Magician offers workshop for youth

Magician Mark Toland likes to give back.
“I didn’t really have someone teaching me,” magic when young, he said, “but I had a really good book with colorful props.”
While that was enough to hook Toland, he said there’s no replacement for a live teacher.
“Just having someone there to do the tricks and seeing how amazing that can be” is the best you can offer budding learners, he noted.
So Saturday, Toland will offer a free workshop in slight of hand and simple card tricks to 20 area youth.
The workshop is sponsored by Iolan Jim Talkington, and half the slots are already full, Toland said.
“I put together little packets of things” kids can use to perform magic, Toland said, focusing on “things that they’ll find around the house.”
The class will teach “a combination of self-working magic and simple slight of hand,” Toland noted.
“There’ no complicated” tricks, he said. Still, he’ll the teach 8- to 14-year-olds “five or six tricks with props and teach them what makes that magic.”
It’s not just about the trick, Toland said, but how the trick is performed.
“It’s just getting them excited,” and showing them that magic is theater, he said.
“I don’t know if anyone will take it as seriously as I did when I was young,” Toland said, “but if one or two kids get hooked, it’s worth it.”
Toland’s workshop is at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Warehouse Theatre at 203 S. Jefferson. Reservations must be made by calling Jim Talkington at 365-2042.