By DAN MADER“Is this your card?” This was the question card trick enthusiast Dan Carmichael posed to his friend Taylor as he flipped through the six cards that he had thought were absent of the Queen of Hearts, the card he had selected from the deck. Once he flipped the last time, and revealed the Queen of Hearts, I knew that Dan was someone special.
Photo by Dan Mader Dan Carmichael, 20, grew up in North Huntington soon after he enrolled at California University of Pennsylvania, his interest in card tricks was ignited. “A few weeks into my freshman year here at Cal, I saw Jim Karol, who is a mentalist, perform at the Performance Center in the Natali Student Center,” Carmichael said. He did some simple magic tricks along with his show and afterwards, he showed some tricks to some students. I was immediately interested in going home and trying them out myself,” Carmichael said. Carmichael went back to his dorm room and started looking up card tricks on YouTube and began to try them himself. After watching countless videos, he eventually started to teach himself the tricks and began to become expert at them. Carmichael said, “I usually do some test runs by myself to practice, and once I become better at them, I start to do them in front of my friends.” He also said that he has about seven tricks that he has down solidly. The most people he has performed for is about 10. He's even performed his best trick over the airwaves at the WCAL Radio station as the DJ broadcast the trick Dan was doing. The trick he performed over the radio, named “Sleight of Hand,” is by far his favorite. Carmichael told the DJ that he would be amazed, and the he was ready to be. Dan started out by asking him to select a card from the deck. The DJ viewed the Queen of Hearts and as Dan told him to put the card back in the deck without him looking, he looked skeptical of what the outcome was going to be. He placed the card back into the deck and Dan began to shuffle. The DJ did not sense any card hiding or any type of fixed deck as Carmichael was doing this. He then took the bottom six cards of the deck and proceeded to ask the DJ if any of them were his card. He shook his head at every card and became puzzled as to how Dan was going to pull this off. Carmichael then took those 6 cards, did not add any and placed them in the DJ's hand. He told the DJ to grip them all tight and after he did, Dan slapped down onto all of the cards. Scattered on the floor were five cards, with one card staying in the DJ's hand. The DJ flipped the card over and was astonished to see the Queen of Hearts in his hand. Dan had amazed him as well as those listening over the WCAL airwaves. The DJ was stunned to say the least. After watching how slick and calm Dan Carmichael was when performing his card trick in front of his friend Taylor, and hearing how composed he was during the radio broadcast of his trick, it can be seen without a doubt that Dan loves what he does and he will do nothing more than continue to get better at it. Dan Carmichael is a unique individual and as soon as one thinks they know him, he will pull a card you were not expecting. Dan Mader is a sophomore at California University of Pennsylvania, where he is majoring in Journalism. He enjoys sports, professional wrestling, and listening to music. Explore more of his website at danmader.weebly.com. |