About 20 elementary-age kids laughed, talked and were generally distracted as they gathered on the Arts for Lawrence Theater at the Fort stage. They suddenly stopped talking, though, when magician Jamahl Keyes made a ball disappear in front of their eyes. They were even more focused as he showed them, step-by-step, how to perform the same trick themselves.
Arts for Lawrence’s annual summer arts camp is underway, with each weeklong camp offering different visual and performing arts classes. The week of July 8 was a magical week, with Indianapolis-based Keyes returning for his second year to teach the kids magic tricks and general performance tips.
Keyes, the “Magic Comic,” said that during camps like this one, he considers himself a “Magical Motivator.”
“We use the magic of the visual arts, of magic, to build self-esteem and self-awareness in children,” he said. “You know as well as I do that the arts helps you stand in front of a crowd — you have to speak clearly. You have to present yourself and you have to present yourself with a sense of confidence. So, all I do with the Magic In You Camp is, I teach that through magic.”
July 8 was the first day of magic camp and Keyes started the kids off slowly by inviting them to introduce themselves and think about what they wanted for their stage name. Over the next few days, he said, the goal was for each kid to learn three or four tricks, along with basic stage terminology — upstage, downstage, stage right and stage left — leading up to two performances in front of their families and the public.
“Some of them will learn a close-up trick, so they’ll come out in the audience and do a close-up trick with their parents,” he said. “Some will learn a stage trick — you’ll perform on stage, and music will go (while) they perform. The whole idea is to build self-confidence and self-worth in the child through the visual arts. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Keyes said he tailors the tricks he teaches to each kid’s strengths.
“Some students will be good with mental tricks, some will be very good with the math trick, some will learn car tricks, some will learn rope tricks,” he said. “I pretty much have a trick for everybody’s level of learning, The magic is really after they learn that (first) trick and they do it, I have no more problems trying to teach.”
Because, he said, as soon as they learn one trick, they want more.
But it’s not just magic tricks that make a magician. Stage presence is important, too.
“Everybody has a magic pose and then I’ll tell them throughout the camp, come up with a name — a magic name — that’s part of your identity,” Keyes said. “I think it was Harry Houdini who said that I’m not a magician on stage — I’m acting as a magician.”
Arts for Lawrence Program Manager Lecia Floyd first recruited Keyes for magic camp in 2023.
“He has done performances here at the Art for Lawrence Theater at the Fort off and on over the past several years,” she said. “Last year, when I took over as program manager, I wanted to bring something new to the camp and Jamahl is so great with kids and teachers, not only just the comedy and magic, but he brings in that theater and stage presence. So, I thought that that would be a really great addition to the camp. When I reached out to him and and asked about that, he was like, ‘Yep, I’m on board.’ Last year was such a success and the kids loved it. So, of course, I had to bring it back this year.”
Floyd stressed the importance of arts education.
“Not every kid is an athletic kid,” she said. “Some kids, they don’t have that athletic bone (and) the arts are just such an important outlet. It saddens me that the arts are sometimes the first things to be pulled out of schools. I think it’s important for kids to be able to express themselves through the arts. I know, for me, personally, all these years later, the friends that I still have from school were all kids that I was in the performing arts with. It’s just such a strong bond.”
The summer arts camp has had about 50 participants each week this year, she said, with some returning campers and others who are new.
For more, visit artsforlawrence.org.
A journey toward magic
Indianapolis-based magician Jamahl Keyes started his magical journey as a kid at the family dinner table.
Keyes said his parents were both educators in South Bend, but he wasn’t a fan of reading when he was young. His mom came up with a unique way to motivate him.
“She would grab the magic books from her school and perform a magic trick at dinner time,” he said. “I (would) say, ‘Mom, how do you learn how to do that?’ She said, ‘I’m not telling you how to do it. You have to learn from this book.’”
Keyes started reading magic books and learning as many tricks as he could. He said he performed in school musicals, too, and became comfortable on stage. When he told his parents he wanted to be a professional magician rather than go to college, his mom made a deal with him — he had one year to earn a certain amount of money as a magician. If he didn’t make at least that much, he had to go to college.
Keyes achieved that goal and then some. As a professional magician for 30-plus years, he’s traveled throughout the United States and internationally, won a Society of American Magicians award and started a business offering magic camps for kids.
For more, visit themagiccomic.com.
