Spokane magicians find the trick to creating wonder

One might say Brendan Smith has eyes in the back of his head.

First, he literally has an eye tattooed on the back of his head. But he also seems to have a second sight, pulling thoughts from someone else’s mind during a mentalism and magic performance. Part storefront psychic, part Sherlock Holmes, Smith gazes in his volunteer’s eyes, reads reactions and tells his spectator their favorite color, the name of someone close and a favorite place – all merely thought of, never spoken. The audience doesn’t know whether to gasp or applaud. They do both.

But that’s not the real trick. Off stage, Smith reveals the secret is being able to stand and speak to a group of people.

“I’ve suffered from social anxiety that has gotten worse as I’ve become an adult,” Smith said.

Smith found his support group in the Spokane Magic Club. It’s a local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, a worldwide group of professionals and hobbyist conjurers with local groups, called Rings. It meets twice a month and also puts on public shows and competitions, such as the Close-Up Contest, where Smith participated on a recent Saturday.

“I’ve only performed three times in front of crowds,” Smith said. “But each time, it’s something I can look back on. Now when I feel that anxiety welling up in me, I can say, ‘I performed on a stage. I can do it.’ ”

The Spokane Magic Club formed after Expo ’74 and became IBM Ring 225. Similar groups meet in more than three dozen countries and nearly every state. Other Rings are registered in Tacoma, Seattle and Lynnwood, Washington.

“Not everyone is a magician, though a lot of them are, like a number of them are actually just lovers of magic,” said Lam Chan, a 20-year member of Spokane Magic. “They don’t do any magic themselves, but they just like coming to the club.”

Chan won the Close-Up Contest for the sixth time during the 2025 gathering Oct. 18. Still, he’s not a full-time professional.

“I would say I’m a professional magician, although I don’t do it for a living,” Chan said. “I like to do magic on a professional level.”

Chan borrowed a dollar from an audience member. Chan vanished the dollar. He then performed the Cups and Balls, an ancient effect that historians have dated to ancient Egypt. At the end, a ball transformed into a lemon. Inside the lemon, was the same borrowed bill, recognizable by distinguished markings, that had earlier disappeared.

Live performances of magic have blossomed in recent years, boosted by social media and television shows like the CW Network’s “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” and “Masters of Illusion.”

What’s really amazing, Cameron Brow said, is the reactions he gets performing live, as he does from 5 to 8 p.m. each Friday for patrons of Shawn O’Donnell’s Irish Pub.

“The social landscape has changed a lot, and while it seems to be harder to have social contacts in a person to person way, it’s also more exciting, when it happens,” said Brow, runner-up at the Close-Up Contest. “Because it’s not somebody in their phone and it’s not conversing over a comments section. It’s something happening right in front of you.”

Because magicians will tell you it’s not about the trick. It’s about how it’s done.

“I don’t want to conceal a trick – I want to create wonder,” said Julia Hunton, a Spokane magician. She crafts her magic routines around stories such as Scheherazade, who entertains a murderous king with her “1001 Nights” of stories.

“It’s about taking a world that seems in disarray and showing that anything is possible,” she said. “I don’t want to perform tricks. I want to create art.”

To learn more about Spokane Magic Club, visit spokanemagicclub.org.