No one is too old to be entertained by a magician. Especially when the magician is five-time Guinness World Record Holder, John Cassidy.

Students in Lang Auditorium tried to decipher what the various balloons, trunks, decks of cards and other props sitting on stage could mean. 

Then in a rupture of excitement, Cassidy bounced onto stage, creating balloon characters ranging from a giraffe to Charlie Brown, to the Roadrunner and finally ending with a dozen flowers which he threw into the crowd, showering audience members.

Pulling up Kaylee Wilson as a volunteer, Cassidy used a disappearing toilet paper trick where he alternated a ball of paper between his hands to confuse Wilson before throwing it over her shoulder while she was not looking. 

“I felt dumb,” said Wilson, accounting and actuary science double major. “I had never been in a magic show before so I was like ‘um-what?’ It was a lot of fun though.”

Cassidy’s show incorporated all of his favorite things including magic, balloons and unsafe toys from the 60’s, Not to mention the one-liners, bribes of cash and candy, as well as audience participation to make the show both dazzling and flashy for the spectators and volunteers pulled on stage.

UNI’s Campus Activities Board (CAB) selected Cassidy’s show due in part to the life lessons Cassidy taught during his performance. His lessons orbited around choosing adventure over fear, finding the true values in your life and remembering to laugh at the simple things.

Wilson was not the only audience member to be amazed, ashamed and embarrassed by Cassidy’s manipulation. Five other audience members were pulled on stage to participate in his manipulative acts and tricks from his “trunk of terror.”

 Sage, another audience member, was tormented with an exploding chipmunk, a flame-throwing doll and Dora the Explorer before doing a card trick that required using a house of cards and LED lights. Sage’s humiliation was not in vain as he walked away with $5 and a balloon sculpture featuring a stripper on a pole.

The tricks that followed kept the audience in fits of laughter and amazement with displays like a crying baby’s box, petting a biting bird’s beak, a ping pong ball gauntlet gun, the Home Depot bucket of truth and as a finale, a balloon large enough for Cassidy to crawl inside of in order to retrieve a card. 

“You know what’s weird? Four year olds catch on to these tricks by now,” Cassidy said.