It's no illusion, Ryan Michael is truly a magical wizard.
You won't find his tricks on YouTube or in any books and it's unlikely you'll guess how they're done. In fact, he might leave you so bewildered that you're brought to tears. That's happened at least once.
Everyone has a different reaction when they're duped by his slight of hand. Some laugh uncontrollably. Others sit silently with their mouth agape, while others get violent, threatening physical harm if the secret behind the trick isn't immediately revealed.
Magician Ryan Michael, better known in Jasper as Ryan Lackey, has seen it all in the last few years as he’s dived deeper into the world of magic.
His first show was during the 2014 Jasper Pride Festival and since then he's logged more than 100 others, all of which are recorded—along with notes and constructive criticisms—in a 67-page document on his cellphone.
His fascination with magic started when he was just seven years old, however, it wasn't until a few years ago, when he happened to find a magic shop in Calgary, that he really started to foster it, turning magic into a part-time job and full-time passion.
“Magic has everything,” he said. “In an age of instant information where you can literally Google anything, I love being able to show someone something two inches from their face and they have no explanation for it whatsoever and they can't Google it—it's not something you can just find.”
Lackey started out a few years ago, practicing tricks he found online, but it wasn't long before he had them mastered and he needed something more challenging, so he went out in search of seasoned magicians to become his mentors.
“When you start to establish yourself, you've learned all the YouTube tricks, then you start to reach out and find other people and they teach you stuff.
“It’s amazing how tight knit the magic community is—you'd almost think they'd want to keep the magic to themselves, but no, it's such a tight knit community and they're so open.
“John Byng was the first guy I ever met that was an actual magician and he started teaching me.”
Byng is a Hinton magician who, according to Lackey, is too shy to actually perform his tricks in front of a large crowd, so instead he creates them and teaches them to other magicians.
“He'll sit down with a deck of cards and he'll figure out something that no one's ever thought of before and figure out a way to make it deceptive and then he'll teach me.”
Lackey will then sit in his basement—where's he's spent countless hours over the last few years— perfecting the trick, placing himself in front of a mirror and video camera and practicing it over and over again.
“From a mirror you can see, 'OK my angles are good,' but from a video camera you can break it down and say, 'OK I shouldn't do that like that.' From the video camera you get the feeling of how you're explaining that trick to the audience and what others are perceiving from it.”
After hours of repetition, Lackey then tests his new trick on his friends and parents—“they're pretty tired of seeing magic”—and then he takes it out on the town, performing it for unsuspecting folks at the bar. Once it's ready, then he'll finally add it to his show.
“Getting up in front of 50 people and singing a song is a lot different than trying to fool each one of them,” he said, explaining the importance of getting the trick just right before unleashing it on the world.
Over the summer, Lackey had a gig at Tekkara Lodge, performing magic once a week for guests, and he's also had numerous shows at El Mundo Loco over the past year. He even performed at Wild Mountain Music Festival and had a show at the Jasper Legion with veteran magician Rik Hall.
This weekend, Oct. 24, he will return to the legion for a solo show, where he plans to unleash some never before seen tricks and donate a third of the proceeds to charity.
On Saturday afternoon from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. there will be a kids show with a third of the proceeds going to the Jasper Legion's Veteran Adventures program, which allows veterans to borrow camping and recreation gear when they come to town.
That evening, there will be an adult show beginning at 7 p.m. with a third of the proceeds going to the President’s Choice Children’s Charity.
“People can expect some crazy mind blowing surprises,” he said, encouraging everyone to come down. “When I get up there people are going to see me, plus 100 dead magicians behind me, with all of their knowledge and experience backing me up on stage. It's going to be wicked.”
Nicole Veerman
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