How to Make Magic: Magician North Van Reveals Life’s Tricks

It doesn’t matter if they are singing for one of the royal families of Europe or for children in an orphanage in South America. When he magically makes someone’s book appear, the result for North Vancouver magician Paul Romhany is always the same.

“It gives people the experience of wonder that we all had as children,” he says. “This is just the pure love of magic.”

Growing up in New Zealand, Romhany had two transformative experiences at the age of eight – seeing a Charlie Chaplin silent film and watching a magician perform. Almost instantly, he had guessed the direction of his life.

“I always tell people that I wasted the first eight years of my life not knowing what I wanted to do,” he jokes.

By the time he was 21, Romhany had graduated from college and was working as a high school music teacher, but he found he was making more money performing magic at parties than he could as an educator, so he set out to perform internationally.

“To my parents’ dismay,” he adds.

Over the past 35 years, he has performed in 125 different countries, featuring on cruise ships, TV shows and historic theater stages.

As a performer, Romhany is a master of close-up magic, comedy and mind reading, but about half of his act is done in persona of his idol Chaplin.

“Because of course it’s a silent act and you can work anywhere,” he said, “It’s just such an icon, a legend.”

Real life magic

A life on the road is hard, Romhany can tell you. You can travel a long way to play for an empty hall. An artist’s family always pays a price. Romhany may hold the record for the most times an airline loses luggage in one year – 14.

“The disappearing act trick is not one of my favorites,” he said.

Once, while going through security at an airport in Brazil, Romhany ran into trouble when inspectors took a closer look at the components of a trick he does to make snow appear from his hands.

“You can’t get the mechanics of this trick through an airport check. It looks like a bomb,” he said.

Getting out of trouble is a lot harder when there’s a language barrier, but when he dropped the name David Copperfield, tough audiences were willing to give him a chance.

“I arrived at the airport with machine guns on me, making a huge snowstorm out of my hands,” he said with a laugh.

But Romhany has no regrets because she possesses something of true magical power. Whether it’s a knack for living vicariously through his audience or having a deeper sense of empathy than most, every time Romhany does a trick, he feels a certain spark, as if it’s the first time he’s done it.

“I saw it for the 100,000th time. They saw it for the first time. And really the magic for me is their reaction. That’s what really amazes me,” he said. “Because I’m a big kid and that childlike wonder never went away. He is always there with me. I’m wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt right now.”

Magic words

When his son was born 13 years ago, Romhany knew traveling would be a lot harder, but he wanted to stay in the business, so he started publishing Vanish, a trade magazine for magicians and magic fans. It showcases up-and-coming performers, and Romhany enjoys showcasing diverse artists who might otherwise go unrecognized. Today, Vanish reaches around 80,000 subscribers.

For this, the Academy of Magical Arts awarded Romhany the Literary and Media Fellowship recognition last month.

“Honestly, I still can’t believe it,” he said. “It’s like the biggest honor in our business. They say it’s like the Oscars.”

Fittingly, the theater in Los Angeles where he received the award was one Chaplin built in 1927.

And now for my next trick

At this stage in his career, Romhany still performs on stage and at private events. He has dates booked in Europe, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. But he spends more time consulting for other magicians, writing books about magic, and inventing new tricks that he can sell.

He recently came up with a TV magician trick where he devised a way to make someone’s butterfly tattoo turn into the real thing.

A famous magician never reveals his tricks, and in this respect Romhany is no different. But he doesn’t mind sharing a little more of the real-life magic behind his act that doesn’t involve sleight of hand.

The secret, said Romhany, is knowing how to observe the everyday.

“When I look at the world, I see things a little differently. I might see a butterfly and that will magically spark something in my mind. What can I do with a butterfly?” he said.