“The pandemic hit the gig worker very hard. Normally, as a magician, I would be wrapping up a busy season of magic shows for parties. But no parties means no need for entertainment.

“I usually perform for the Houston Children’s Museum and for private children’s birthday parties. When those all had to be canceled, I felt bad for the kids. So I adapted by offering free streaming magic shows via Zoom.

“I set up my laptop in my living room with a webcam to create the feel of being in the living room of the kids watching online. It worked well, but I initially hated it. After I made some tweaks to the show, they got a lot better and a lot more fun to perform.

“Magicians set up online groups to offer each other advice on hardware and material that would play well in a streaming environment. A small investment for additional equipment made my shows a lot better for streaming, and I opened up performances for adult audiences.

“With this new medium comes new techniques. I can take advantage of the one angle all viewers have while watching the streaming shows.

“Through the new online communities for magicians, I’ve made many new friends from all over the world. I’ve had the opportunity to share my knowledge by teaching other magicians tricks, techniques and other ways to make their performances even better. This also opened up more sales for me, as I’m a creator of magic with several products that I sell through an online distributor.

“The silver lining in this new world that we live in has been the chance to get creative, learn new techniques, and expand my services for online shows and training other magicians. Fortunately, I have a day job so the economic impact has not been as devastating for me as it has for many full-time gig workers.”

— Jamie Salinas

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“I’m a blooming author, I guess you could say. I actually have published two books, the first one in 2017. I had the idea for it back in sixth grade and wrote it then. I kind of lost focus with the project for a bit. Then in 10th grade, I picked it back up and rewrote it to completion, edited it, self-published it, and put it out there. It’s called ‘The Magic Discovery.’ It’s about this girl, and she’s introduced into the world of magic. She discovers that there are two main groups of magicians. They’re neither good nor bad. They just have different beliefs on how magic should be used. And she discovers that there’s a deep divide between them and … sorry, no spoilers. I feel like as I was writing, I was unconsciously creating a metaphor to represent America today, how divided we are.

“My second book, ‘The Fall of Magic,’ is the continuation of events in the first book. And I’m almost done with the third book, which is the final one in the series. It’s about 500 pages, last I checked. The writing itself is done. It’s just the revision that’s taking a while.

“Another thing about my books is that I have mixed elements of Japanese culture within them. I’m studying Japanese at the moment, and I’m going to take a trip to Japan soon. I hope to eventually move to Japan and work there.”

What do your parents think about that?
“They’re probably worried. But they support me.”

— Madilyn Lawrence

Madilyn, 18, is a student at IMPACT Early College High School. She was born bilaterally and profoundly deaf. Her books are available on Amazon.

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• Perseverance helps student overcome deafness

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“At my day job, I manage tech support for the Harris County Department of Education. We provide support services to all the schools in the county. Along with that, I volunteer through our head start programs. I read to children once a month at two different schools. These are kids who may come from broken homes or disadvantaged parts of town. The head start program basically makes sure they don’t fall through the cracks and aren’t behind when they enter public school.

“As a magician, I do lots of kids shows, parties and family-type events, so I’m really good with kids. When one of the principals told me about this mentor program where people from the community come in and read to the kids, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity.

“A lot of these kids don’t have fathers or a male role model in their lives. I love seeing how some of them who start out real quiet and shy when I meet them are interacting with other students and so open to learning by the end of the year.

“To me, life is about learning. It’s a good feeling to know that in some small way, I’m helping them to open up and be ready to learn.”

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“I think the biggest intrigue for people about magic is the unknown. Just the amazement factor of watching a trick and not having a clue how it happened.

“I’ve been performing magic for 30 years, the last 25 professionally, and I’ve worked in a lot of venues. A memorable time was when an agent called and asked if I could go to the Houstonian Hotel for a private event. I had done lots of events, and sometimes there would be a senator there.

“When you arrive, Secret Service will check your bags and that sort of thing for security purposes. So as I’m performing at this event, I notice there are a lot more Secret Service agents than usual. Then all of a sudden, someone tells me that President George Bush is about to come in. They say, ‘You’re going to do one trick for him. You’re going to spend no more than 5 minutes, and then you’re going to move on. You cannot ask him for an autograph. You cannot take a picture with him holding a deck of cards or any kind of props. You can only take a picture with him shaking hands.’

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Related:

• Presidential performance highlights magic career
• Magician helps less fortunate kids get a head start

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