Adjusting to high school life and standing out from the crowd can be hard, but luckily for freshman Christopher Metz, his magic making skills set him apart from his classmates. He has created a buzz as others try to figure out his magic tricks.
On a daily basis, Metz mainly practices tricks with cards, only sometimes creating tricks with money, coins and pencils.
One of his most common tricks is one in which a card is put onto a person’s knuckles, only to get slapped out in the blink of an eye and replaced with another card.
“His tricks are very cool and interesting. I’m always asking him if he has new [tricks],” freshman Aaron Marshburn said.
Metz became interested in magic at the age of 8. He was in fourth grade when his grandfather showed him his first magic trick, a simple ring trick of separating and pulling apart rings attached to each other.
According to Metz, “magic is [manipulating the expected] in order to create an optimistic feeling to both sides.”
Metz first learned magic tricks through YouTube tutorials. After learning the basics, he was able to use the incorporate the different elements he found online to create his own magic tricks. Because he has homework on most weekdays, Metz tries his best to practice and learn new magic tricks and strengthen his skills during the weekend.
“If you [want] to start doing magic tricks, I would take a look at some of the tutorials on YouTube but not directly copy them since, like many other high schoolers, Metz wishes to continue doing what he loves after high school.
However, he agrees that the career of a magician is not easy. Even after five years of learning magic, he still doesn't understand the majority of magic tricks. Magic, like everything else, is something that takes a lot of practice. In order to succeed, any magician would need to devote countless hours spent on learning and perfecting magic tricks.
Regardless, this passion of magic has truly changed Metz’s life.
“Magic has made things in life more entertaining,” Metz said. “I’ve learned to see a the bigger picture in life because that’s what we’re always trying to achieve in magic in order to fool our audience.”
