Shazam! New twists on old tricks

FALLS VILLAGE — The Falls Village Congregational Church presents The Sandy Rhoades Magic Show Saturday, July 13, at the Lee H. Kellogg Elementary School for 50-minute shows at 4 and 7 p.m. Rhoades, a veteran magician in the classic tradition, is president of the Waterbury, Conn., Society of Magicians Assembly No. 29. He has been performing magic since the age of 13. (He is now in his 70s.)On July 13, he will perform the show-stopping “lady floating in mid-air” illusion, which he learned from a Chicago magician named Jack Gwynne, who was nationally famous from the end of the vaudeville era in the late 1920s to his death in 1969.Gwynne was noted for taking his magic act away from the standard theater presentation, on a stage, and into the round, performing in nightclubs and other venues.In 1947 Gwynne invented the levitation illusion, and Rhoades, a teenager in Northern California, saw photos of it in magic magazines.Rhoades was interested anyway. “I was the classic nerdy kid,” he said. After seeing a magician at a county fair, he decided to try his hand at it — and has been doing it ever since.He has built his own version of the trick, which he says is unique and cannot be purchased from a magic supply shop.Tickets are $5 for children under 12 and $8 for adults. For information, call 860-824-7651. Tickets are available from church members, from the Falls Village Daycare Center (860-824-0882) or at the door.The show is a benefit for Falls Village Congregational Church and Falls Village Daycare.