Globe and Mail Article about Camp

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Have coin, will vanish

With classes in stage patter, restaurant magic and marketing, the annual end-of-summer Sorcerer's Safari is no Harry Potter theme camp

DAWN CALLEJA

'Pick a card, any card," the lanky boy said, holding out a fanned deck of cards. Around us, kids shuffled and riffled their own decks, or made shiny coins appear out of thin air. Other young campers sat on rocks near the lake, discussing the finer points of the fingertip vanish and the gravity half-pass.

I took a peek at my card -- the two of hearts -- and slid it into the deck. The boy shuffled, then he flipped over the top card and said dramatically, "Is this your card?" It was.

Welcome to Sorcerer's Safari, a weeklong camp for budding magicians. A week ago, more than 100 campers aged nine to 20, from across Canada and the United States, descended on Camp White Pine (2 ? hours north of Toronto) to learn the tricks of the trade from some of the best performers in the world. On the roster this year: Oregon card king Lee Asher, a six-year veteran of Sorcerer's Safari; L.A. magician Aaron Fisher; and Canadian illusionist and International Grand Champion of Magic Greg Frewin, who stars in a show at his theatre in Niagara Falls.

Sorcerer's Safari -- which marks its 10th anniversary this year -- is the creation of Torontonian Mike Segal, 40, who's been working as a magician since high school.

Mr. Segal had a tough time conjuring campers in the early days. For the camp's inaugural season, in 1996, just four kids signed up.

Since then, however, Sorcerer's Safari has become the premier magic camp in North America, with a loyal following of campers (there's a return rate of 90 per cent) and A-list instructors who work for free -- even with fees of about $900, the camp barely scrapes by. There's also another, smaller camp session during March break.

Each day begins with card class. For the younger campers, that means learning basic tricks and shuffling techniques. For the most part, however, they work on refining their effects and making their patter more genuine. Magicians have to build a rapport with their audience, Mr. Asher tells his student. " 'Where are you from? Oh yeah? I was there last summer,' " he says. "If they like you, they'll like your magic."

For Nathaniel Rankin -- a five-year camp vet who won the junior stage award from the Canadian Association of Magicians in 2005 -- learning from pros like Mr. Asher is an honour. "I'm pretty secluded in Kingston, so it's great to come here, where everyone knows the lingo," he says. "And it's inspiring to be talking to Lee Asher."

There are also classes in marketing, restaurant magic and stage performance for campers who are serious about pursuing their craft as a career. (Many of them already do birthday parties and table hop at local eateries.)

In one cabin, a group of boys watches as instructor Brian Roberts performs a coin trick. There's no childlike wonder here. Instead, they analyze Mr. Roberts's techniques from every angle, before grabbing coins from a pile on the table and trying it themselves.

Lauren Proctor is one of only two girls in the card flourish class, and one of 15 or so at the entire camp. "I can't think of five female magicians," says Lauren, 17, a Torontonian who's been coming to camp for the past seven years.

She's got a handle on sleight-of-hand technique. What she can't figure out is what to wear on stage. For a magician, pockets are a must. "I have a blazer, but it's so masculine," Lauren says.

When classes wrap up for the day, the camp counsellors try to get a game of capture the flag going. But most of the kids are more interested in "jamming" -- hanging out with their buddies, practising their effects. Others swarm instructors such as Mr. Fisher, peppering them with questions and begging to see just one trick.

Then it's time for dinner and the evening's entertainment. Throughout the week, they see jugglers, stilt walkers, escape artists and illusionists. Mr. Frewin showed up with a scaled-down version of his show, complete with tigers.

The highlight of the week, however, was last night, when the students performed for their peers. "A few years ago, a kid got up and did a dancing-cane move I've never seen," says Steven Kline, an Ohio magician who's been an enthusiastic volunteer teacher since 1999. "The rush he had to feel doing something that blew away a room full of magicians -- he's probably still feeling it."

Last year, one kid's routine included his own homemade bed of nails.

Today, everyone heads home for another year. But nine-year veteran Aidan Gawronski, for one, will be back. "I'm going into my final year of high school, but of course I'll come back," he says. "Every year, I go home all pumped up about magic again. And if one of these guys can convince me, maybe I'll end up being a magician."