CHRISTOPHER JAMES – GIVING MAGIC TO THE WORLD

By Rod Drown

Mysteries do not always present themselves in obvious ways. Christopher James, for example, is a young man you would probably not suspect, if you saw him on a street corner or a transit bus, of being a magician. Possessed of a pleasant face and manner, he does not bring to mind swirling capes and black top hats. I imagine he may have some of these props but he didn’t have them with him the day I met him.

But how he seizes your amazement and delivers it back to you twice fold! He energizes you with wonder. He is one fine magician.

An opening trick: he suggests you take a perfectly ordinary playing card from a nice new deck and silently memorize it. Then, without having seen what it is, he places it face down on your open palm and you, moving your other palm on top, enclose it between your lightly closed hands. You know the card travels unchanged from his fingers to your palms. Then, the next card in the deck is shown to you and waved over top of and underneath your hands. At no time do the cards touch each other, and yet Christopher is able to pull away with the card that was in your hands and leave you with his card in your hands. Somehow, the cards have changed their identities or he has exchanged them. You realize then that some sleight of hand must have happened – yet you saw nothing. Nothing at all – yet you thought you were watching all the time!

Mandrake Returns?

Recently I was a one-man audience for Vancouver magician Christopher James. Decades ago, when I was in my early teenage years, I used to be fascinated by a rather fantastic comic strip called “Mandrake the Magician”. The last episode I remember before the strip disappeared (leaving me very puzzled and disappointed) was one where somehow Mandrake conjured up a baby peeking from behind a full moon.

Mandrake the Magician in action – not quite the child behind the Moon but still pretty impressive...

Performance-wise, is Christopher James in the direct line of descent from Mandrake? Yes, to say the least. And at the other end of bewilderment’s range? He is simply astounding.

He showed me quite a few of his performance pieces. For me, two left me especially baffled. One has been described above. At no time did he touch my hands, reach in between them to pull out the card, hide my eyes from my hands or do any visibly tricky things I could see. It was impossible for the card to change – yet it did!

The second one involved time or, at least, one of its real world representatives – a pocket watch. Time, generally speaking, is one of the world’s most mysterious, most intriguing qualities. The essence of time is poetic – it is there but belies description. The trick was quite elaborate and multi-stepped. It involved a deck of cards and a rather old-fashioned pocket watch, of the kind high in the affections of railroad men.

In this trick, my job was to choose an hour. I freely chose an hour and that hour was linked to a playing card from a deck that I shuffled. The watch I was holding was set to that hour and then, when I looked at the back of the watch, I found that the card I had picked was engraved on the back of the pocket watch! At no time had I looked at the back of the watch and I have no idea how Christopher James manages to ensure that, in the beginning of the trick, the card I initially choose will match – in suit and number – the engraving on the watch back!

Christopher James levitates a table
photo by Lyren Lanthier

Another trick was where he had me taking another card (again unknown to him) and shuffling it back in the deck. Then, he said, “Ready your mind" and announced what the card was. He then repeated it, but this time while I had the card hidden behind my back.

Another one involved two decks of playing cards that are set out at the same time. I flipped over one card in one of the decks and put the cards back into the box. Without touching either of the decks, Christopher calmly asked me if I would like to change my mind. I took him up on his offer and changed which card I picked. To my mystified delight the same card was flipped over the other deck that was sitting on the table the whole time.

Truth's Sideways Scene

Being a magician requires a high level of manual dexterity. Christopher James’ dexterous expertise is well demonstrated in what might be called the perfect shuffling trick. Like all of his performances, it was quite amazing. In this one, this young magician shows you a deck of cards that, on edge, have a sequence of regular lines that cross the entire side of the deck. In this one the procedure goes like this: I choose a card, memorize it and then hide it in the deck. James then carefully and perfectly shuffles this deck so that, in the end, the regular sequence of lines on the edge of the deck turns into the name of the card I had hidden in the deck. Incredible!

I also made some money from Christopher. This was one where the coins vanished from one hand and appeared in the other. This trick included Christopher creating an extra twoonie in my hands that I got to keep.

Finally, he closed on the talk about card cheating after finding the aces in the deck several times. In the end, I handled the cards myself and mixed them up the whole time, only to find that I had cut to the four aces myself too.

Preparing to transform some cards...

An Olympic Prediction

Such is Christopher James, Magician par excellence. And he had one more feat up his sleeve. Several weeks before the Olympic Games he made a prediction of how many medals Canada would win in Beijing and what they would be. He placed his written prediction in a sealed chest, which was set aside beyond his control.

On Saturday, August 9th, at the Blu VIP Lounge in Vancouver, following a show which included the Benjamin Price Trio and stunning stage magic, (including flowers appearing in flashes of fire, levitations, thought perception, and various other amazing pieces), Christopher's correct prediction was revealed to everyone present: that Canada would win 18 medals -- 3 Gold, 9 Silver, and 6 Bronze! He was bang on!

The Magical Future of Christopher James

Christopher James told me that he would love to be performing his magic in various settings. Cruise Ships would be perfect for his stage show, and he hopes to be performing on them as soon as he can. He also is a wonderful addition to any corporate event that needs world-class entertainment. His magic caters to the adult crowd by being smart, fun, and in defiance of the laws of nature.

His close-up magic is exceptional and can be performed at any function or venue, including restaurants and nightclubs who want to be a “hot spot” with some of Vancouver’s best entertainment. His unique style of magic also works amazingly for weddings, private parties, and special events.

Christopher James also regularly donates performances to various charities in the Lower Mainland and is always open to working with new charities.

Christopher James' website can be found at www.christopher-james.com