DURHAM — Even with a broken finger, kid magician Phoenix Phenomenal performed sleight of hand and card tricks to perfection at a packed AMVETS hall Sunday evening.

He took traditional card tricks and made them fun with his quirky humor, bringing in props and volunteers to pick cards, and he managed to surprise the audience with the correct card every time.

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” he said at the start of a trick. “But my mom got me this glass card from a voodoo shop in New Orleans.” 

He shows everyone the card and asks an audience member for some assistance. 

From a regular deck of playing cards, he asks her to pick a card, memorize it, and put it back in the deck.

The woman put the card back in the deck and Phoenix shuffled them up. He spread the deck on the table and handed the voodoo card to the woman, asking her to roll it over the playing cards.

She did until it got stuck on one section. The card it landed on? The one she picked at the beginning.

“Ooh, ghosts,” he said.

Maine-born Phoenix, 12, a resident of northern Nevada, is a member of the Society of American Magicians and the High Sierra Magic Circle.

He puts on a monthly full-length show in Reno and gives private performances all across the U.S. He has been practicing his craft for over four years and performing on stage even longer.

Phoenix’s act is a mix of sleight of hand, comedy and cards with plenty of audience participation.

“Does anyone has a $100 bill,” he asked at the start of one of his tricks. A hand shot up from the crowd and he said, “Wow, good for you! That’s never happened before.”

For his last trick, he solved a Rubik’s cube in under 5 seconds, but not in what he called the traditional way. He took a “messed-up” cube that someone in the audience had twisted around and he matched each side of another one to perfectly mimic the messed-up cube.

Phoenix’s mom, Tara Burke, said he’s always loved performing.

“The tricks, there’s a formula to them, but the ad libbing and jokes, that’s all him. I think it runs in the family,” she said.

She said Phoenix usually performs for children, so he was excited to do a show with a more adult crowd.

Sunday’s show was his first performance in Maine, and his first show with his uncle, local hypnotist Chad Burke.

“We were planning a trip to visit and thought it would be great to have them perform together,” Tara Burke said. “And it worked out.”

Chad Burke even helped Phoenix prepare for his show by hypnotizing him to not feel pain from his recently broken finger.

The uncle followed the magic show by getting six members of the audience on stage to be hypnotized by him for an hour.

Particularly susceptible to the hypnosis were Tia Wilson and James Howard, who at one point in the show believed they were a gorilla and his interpreter. Howard even went so far as to pick pretend bugs out of Wilson’s hair as they communicated in gorilla-esque screeches.

The group also, at different times, believed they were in a hula-hoop competition, 4-year-olds fighting over toys and rock ‘n’ roll band Motley Crue closing out a concert.

Ryan Cates of Lisbon looks on in wonder at a card trick performed by Phoenix Phenomenal during a magic show at the Durham AMVETS Hall on Sunday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

James Howard shows off some body builder moves while under hypnosis by Chad Burke, center, standing, at the Durham AMVETS Hall on Sunday. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

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