Children sit patiently at the North Bay Public Library waiting to learn the "tricks of the trade" from magician Jean Deshaies. Photo by Christine Roy.
When several children pointed out a problem with one of Jean Deshaies’s magic tricks, he performed the trick again with a correction.
Holding his wand in his left hand, Deshaies squeezed his wrist and slowly opened his hand. The wand “floats” against his palm but only his thumb and three of his fingers are showing around his wrist.
“Then you just do this,” Deshaies told them, sliding his fourth finger into place and stunning the kids into silence, letting them wonder how it is that the wand is floating now without any of his fingers holding it against his palm.
There’s a trick to it, of course!
Deshaies hosted a magic workshop at the North Bay Public Library on Monday evening. A gathering of 15 to 16 children registered for the workshop, including Jan Sabourin’s two grand-daughters, Emily and Katie Hind.
“Hats off to people who are doing this event,” Sabourin said. Mondays are “grandma days” with her grand-daughters and they had a busy one for this year’s March break with so many activities organized within the area.
Emily, 9, and Katie, 7, are no strangers to the library.
“They both love reading, they always have a friend in a book,” Sabourin says. “But it’s great socializing at the library.”
As part of the library’s March break activities, Deshaies also performed for an audience on Tuesday morning.
“I need a volunteer who is very calm, who can hold still for at least one minute,” he announced for one of his tricks.
“Who wants to float?” he asked, which caused small hands to shoot up, eager to volunteer.
Dressed in a suit with purple accents—tie, socks, and even shoes, he said came from Paris—he looks the part of a magician, though the black top hat stays on his table.
“I’m going to Powassan later,” he said before the start of the show.
Born in Trois Rivières and now living in Quebec, Deshaies travels between Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick to perform and lead workshops.
It’s not his first time in North Bay and it certainly won’t be the last. Northern communities stay in touch about such events and work together to provide entertainment for kids.
“The libraries in this area all talk to each other. I have two more workshops later. Being busy is good.”
As for how the wand in his hand floats all by itself, that’s a secret he only reveals at his workshops.
