Even as a nine-year-old, while up-selling tickets for his home-made magic show at the Kool-aid stand outside his house, John Kaplan had a knack for entertaining people.
But it's unlikely even Kaplan would have realized he'd still be drawing people in with his tricks for another 46 years.
Richmondite Kaplan has been reinventing his magic show for longer than most of the parents he continues to surprise have been alive.
And while traditional entertainers - such as clowns, whose numbers are a dying breed in North America, due to lack of popularity - are seemingly on the slide, magic shows, and the men and women who perform them, appear to be relatively immune to the trend and are alive and kicking.
"Like anything else, there are peaks and valleys," said Kaplan, who graduated from high school in 1975 and, after a brief stint as a radio DJ, has been a magician all his life.
"What amazes me is how magic has managed to remain popular right through the decades.
"Cirque du Soleil has revitalized the circus and So You Think You can Dance has revitalized dancing. In magic, people in magic are coming up with new ways all the time to present the magic and I think that's what keeps it fresh. I have several themed shows and I change the formats all the time."
As long as there are families who want to be together and have fun, Kaplan added, "then I think magic shows will keep on surviving."
It's something you may see for yourself when the magic man performs the last show on his spring tour next Friday, May 30 at Hamilton Community Centre.
But in the age of hi-def, 3-D, interactive, multi-themed entertainment for both adults and kids, how has Kaplan himself remained relevant to his audience after almost 50 years on the stage? What you're unlikely to see is Kaplan "dying" on stage as had been the case in his younger magician years, either through no fault of his own or by facing the toughest audience of them all - your teenage peers.
"My shows now are 90 per cent fundraisers for a family audience," said Kaplan, who puts on his shows for a fee and lets the hosts raise as much money as possible with his help.
"I recall as a young performer, I struggled with the high school audiences; possibly in terms of keeping their attention and having the experience to handle the situation and, once they sense fear, you're done," said Kaplan, who had up to 15 cast and crew for bigger stage productions in the past, but now generally has two assistants and a stage tech for tours.
"People can use the shows as an event to raise funds. It's a system I've developed over the years and one that has helped magicians all over the world stay alive and is one of the reasons I've managed to stay successful all these years.
"I love what I do, love entertaining people and love to travel and, being creatively minded, I come up with new ways to present tricks all the time."
"There have been some heartbreaking moments and I did have a show once that practically everything went wrong. How you deal with that makes a massive difference, though.
One of the latest to emerge from Kaplan's bag of tricks is levitating a six-year-old on a surfboard.
"Even now, no-one is immune to things going wrong. The trick in those situations is to learn to gloss over it. With magic shows, you are dealing with the element of surprise, so as long as you don't tell them, they won't know it went wrong."
AbracaDAZZLE, a familyoriented magic and illusion show, performs Friday, May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Hamilton Community Centre, 5140 Smith Dr. All profits go to go to the Hamilton Community Association. For tickets, call Derrick Bloomfield or Sarah Ahluwalia on 604-718-8055.
