Magician mystifies students during show

Greta Fishback

Magician Norman Ng began Tuesday's "The Norman Magic Experience" show in Dede I with a simple question.

"Do you like money?" he asked to fire up the audience. One audience member then became outstandingly excited.

"Please sir, keep your clothes on," Ng joked with the audience member.

He then transformed a rectangular piece of plastic into five 100-dollar bills.

"The more energy you guys have, the more fun we're gonna have here tonight."

Ng performed both classic and original magic tricks in his show. One trick involved mindreading, in which he made a bowling ball appear and fall out of a sketchpad onto the stage.

He also performed a few card tricks that involved mindreading. He chose Phillip Gootee, a sophomore mathematics and computer science major, from the audience for one mindreading trick.

"Phillip, before the show I know you were something special-not in a creepy way," Ng said.

Ng began the trick by fanning out half a deck of cards in each hand.

"That's not magic," Ng said, referring to the feat he just performed. "That just means I have no life."

Ng proceeded to perform the trick by having another audience member choose a giant card from a deck.

He asked Gootee to guess what card the audience member chose, and after two attempts (and after instructing the audience to put two fingers on their temples and hum), Gootee guessed correctly.

( Video: Magic Show)

Throughout the show Tuesday, Ng took many other volunteers on stage to assist in his tricks.

Alicia Hicks, a freshman nursing major, was one of the volunteers and said she had fun.

( Slideshow: Magic Show)

"I was nervous," she said. "But the show was good. It was entertaining."

Ng also joked with the audience about people always mispronouncing his last name.