On a stale Thursday evening, I hesitantly attended a magic show on my college campus. Now, I love magic as much as everybody else, but the theme was less than compelling to someone very single and very aromantic: “Hot Lovin’.” So why attend? A few reasons: free food, free magic, and they promised a thrilling twist. Why not attend?
I figured out the twist: It had nothing to do with “Hot Lovin’.” It was about ghosts. Part of me was relieved, part of me was anxious for a good scare, but most of me wasn’t sure what to expect anymore. It seemed the rest of the audience was just as confused, and their playful mood contradicted the spooky violin and dark green lighting.
When the lights dimmed and the laughter subsided, the performer walked onto the stage, serious as a heart attack. Deadpan, hope fled from his eyes, he sat at a table with wooden toy blocks and stacked them into a pyramid as he recounted a tale of an 1800s mother grieving the loss of her toddler. The audience was awkwardly quiet, desperately trying to lighten the mood with side glances to their friends. He stood from the table, walked to the front, and told the ghost to give a sign if she was present. Then the blocks forcefully tumbled to the floor. The audience released some quiet exclamations of surprise, and I have to admit that I was surprised by the quality of the trick as well.
The lights came up and he loosened the air with his first joke, an awkwardly humanizing “Soo… I love ghost stories.” He introduced himself as Peter Boie, and said he grew up in a small town in Maine that seethed with such tales. His goal for the night was to convince us non-believing college students that magic – and ghosts – are real. The mood further lightened when an audience member sneezed and he replied “Bless you… you’ll need it.” Suddenly, the audience found themselves less awkward and more engaged in what he had to say.
The Ultimate Trust Fall
As he set up the next act, he played a video that told a spooky tale: a girl fell out of a window at her school and now haunts it to warn others of incoming danger. The lights returned, and he asked for volunteers. The audience was remarkably hesitant, but someone finally joined him on stage.
The table was now lined with paper bags and a rusty bell he said came from the school. Boie revealed a wooden block with a piercing nail pointing out and put it in a bag, sealed it tight, and shuffled them around. He then looked away and asked for the volunteer to shuffle it more. When she was done, he slammed his hand on a random bag. No nail, thankfully, but he claimed to have full faith that the bell would ring to warn him. He handed the bell to the volunteer and told her not to ring it, just hold it so the spirit can ring it. Boie turned to the audience and asked which bag to slam next, and one at a time he trusted the bell. There was one point where he seemed to point to me, but I wasn’t about to be responsible for that. I acted invisible until he pointed to the student beside me.
The final two bags came, and he went to smash the bag until…. RING. Inches away from the bag, the bell rang without the volunteer shaking it. He crushed the other bag, and revealed that the bell saved him from the spike.
The audience was absolutely uproarious, jumping out of their seats and hollering “how did he do that?” It was official: everyone was engaged and desperate for more.
The Dangerous Quest for Knowledge
Boie selected his next volunteer, someone he asked to be CPR certified. This got the audience extremely rowdy and anxious. He asked her to write a question about the future on a slip of paper. She sealed it up and set it aside. He then explained that he learned a trick to slow his heart rate to calm nerves when performing, and he was going to use it to stop his heart rate and ask a spirit to answer her question.
They sat at the front of the stage and she found his pulse. He asked her to replicate it for the audience by tapping on the mic. We all listened intently as the pulse tapped slower and slower until it stopped completely. He was drooped down, eyes shut, and everyone was in a panic. When he finally woke, he detailed the experience and admitted that the spirit said the answer to be “Jungle Cats.” As far as anyone was concerned, it was a failure. Yet the question was revealed on the now-burnt paper: “Who will win the Super Bowl?” If our ghostly friend has the powers he claims, seems we should bet it all on the Bengals.*
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Do You Believe in Magic Now?
Now, I can’t spoil every surprise, but I will admit that his other performances included a flying book page, a touchy ghost, and an eerie voice recording, each more difficult to explain than these.
Even with the awkward advertising campaign, Boie blew me away. He expertly opened the show with danger to get the audience on the edge of their seat and thoroughly engaged with what he had to show next. This is especially efficient when the audience consists of teenagers and young adults, who love a good scare and were anticipating a completely different kind of show. The use of audience volunteers for every trick added great humor to his performances that kept the audience lively and upbeat.
I can guess how he did some of his tricks, but his execution was so convincing that there were no doubts in anyone’s minds that he was simply communicating with the beyond. What a Thursday!
The KSU Student Center where the event took place.
*The Bengals did, in fact, lose the Super Bowl. It seems even our ghostly friend didn’t anticipate that comeback!
