy write his initials on the bill, and read off the serial numbers aloud. Austin then mixed up the envelopes and then allowed Nicholas to choose the envelope he felt contained the bill, which Austin then burned. Ultimately, Nicholas held up an envelope, which mysteriously contained the money. With the envelope (and presumably the dollar bill) still in hand, the dollar bill (with the boys initials and with the same serial number) ended up on the table, inside a new envelope.
“The PTA (Parent Teacher Association) puts together something for parents to do with kids,” local PTA mother Nancy McCarthy said.
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If parents pay for one child’s ticket, the siblings [of one child] can attend for free. The PTA puts on about three shows a year and “everyone seems to really enjoy them,” McCarthy said, evidenced as children’s high pitched cries of excitement were audible from far beyond the auditorium’s heavy metal doors.
Austin went from trick to trick and illusion to illusion, always leaving the audience in awe. From transforming golf balls into real eggs (with the assistance of a young girl named Bella) to making dirty handkerchiefs disappear (and replacing them with new, clean ones), Austin had the audience unable to explain just what was done.
Performing perhaps his greatest act of the night in the finale, Austin chose Jessica, a young, brown haired girl from the audience to assist him. Having her follow careful instructions, the crowd was left in shock as he had the young girl floating in mid air, with only the base of her head touching the tip of a chair. “That’s my daughter up there,” McCarthy merrily remarked. “I’m sure she’s going to be really excited about having been a part of the show.”
