Mesmerized by Magic
By Jeanette Tallant

Kevin Bethea was on a successful climb up the corporate ladder three years ago, serving as vice president of a recruiting and staffing company and then, poof!  It was all over.  He wasn’t fired.  He didn’t become a victim of down-sizing. It was magic.

“It just kept calling me and calling me,” Bethea says of his reason for leaving Corporate America.

Today, the Sicklerville resident is a full-time professional magician, performing his close-up magic at hotels and restaurants across the Delaware Valley.  His act can be seen regularly at Mantua’s Telford Inn and the Atrium Café in Bridgeport’s Holiday Inn.

“Everyone has a childhood thing and little hobbies they love to do on the side.  I’m pretty lucky I get to do what I love to do for a living,” says Bethea.

“(Quitting) was a big step for me but I didn’t want to look in the mirror and say, “if I coulda, woulda, shoulda.”

Bethea was mesmerized by magic as a child.  An uncle would stun him by pulling quarters from behind his ear and, by age 10, Bethea was checking magic books out of the library.

When he was 12-years-old, Bethea got his first paying gig and began performing magic at kids’ birthday parties.

Originally from Philadelphia, Bethea and his family traveled the world while his father served in the U.S. Air Force.  By the time he was a junior in high school, they settled in Maple Shade Township.  He went to Kean College in North Jersey.

He majored in computer science, but his real passion continued to be magic.  Bethea performed in between his studies, using tricks and illusions to help pay for his education.

And while business did not wind up Bethea’s career of choice, his background helped boost his marketability.  Large corporations often hired the sleight-of-hand magician to entertain at trade shows, relying on his prestidigitation to lure people to their booths.

Bethea lightly compares his style to that of illusionist David Blaine – not his desire to live for months suspended in a glass box above the River Thames, but his mentalism and vanishing tricks.

Bethea is up close and personal with spectators, allowing them to witness items disappear or change right before their eyes.

“I like to read people’s minds and do things that go against the laws of nature.  I can make a $1 bill levitate right in front of you,” says Bethea.

Don’t ask him to explain how.

“A magician never tells,” he says.

He does card tricks, uses rings and other classic materials, like the old ball and cup.

He loves performing for kids, calling their reactions to his tricks priceless.  But he also enjoys his ability to make adults feel young again.

“It’s just the fascination and just being mesmerized by magic.  Anyone who’s seen magic really done well is mesmerized by it.”

Bethea is one of the few African-American magicians doing this type of sleight-of-hand in an industry dominated by Caucasian legends such as Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Jr. and Dai Vernon.  Those guys were his role models growing up and today he’s also had the chance to also learn from other magicians of color, like Chris Capehart.

On a path set forth by those famous illusionists, Bethea’s star continues to rise.  On May 3, he will get the chance of a lifetime, when he takes his show on the road to New York City’s longest-running off-Broadway magic show, Monday Night Magic, where he’ll perform among the best of the best.

“I would like to go up there and do a lot of original things, original effects I’ve created on my own, “says Bethea.  “I don’t want to go up there and have the magicians say, “ I can do that.”  I want them to come up to me and say, “How’d you do that?”

Ten years ago, when Mostly Magic, New York City’s long-time magic hot spot folded, the magic scene there all but vanished.  Since 1997, Monday Night Magic has been drawing the world’s best performers and now, Bethea is one of them.

And after years of disappearing, the magic business is on the rise again, says Bethea.

His theory on why?

Technology.

“With all the high-tech stuff, it was kind of slipping away for awhile,” he explains.  “I think magic is making a really great comeback and I’m really happy to see that.  You see a lot of things going on now with TV and things like that.  It’s really taking off again.”

Bethea doesn’t have a favorite trick among his arsenal of more that 100, but says he’s really mastered 20 to 30 that he could use to make a living.

Perfecting the illusions takes tremendous practice, something many non-magicians never realize, says Bethea.

“People miscategorize magic, they don’t see this as an art.  People don’t give it the respect it deserves,” he says.

“Timing takes years of rehearsal and acting – people believe that you can just buy a trick and do it.”

Bethea’s wife might be one person who knows otherwise.

“My wife, bless her soul, she’s picked at least a million cards for me,” says Bethea.  He is the father of twin boys and a three year old daughter, who admire their father’s skills.

“We don’t have bedtime stories, they want daddy to come perform magic before bed,” he adds.

And while Bethea is careful about what tricks he performs in front of his children, recognizing that their minds are still developing around what’s real and what’s not, he’s quick to amaze his daughter with the same tricks his uncle used to hook him on magic.

“We play a game where I make something disappear and tug on her braid and the item will fall out of her braid,” he laughs.

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