Caleb Hara

Created February 19, 2018 for the Western Gazette

A University may be one of the most difficult places to successfully pull off a magic act. Students make for the most sceptical audiences that can be found anywhere. They won’t willingly buy into the deceptions they see on the stage, as finding the truth is more often than not their preferred form of entertainment. A regular audience who pays to be fooled, will want the magician to succeed as much as the magician wants to themselves. They’ll turn a blind eye to a small mistake, or suspend disbelief in a situation that doesn’t feel right. Students on the other hand, will pick apart a magician’s actions with a fine-toothed comb. They’ll be waiting for every stumble, and will cherish every failure.

Savio Joseph, an illusionist/mentalist/hypnotist, undertook the enormous task of turning students into believers on Tuesday night. He performed a two-part magic act in Mustang Lounge, and discounted attendance for all undergraduates. The show kickstarted a university tour that showcases the recent graduate’s new travelling act. Being a former student of Western himself, it was important that the tour started here.

The first half of Savio’s performance began with tricks, bodily feats, and psychic predictions that dazzled onlookers. He played a game of Russian Roulette with a staple gun in which members of the audience pulled the trigger, and guessed a volunteer’s dream vacation down to the exact time and place by writing it in an envelope before the show had even started. There were some morbid shrieks incited from the student body when he hammered a nail through his nose, and pulled a string through his eye. Both of which, Savio comments, actually cause him physical pain.

“My eye still hurts, my nose is almost ok again.” He remarked after the show.

In the second half, he elevated the intensity by flexing his powers as a hypnotist. This began by calling a number of volunteers onto the stage, and telling them outright that they may end up doing something ridiculous without ever realizing it. He made one such volunteer perform an operatic rendition of twinkle twinkle little star. Another girl was led to believe that her real name was Chewbacca. He was able to put his participants to sleep on a whim, and even forced one poor soul named Callahan to repeatedly forget his own name.

“It was like it was on the tip of my tongue, there was just something blocking me from getting to it.” Callahan would mention later.

Others who were hypnotized described their mental state as being “extremely relaxed,” and “weak, as if someone had taken over my body.” The most shocking account came from a young man Savio pretended to get drunk. When asked what the would-be drunkenness felt like in hindsight he said, “I actually felt the alcohol, my stomach was hurting, and at one point I felt like I was going to throw up.”

Savio’s stage presence and confidence felt like that of a seasoned veteran, despite only having a few years experience doing live shows. When asked how he managed to project such charisma, he stated that his decades practicing magic make him comfortable during his act. Savio has been performing on a smaller scale since the young age of ten years old, falling in love with the craft while shuffling through other hobbies.

“To me, it was the closest thing to having a super power. To be able to make someone forget about their fear, or their difficult lives, and replace it with childlike wonder for a few hours, is a surreal feeling.”

Those in attendance of his show would certainly attest to the feeling of wonder he described. The members of the crowd were floored by the time the curtains closed. They flocked around Savio to ask him questions about the performance, or huddled in groups to speculate about how each of his tricks was done. When asked about his future ambitions, Savio stated that he eventually wishes to take his show on tour outside of the university circuits. The end goal, is to turn magic into his full-time career. If his performance on Tuesday night is any indication of time to come, this alumni may very well change that goal into a reality someday soon.