Working Magic Is His Life’s Work

How do you measure a life?

For Barry Price, all it takes is a slim deck of cards.

He measures his 53 years by how well the cards slip, slide and jump at his command, by how effortlessly he can shift their positions throughout the deck, by how mystified the audience is to see him pull cards from his pockets that were shoved into the deck only an eye blink before.

“There is something addictive about it. The more proficient you become, the more addictive it is,” said Price, a Lake Forest resident who has won several international awards as a master sleight-of-hand artist. He has dedicated most of his life to the manipulation of cards. “To instantly have those cards go from the deck to four different pockets--that’s a wonderful feeling, to know that it will fly by everybody completely undetected.”

His first job as a magician came at age 14 when he was paid $15 to entertain guests at a private party. He was also earning change at the time by demonstrating tricks at a Chicago magic store called the Treasure Chest. He used cards that were shaved narrow at one end. When pulled from the deck, reversed and replaced, the shaved cards could be easily located.

But after his studies with magician and author Edward Marlo began, Price soon learned that the true sleight-of-hand artist does not rely on gimmicks such as altered decks or marked cards.

“I began to find a more advanced way of location--to shuffle cards to different locations in the deck with no apparent movement of the hands. That’s what elevates the trick and exalts it to the level of pure impossibility.”

Such techniques come from what he calls “the school of immovability,” an approach to card manipulation reserved for masters of the craft.

Price demonstrates by moving his hand slowly over a five of hearts. It changes into a jack of clubs. The seeming simplicity of the effect is startling. Even when observed from just a few inches away, there is no apparent substitution of cards. One card simply seems to melt, to evaporate into another.

It took him 20 years to perfect the illusion.

Like other magicians, Price first performed the trick by moving his hand rapidly over the deck in a horizontal and vertical motion, which helps to obscure the manipulation, a technique that took about two years to master.

“Just to pass my hand over the deck, that’s what took the extra 18 years,” he said. “It still isn’t perfect.”

The rewards of such diligence are capricious. Price has held a succession of sales jobs over the years to augment his sporadic earnings from magic. But he could not permanently abandon his art, not even for a steady paycheck.

“I tried. I went into all these jobs thinking that if I can do the conventional 9-to-5 kind of job, I would sure as hell do it. It was just too difficult.”

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Aside from the occasional performance at magic clubs such as Hollywood’s Magic Castle and private engagements, his search for a reliable income has led to the corporate world. Price performs at trade shows and promotional events, and is hired by hotels as entertainment for sales conferences and conventions. He also gives seminars and private lessons, and is working on a book.

Unlike stage magicians who slice women in half and make lions disappear, his craft demands an intimate setting and a small audience, not a situation conducive to great fame and fortune.

“One of the greatest sleight-of-hand manipulators in the world, Dai Vernon, died a few years ago at age 98 and never had a job. He was known as ‘The Professor.’ All of that fame did not breed a fortune. It didn’t really make him any money.

“If nobody appreciates your craft, or if you’re not exposed to those who can take some kind of action to advance your career, you’re relegated to some kind of nether world.”

But Price figures that if he can build a steady clientele of corporate clients, he can keep the 9-to-5 world at bay and continue to refine his art. But he has no interest in using props or gimmicks to add flash to his performance, to make it more commercially acceptable.

“I believe in performing without a net, so to speak. I don’t use trick decks or effects that work by themselves. Everything that I use is the product of years and years of practice. There isn’t any fallback position. And I believe people can sense your skill. When I pass my hand over that deck of cards and the top card changes color, people know I’m doing something skillful. They don’t know what it is, but they know there’s something extraordinary going on.”

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Profile: Barry Price

Age: 53

Hometown: Chicago

Residence: Lake Forest

Family: Two children

Education: Bachelor’s degree in English composition, Arizona State University

Magic man: Studied magic and consulted with master sleight-of-hand artist and author Edward Marlo for 36 years; won first place award at Grand Prix du Magique, Brussels; won Shinjoku first-place award, Tokyo; nominated best close-up magician at Magic Castle in Hollywood; appeared on several television shows

On his career choice: “Those closest to me all advised me to go into a conventional career. The pressure that you get is almost overwhelming. But there is something inside my DNA, something that has propelled me to go forward with this.”

Source: Barry Price; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times