A Close-Up Look At People Who Matter : Magician Gives His Secrets and His Time Away

Most magicians guard the secrets to their tricks. Joey Kabosius gives his away.

Kabosius, 43, who likes to be called the Rainbow Wizard for his experiments with color and light, has been giving paid and charity magic shows since he was 10 years old.

With everyday objects such as balloons, Ping-Pong balls, apples and forks, Kabosius teaches groups of handicapped children, battered women, and elementary school students to take magic into their own hands.

“The real magic is when I see little kids light up and laugh,” Kabosius said. Born in New York state, Kabosius moved with his parents and his brother to his grandfather’s rabbit farm in Simi Valley when he was in the third grade.

“When I found out where the trucks were taking the rabbits, I threw rocks at their windshields,” Kabosius said, “My dad had to lock me in the house whenever the trucks came around.”

While he doesn’t believe that his early days of defending rabbits pushed him into a career as a magician, Kabosius won’t rule out a connection.

Kabosius performed his first magic trick for his family with a toy that turned nickels into dimes, a gift his father brought him from Catalina Island. He was only 10 years old, but he knew immediately that he had found his calling.

“There was no one to teach me,” Kabosius said. “So I checked out every book (on magic) in the library and went to magic shops in Hollywood to find tricks.”

In junior high and high school, Kabosius gave shows at school assemblies and birthday parties, sometimes for free, sometimes to earn a few dollars.

When he was 19, Kabosius took his show to Vietnam to entertain the American soldiers. “I went to the fire bases,” Kabosius said, “I went to the places Bob Hope wouldn’t go.”

Kabosius said his magic helped severely burned and injured soldiers forget their pain momentarily, especially when he pulled a rabbit from his hat. “They just didn’t expect me to have a rabbit there,” he said, explaining the soldiers’ enthusiasm for the trick. His rabbit was actually a furry fake with a spring inside that made it wiggle.

In 1971, Kabosius won a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Department of Defense for his outstanding contribution to morale in Vietnam.

Now a full-time professional magician who works at schools, camps and birthday parties, Kabosius regularly volunteers for charity events, including many sponsored by the Chatsworth Optimist Club, a local service organization.

Kabosius hopes his lessons will encourage his students to think creatively and appreciate the magic of everyday life.

At a recent assembly at Beckford Elementary School, Kabosius, wearing a green velveteen jacket and a tie decorated with pink flamingos, awed more than 300 elementary school students as he made an apple float in midair.

Then he showed the students how they could perform the trick at home by poking a fork into the apple and tucking the fork’s handle in a sleeve.

“I am trying to get kids away from all those video games, screens and monitors,” he said.

Every year Kabosius gives touch and taste magic shows at the Braille Olympics, a weekend of activities organized by the Chatsworth/West Valley Optimist Club.

One year, in keeping with his favorite theme, he made a rainbow, using fruit. “Red was a strawberry. Yellow was a lemon,” he said.

Kabosius also performs at monthly “Just Say No to Drugs” assemblies for fourth- and fifth-graders and gives shows at a local shelter for battered women and children.

Steve Duben, an officer of the Optimist Club, said Kabosius is always eager to put on a show for a good cause. “He’s struggling like the rest of us,” Duben said. “And he’s volunteered his time when he couldn’t afford it.”

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