Abracadabra!

It isn’t all smoke and mirrors when it comes to the magic hobby in Lansdale.

The only thing being revealed Monday night during a meeting of the Lansdale Magic Club at is a love of all things magic.

About 10 people gathered around the table of amateur Royersford magician Ryan Adamowicz in the Lynn Janoff Community Room.

Adamowicz had the rapport a magician should have with his or her audience down. The typical, corny humor you expect with a magician was right before your eyes.

The Magically Amazing Ryan performed his favorite trick – the balls and cups. It involves shiny metal cups, miniature tennis balls, disappearing and reappearing, transportation from one cup to another – the usual spiel.

At the end, a lemon and regular-sized tennis ball comes into play. Oh, there’s also the $20 inside the lemon – that $20 was from a much earlier trick where The Magically Amazing Ryan made it seem like it went up in flames.

You had to be there to see it – it was anything but sour.

The 27-year-old Adamowicz was hooked on magic after he got his first Houdini magic kit at age 5.

“I’ve been doing magic my whole life, but for the past three years, I’ve been doing it more steadily,” he said. “I’m getting shows, getting out there.”

Adamowicz said he does magic because he likes to bother people.

That was a joke.

“I like to entertain,” he said. “I come up here to Kurt’s Magic World. It’s a very, very good shop to go to.”

is located at 200 W. Main St. in Lansdale. It is run by magician Kurt Brasch and staffed by other magicians John Walton and Marlin Hess.

In fact, Kurt’s Magic World is one of the sole magic shops in the Philadelphia region. One recently closed in Bristol, and one on South Street closed shop a while ago.

There’s a shop in Pittsburgh and another in Lancaster. Walton said the Lancaster shop specializes in older magic that you cannot buy anymore.

“Kurt had a store at the that he did good with. When he decided to come back here, the mall wasn’t the right venue this time. He wanted a real shop, and he figured he would be right in Lansdale,” Walton said. “It’s close to the mall, you’ve got the train here and you’re close to a lot of things.”

He said the store has seen business from as far away as New Jersey and New York.

“One couple came down from a three-hour trip, one way,” he said. “They were retired folks, but they were into showing magic to different groups.”

The shop also allows Brasch to deal with customers one-on-one.

“We get people in all the time: ‘Can you help me with this?’ ‘Can you show me how to do that?’” Walton said.

Brasch also started the monthly Magic Clubs at the library.

 “He told me about it and it’s really worth coming up to perform some things and get some feedback from people,” said Adamowicz. “It’s just good people, good company. Better than sitting in your room, shuffling cards and playing with your balls.”

Walton said the club was started as a place to come and exchange ideas.

“We also give lectures on how to do magic better,” he said. “To have a group like this was helpful to everybody. The library gives us the room for free, and we do a free show here once or twice a year.”

Steve Cuzmer was one attendee to the Magic Club; in fact, it was his first one. The Reading resident attended the night with his co-worker, Nick Cooper, of Lansdale.

“I’ve actually been in magic a long time ago. Tonight is my first night trying to get back into it,” he said. “I did it when I was very young. I just haven’t had the time anymore.”

“I spent 20 years trying to make my wife disappear,” chimed in Cooper. “I came to see if anybody could help me here.”

Most of the meeting is taken up with magicians showing one another their tricks, and bouncing magic trick ideas off one another.

Adamowicz wants to take his passion out to the streets and, perhaps, even the boardwalk.

“I like making an audience out of people that don’t know they are going to be an audience,” he said.

Magic is viewed as a niche hobby and career; there are those who are crazy about it, and those who merely dabble in it.

Brasch, Hess and Walton, for example, perform at Lansdale Day and Ambler Day and at galas at outlying towns.

“Marlin and I like to perform to kids. Some guys prefer the restaurant scene, but to each his own,” Walton said. “Some of us really love to entertain kids. When you see their eyes light up when they see something, it’s a moment they never forget. When I was a kid and I saw a magician do something, it was amazing.”

“Some people just want to collect stuff. Others want to get money for those props they already bought,” Adamowicz said. “It’s all about how much time you have and how much you dedicate to it. It’s definitely not something for everybody.”

Adamowicz’s favorite trick is the aforementioned cups and balls trick.

“It plays so big. Every little piece of magic is there, like vanish and transport. I like the way you put the routine together,” he said.

Adamowicz’s favorite magician is, natch, Houdini. His favorite living musicians include Cosmo, a New York-based magician, and British magician Gazzo.

When one thinks of magic, he or she may come up with names of famous ones like David Blaine, Criss Angel or David Copperfield.

There’s been a debate in the magic world over whether what some illusionists do is considered magic – or if they are just clever editors.

“There’s no difference between magic and illusion,” said Adamowicz, “but there is a difference between magic and camera tricks.”

Other than that, he said, illusion is just another branch of magic. Adamowicz, for instance, prefers close-up magic to stage shows.

“Illusionists – they can entertain thousands,” he said.

Walton has found that illusionists can make young magic fans’ dreams disappear.

“A lot come in asking for stuff. ‘Dude, it doesn’t really exist,’” said Walton.

There’s something all magicians live by – the Magician’s Code: Never reveal how you do your trick.

That’s become a lot harder to do in this age of YouTube, webcams and instant accessibility.

“What’s really ruining magic,” Walton said, “are these kids that reveal how this $25 trick Kurt sells at the store is done. Some other kid comes in to buy this trick to go show his buddies, and they go, ‘Oh, I saw that on YouTube. I know how that’s done.’ It kind of ruins it for the kid that spent his money on the trick more so than the illusionist.”