Lee Grabel to Reappear in Show at OCC

Magician Lee Grabel, with his snowy hair and gentle, easy smile, looks more like your favorite great uncle than a cunning master of deception. Trickery has been Grabel’s stock in trade for almost 50 years.

At an age when most entertainers are sitting back rereading their old clippings, Grabel, 69, is still on the road with his illusion-show-cum-psychology lecture entitled “Do Not Believe All You See or Hear,” a combination of sleight-of-hand magic and homespun lesson on deception in daily life. Grabel will perform today at Orange Coast College and Nov. 12 at the Forum Theatre in Yorba Linda.

Magic buffs may remember Grabel from his heyday in the 1950s, when he was considered one of the country’s top illusionists, the worthy successor of the great Dante. Grabel’s hands are still quicker than his eye, and his simple but well-tuned magic can still captivate an audience. In fact, he considers his age an advantage.

“Of all the types of entertainers, the magician is the only one who is enhanced by age,” Grabel says. “It’s easier for an older person to deceive because the audience respects age. Most people feel that they know at least as much as a younger entertainer, but the older person has more experience . . . so maturity just goes naturally with magic and deception. As long as a magician acts his age and doesn’t lose his intensity, he’ll do just fine.”

Grabel was known in the ‘50s for extravagant productions: A wave of his hand made horses vanish into thin air or piano-playing ladies levitate and spin somersaults high above the stage.

Grabel retired from show business in 1959, and, except for a brief nostalgia tour in 1977, has been living quietly in the small town of Alamo in Contra Costa county.

Last year, however, Grabel and Helene, his wife and stage assistant of 44 years (“Actually,” he admits with a conspiratorial grin, “it’s Helen . . . but Helene’s more theatrical”) decided to return to the stage, packing up the silk scarfs and the trick hat and going on the road. This time, they are performing on college campuses and in small community centers. The show is less grand now--it is canaries rather than horses that disappear--and a modified Lincoln and a couple of trunks have replaced the 18-wheeler and 20 tons of equipment he needed before. But good old-fashioned magic is still at the heart of it.

Grabel’s 10-week national tour opened in September in Ft. Worth, Tex. at the International Brotherhood of Magicians convention, where he was honored as the last in a line of illusionists that started with Hermann in the late 1800s.

In this show, Grabel discusses the basic principles of deception that make magic effective, then puts them in terms of everyday life, revealing the way “physical and mental misdirection” are involved in everything from professional sports to advertising.

“Everyone knows that propaganda is deception,” he says, “but its value depends on the intent of the user. We all use it--politicians, salespeople, editors, children, even magicians--but by considering its source, you can determine if it’s positive or negative deception.”

Lee Grabel’s “Do Not Believe All You See or Hear” will be presented at 8 tonight at the Orange Coast College Robert B. Moore Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. Tickets are $6.50 in advance, $8 at the door. Information: (714) 432-5880. The show will also be performed Nov. 12 at the Forum Theater, 4175 Fairmont Blvd., Yorba Linda. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for senior citizens. Information: (714) 779-8591.