Mirko Callace
Master
of Bubbles Prepares to Wow Korea
Young Argentine magician Mirko
Callaci (27), who swept the world's magic competitions as a
university student, has come to Korea for the first time.
He will match his skills with leading foreign and Korean
magicians like Choi Hyun-woo, Noh Byeong-wuk, Lu, Tony
Hassini and Tommy Wonder at the "2005 World Star Magic
Show" to be held at Chungmu Art Hall from Thursday to
Sunday.
Mirko told
the Chosun Ilbo he had been performing tricks like juggling
and making coins disappear in front of relatives since he
was little boy. Young Mirko was one of many children who in
those parts run to the entrance of his village to greet the
circus when it comes to town. But unlike many he found an
ally in his mother, and still treasures the box of
children's magic tools she gave him on his fifth birthday.
"My mother
never told me to quit magic and study. She always
encouraged me, saying that since I perform magic well, I'd
be able to do other things well too. Even among magicians,
I had a charmed childhood,” he says.
Still, Mirko
studies psychology in Buenos Aires. That too is due to his
mother’s influence. "She advised me to study
psychology because it would help me read my audience." On
stage, he specializes in soap bubbles, for which he has
about 30 tricks up his sleeve, including making soap
bubbles the size of baseballs disappear and reappear,
filling bubbles with cigarette smoke and turning bubbles
into doves. His homepage (www.mirkomagic.com) features a
bubble performance he did on French TV.
Why soap
bubbles? "Doesn't everyone in the world have pleasant
memories of playing with soap bubbles?" he asks back. With
music box music in the background, something his mother
played for him when he was young, he puts a long bubble to
his lips and moves his fingers as if playing a flute, for
all the world like the Pied Piper of Hamelin in the fairy
tale.
Mirko watched younger Korean magicians perform overseas
“and I felt their speed and force, as if watching a
Jackie Chan film." He tried to learn from their
prestidigitation using a magic 50-cent coin. In his suit
pocket, there was a fluorescent pen, trump card, specially
made 50-cent coin about the size of a cup holder, and a
fake rock with the consistency of a sponge. A magician,
like a boy scout, is always prepared. But scout’s
honor demands that he does not divulge his secrets.
"If
people ask me after the show how I made the coin disappear
or where the 8 of Spades went, the show wasn't successful.
Really good magic gets the audience so caught up in
emotions and interest that there's no room for them to
wonder what trick I did," he said.
