Local magician performs at The Venue

Evan “Brightside” Voss glanced through his notes last night before his performance at The Venue, Fine Arts and Gifts. With his first magic show since May minutes away, his feet trembled beneath his chair.

As the 45-minute show came to a close, parents and children held jaw-dropped smiles in the small front showroom of The Venue.  

“That was awesome,” curator of The Venue Gabriel Colman said after the show. “He brought an art to the magic.”

Colman schedules a different artist at The Venue every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. He met Voss through Jim Keplinger, a professional magician and owner of That’s A Rub Massage Therapy Center.

“Evan was a great recommendation,” Colman said. “My favorite trick was when he switched the card from red to black behind his arm.”
Voss focused on card tricks for the children attending the show.
“You guys are excellent at hiding stuff,” he said as he searched for a card. “I’m pretty good at hiding stuff too.”

For another trick, Voss magically vomited up a deck of cards, which caused the room to fill with laughter.

“I’ve been a little sick,” Voss said. “I’ve got the card flu.”

Voss has been practicing magic for seven years and performing for six.

“My English teacher Tom (Hastings) of Harmony School taught me my first card tricks,” he said.

Voss said he is also influenced by David Copperfield and Jeff McBride. He has seen two of Copperfield’s three performances at the IU Auditorium.

“David Copperfield is the first magician I’ve ever seen live,” he said. “I saw him last year, and he reinstilled the magic in me.”

Bloomington resident Corey Grabczak and his son Henry Grabczak enjoyed Voss’s magic show along with the two-dimensional art hanging in the different showrooms of The Venue.

Henry was one of many volunteers during the show. He described his favorite “shark painting” and discussed ways he could perform magic.

“We’ve never been here before,” Corey Grabczak said after the performance. “I saw an advertisement for the magic show, and we decided to come. This is a nice place.”

Voss ended the show by performing simple addition and subtraction with the Chinese linked-ring trick, one of his many tricks for the stage.

Voss looks forward to performing more in the future. His next show will be Jan. 22 at Rachael’s Café with the group Stay Up!

“This made me want to jump back into performing,” Voss said.