Trickster Dick Barry Reveals What He’s Got Up His Sleeve

N ow you see it, now you don’t.

This Saturday, the Homestead Museum in the city of Industry will present “An Evening of Magic,” a celebration of sleight-of-hand and parlor magic that became famous in the 19th century. Three magicians from Hollywood’s Magic Castle--Dick Barry, J.C. Dunn and Jim Kahlert--will present “up-close” magic as well as parlor (stand-up) magic in the Pico Rico Gallery and La Casa Nueva, the Homestead’s 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival mansion. Barry, who is known for his parlor magic, recently talked about his craft and the evening of prestidigitation at the Homestead.

Question: How long have you been a magician?

Answer: I have been doing it professionally for about 30 years. I was a police officer before that. I was a school resource officer. I used [magic] a lot in educational programs for young people. I used it as an attention-getter, and then I would give them a safety message. I worked in the elementary schools. At that point, it was just a hobby. I always liked it as a kid, but then I kind of got away from it. I was in my mid-30s before I started doing it again.

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Q: What renewed your interest?

A: I walked into a magic shop in San Francisco, and it triggered an interest in me. As I said, I could use some of this to grab the kids’ attention, and then it kind of snowballed. Actually, magic is like a lot of addictions, like golf or anything else. Once you get into it....

I got into it very heavily, and I started picking up a few shows. I did it just for fun first, and then I started doing some shows for money. I retired in 1987 from the police department. Since then I have my own company where I invent and manufacture my own props that I sell to magicians around the world. I came out with my first commercial trick in 1978 that I actually sold.

Q: At the Homestead Museum event, what type of magic will you be performing?

A: I am going to be doing what I call parlor magic, or stand-up magic. There is a lot of audience participation. I am going to do a lot of classic magic tricks, the linking rings, the rope--things that have been around for years, but I put my own twist on it. That’s what most of us do. Although the principles are very, very old, we put our own personality and twist on it.

Q: Do you work with animals?

A: Not anymore. I do some tricks with goldfish now. I make them appear from nowhere, but that is about it. I used to have the doves, the rabbits, the big birds. But I kind of got away from that.

Q: Has there been an upswing in the number of magicians since you started the craft?

A: When I started out, there weren’t too many people in it. It was kind of really a dying art.

Q: Why?

A: In the vaudeville days, there were a lot of variety acts, and they used a lot of magic. When television came around, it kind of knocked that out. Then a little guy by the name of Doug Henning came along. He started out on Broadway with “The Magic Show” and then “Merlin.” In fact, I worked with him on one particular show in 1979. I taught him the goldfish trick.

Right now, magic is a very hot thing. Now you have guys like [David] Copperfield, Siegfried and Roy. Lance Burton is a wonderful magician. David Blaine, he is out there doing street magic. I love to look at the reaction of the people [to his magic]. That is fun for us. You do these tricks so many times, it is almost automatic for us. We get our thrill by watching to see how excited and happy people are to see how you do it.

Q: Have you ever been unable to figure out how a magician performed a trick?

A: Oh, certainly. I love that. It doesn’t happen as much anymore because I know a good many principles. I loved to be fooled.

Q: Are you always devising new tricks?

A: I enjoy this probably more than performing, coming up with new ideas. I manufacture them myself. I write the instructions. I have a Web site, https://www.dickbarrymagic.com. You can look me up and buy my tricks. I enjoy coming up with the newer ideas, and seeing how far I can take an old idea and turn it around and make it a new one. The newspaper tear has been an old, old trick. I have worked it probably for 20 some years. but I have come up with a new [version]. It’s much easier for a magician to perform it, and they can repeat it over and over, and they don’t have to buy a new newspaper every time.

One of my newer tricks is, I come out with a little magic carpet--real little--about 18 inches wide and maybe about a foot and a half long. I show it on all sides. I kind of roll it into a tube and hold it upright, and you start hearing a bird singing from this tube. I reach inside and pull out a very small cage with a very small singing and dancing mechanical bird. I took something that is basically a toy and converted it into a magic trick.

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“An Evening of Magic” takes place Saturday at 6 and 8 p.m. at the Homestead Museum, 15415 E. Don Julian Road, Industry. Admission is $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors. For information, call (626) 968-8492 or go to https://www.homesteadmuseum.org.