Magicians Conjure Up a Fundraiser to Aid Students

Magicians make the impossible seem possible: A man eats fire. A blue macaw appears from thin air. Playing cards cascade from a man’s mouth.

Now professional magicians from throughout the U.S. are bringing their acts to Los Angeles -- betting on magic to help turn young people into college students.

The performance, “The African American Masters of Magic,” at Hamilton High School’s concert hall Saturday night, will raise money to take local students on tours of historically black colleges and universities.

Educators Gregory and Yasmin Delahoussaye founded Educational Student Tours, a North Hills-based nonprofit group, 18 years ago to introduce local youths to the institutions and set them on a path that leads to a college degree. Now their goal is to take students who are unable to afford the tour: those from low-income families or in foster care.

“I want them to be able to see the young people like themselves who are striving and accomplishing and making their life goals become a reality,” said Gregory Delahoussaye, who teaches U.S. history at the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. “When they experience this they truly do get motivated.”

For the 12 magicians, the event is an opportunity to help youths, while also accomplishing a rare feat. Never, organizers say, have so many of the nation’s top African American magicians appeared together.

“This is history,” said illusionist Kenrick “ICE” McDonald, whose Ice Storm Entertainment Group is organizing the event.

A marriage between magic and a black college tour may seem like an odd pairing, but organizers say they share a passion for helping young people accomplish their goals.

McDonald and Gregory Delahoussaye met when McDonald attended a career day at Delahoussaye’s class. McDonald became a mentor to Delahoussaye’s son, who was interested in magic. McDonald and his daughter took a black college tour with the couple.

“When I went on the tour, it was so overwhelming,” said McDonald, who grew up in San Diego. “It’s something I wish we had when we were younger.”

Nationwide, there are 105 historically black institutions, including schools such as Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Morehouse College in Atlanta.

The institutions were created in the 1800s, during a time when the doors of other schools were closed to African Americans.

Michael Lomax, president and chief executive of the United Negro College Fund, said the schools remain attractive to students.

“These schools are providing not only a top-grade education,” Lomax said, “they’re motivating students to perform at a high level and to continue to get an education beyond the bachelor’s degree.”

Growing interest in the schools coincides with another well-documented trend: a reverse migration of African Americans back to the South.

Though the institutions represent 3% of all U.S. colleges, they enroll 14% of all African American students who are in college. Fifty percent of all African Americans who go on to graduate and professional schools received their undergraduate degrees at historically black colleges and universities, Lomax said.

After 30 years as educators, the Delahoussayes believe that the schools can help even more California students, but too often youth are unaware they exist.

Those who might particularly benefit from the schools -- some of which accept students with a 2.5 GPA -- are foster youths, many of whom are African American, said Yasmin Delahoussaye, vice president of student services at Los Angeles Valley College and an adjunct professor at UCLA’s School of Education.

At age 18, foster youths are forced into the world, often with little or no assistance. Studies show they do not fare well: Four years after leaving foster care, 46% have not finished high school; 25% have been homeless.

“It really pains me to see a kid doing well in school, then they hit a brick wall,” she said.

The couple have a reason for believing it is possible to turn the fates of foster youths and others. Over the years, the couple have taken about 3,000 students on college tours. About 80% of the tour alumni have gone on to attend and graduate from historically black institutions, Gregory Delahoussaye said.

For Keimyah Williams of Long Beach, the tour was magical and left her feeling a part of something grand.

“That tour changed my life,” she said.

She returned home more focused and earned all A’s at El Camino College that semester.

“The people were so welcoming,” she said. “It was good to see that my people are somebody.... You see more African Americans in college than you see out here.”

The historical component -- such as visiting the burial site of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- was a benefit Williams hadn’t expected.

“You thought you were going to read a page, but you come out with a whole chapter,” said Williams, who plans to transfer to one of the schools.

Over the years, the couple’s students have gone on to become veterinarians, teachers, lawyers. So far there are no professional magicians, but if the stories of the magicians performing this week are any indication, that may change.

McDonald was about 10 years old when his father gave him a magic kit. Then, he saw a black magician perform on “The Merv Griffin Show” -- and his fate was sealed.

“I was like, ‘Wow, a black magician,’ ” he recalled.

For years, McDonald learned and honed his craft. Others saw it as an unlikely choice for the son of a Baptist, and questioned his Christianity.

But 25 years later, after performing throughout the world and for the USO, the illusionist is firm in his faith and his work.

“If you cut me, I bleed magic,” he said during a recent interview.

“If you cut me, we got a problem,” quipped Jack Goldfinger, half of the duo “Goldfinger and Dove,” the legendary act that McDonald saw on Merv Griffin.

As a child, Goldfinger used magic to fend off a neighborhood bully; he made a rock disappear.

“I told him I could make his head disappear,” Goldfinger said, “and we became friends for life.”