The District Magazine 2017 Annual "Art in Locality" Guide | Page 14

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Cory Van Valin
Magician
Cory2v.com
How long have you been a magician?
When I was kid, I always wanted to be a… doctor, but
my parents convinced me to be a magician… well, not
really.
I’ve been a full time professional magician for about six
years.
How did you get started?
At the age of 17 I went on YouTube to learn tricks to
impress a girl on a valentines date. I never went on that
date, but I kept the magic! While doing and sharing
what I loved, I got picked up weekly to perform at
venues throughout Tampa Bay 3-4 nights a week, which
gave me the needed experience and exposure to
pickup private parties and events to launch my career.
What was your 2017 year like?
Best year yet! Three trips through Vegas, performances
in New York, New Orleans, a Carnival Cruise ship,
Burning Man, appeared on Fox 13, PBS, and CW44 as
well with a handful of appearances on radio stations.
Do you ever teach people any of your magic?
When it comes to the tricks I do, I teach people the
wrong way of how I don’t do it! But one day soon, I see
having a DVD/Download teaching nine amazing and
practical party tricks that I started off with, all of which
can be learned on YouTube, but taught by a working
professional magician, instead of a 9 year old amateur
kid in another country.
Can you teach us a trick right now?
Yeah! This trick especially works best if you’re in Florida
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and it’s hot and sunny out! All you need is a deck of
cards, and when you have a buddy or stranger select a
card, when they look at their card, you just have to look
in the reflection of their sunglasses! Now instead of just
telling them their card, find a cool way to reveal their
card in any way you find creative!
What is your craziest magic trick?
Some say, the first trick that went viral on social media
is my craziest trick, where a girl thinks of a card, and I
throw the deck at the window, and the card she thought
of is stuck on the other side of the window!
To me though, my craziest trick is done to myself. I ask
someone to name any card in the deck; there are times