Homegrown illusionist with big plans

Gavin Howe, from Goedeburg, is only 22, but his obvious skills in misdirection and card play have already opened doors for him.

Howe said he will start working as a croupier at Emperors Palace in February.

He has lived in Benoni his whole life, attending Arbor Primary School and Benoni High School.

When Howe was 12, his father died of cancer, which had a deep impact on him, as they had been close.

“I lost all my confidence after that and I was an arty kid, but didn’t have anything into which to channel it,” he said.

“When I was 16, I started in magic, just practising, working out little things.”

After matriculating, he worked for one year, after which he took a year to practise magic.

“That year was when everything started building up,” he explained.

“My mom was awesome, she said she could see me going into magic, instead of doing tertiary study.

“Most parents wouldn’t let their kids sit at home for a year, playing with cards all day – that’s asking a lot.”

Howe also spent a year in Thailand, further perfecting his craft.

He has been learning from mentor “Tricky” Trevor Duffy, another local magic connoisseur, for the past two years.

“The hardest thing Duffy made me do was to leave magic when going out, to just go to people and just talk to them.”

“He would say: ‘Go to that group of people, talk to them and don’t leave until they like you’; that really helped to build up my confidence.

“Before that I was good at magic, but shy, trembling when doing tricks in public.”

Howe said he met Duffy’s son while he was doing magic in a bar one night.

Some of his most recent performances include an orphanage in Boksburg and Tembisa Hospital, where Howe showed burn victims his tricks.

“Tembisa was hard,” he said.

”The kids were burn victims, so I tried to get them to pick cards and stuff, but some of them were just too sick.”

At the moment Howe makes his living off magic, but he has studied to become a croupier at a casino.

He wants to work at the high roller tables, saying he has already been hired by Emperors Palace.

From there, he will look for work on a cruise ship, which is his dream job.

“I’d like to travel while doing magic; that’s the goal,” he said.

Howe described Dai Vernon as his greatest idol.

“Dai Vernon is one of the biggest names in magic, but only magicians know him,” he said.

“He was one of the guys who started with card tricks and he even fooled Houdini with a card trick.”

According to Howe, Vernon developed three basic principles for magicians to follow as entertainers:

• What does the audience like and how do they feel?
• What the magician does and the effect it has.
• How the audience feels when the magician walks away.

“Basically, if you meet a grumpy person and you don’t change their mood with a trick, then you didn’t achieve anything,” Howe added.

Another of his idols is street magician Dynamo, who has made his name with televised street magic.

Howe revealed the secret behind a few small tricks, one featuring a coin, which jumps from one hand to the other.

This trick doesn’t involve any illusion or misdirection, Howe makes the coin jump using the muscles in his hand, which he developed over two years.

He said it takes about a week to perfect a card trick, although this depends on the trick.

“I believe what I do is very important, not only as entertainment, but as inspiration,” Howe said when asked why he loved magic.

“Everything in your pocket was once a magic trick, and I am part of that by developing new tricks.

“Think about your camera; all that once was, was taking a frame, freezing it, and that amazed people; it was a magic trick.

“If you don’t believe what you’re doing is important, you shouldn’t do it.”

Beside the importance and fun of it, Howe said he gets a lot of free goodies during his excursions, like drinks at a bar.

Though he has mostly relied on word of mouth so far, Howe works through Duffy and an agent at Standing Ovation to get his name out in public.