Young kids in 100 Mile House had the chance to experience magic first hand at the local library on July 9.
The magic show, performed by West Kelowna’s Leif David, follows the theme of the BC Summer Reading Club, a free literacy program in libraries across the province targeting children aged five to 14.
This year’s theme is ‘Imagine the Possibilities,’ leading David to name his show ‘Imagining the Impossibilities.’
“About seven or eight years ago, I developed a show to match the Summer Reading Club theme because the theme changes every summer. I’ve done a new show every year and so I start coming back and back doing more each summer,” said David, who’s stop at the 100 Mile House branch was just one in a two week and a half and 5,000-kilometre tour in central B.C.
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“You live out of hotels and a suitcase. There are a lot of considerations for planning a show, you know, and all the different venues along the way you have to plan as well,” said David.
He added that his favourite part of travelling the long distances and living out of a suitcase was the reaction and faces of the children during his shows.
It was the first show the magician has done in the 100 Mile branch so far in the eight or seven years he’s been touring libraries for his show.
“It was great. We had fun,” David said of the experience.
His show was interactive, with him calling up a handful of children and even one bemused adult to assist him with some tricks. The performance ranged from flipping through pages of a book that went from empty to full of drawings back to empty again, pulling clothes out of his mouth and classic hoop rings.
Next year, the BC Summer Reading Club will have a space theme. David said he has already started thinking up some ideas.
David started the library shows due to his own start in magic.
“I started performing magic when I was eight years old and I got a magic kit from my uncle for Christmas,” he explained. “I went to the library and took stacks and stacks on magic and that’s how I became a magician – coming to the library. So now I get to perform across the province performing at different libraries and I get to tell the kids about my story.”
