Louise Westawski 
Nov. 24, 1992 
Louise T. Westawski, 55, Of Aleeda Boulevard, Bear Creek Township, Died 
Tuesday Morning In Community Medical Center, Scranton.

Elderly Driver Dies After Plowing Into Rig 
87-year-old Nanticoke Man's Car Ran Into Side Of Tractor-trailer As It Was 
Backing Into A Loading Dock On East 
Market Street

Wednesday, November 25, 1992 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 1B/2B QUICK WORDS: MAGIC MAGICIAN 





MAGIC &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ***************************** &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; PHOTOS &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER RICHARD SABATURA &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Magician Mark Piazza of Luzerne, with the help of Elysia Balavage, 4,
performs a trick at the Jenny Lynn Academy in Kingston &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 TIMES LEADER/FRED ADAMS Magician Pat Ward, of Wilkes-Barre, puts a sword
through the neck of Bill Hulse, 9, of Swoyersville at a McDonald's party &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ***************************** &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 By KIM STROSNIDER &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Times Leader Staff Writer &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Jimmy Blight turned 9 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 with a bang. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And a magically-appearing white bunny. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And a sword that went clean through the neck of one of his friends. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The tall Swoyersville youth and about 20 friends and family members
celebrated his recent birthday with a great and enduring American pastime: the
magic show. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "He loves magicians," says Jimmy's mom, Leona. "I don't know a little kid
who doesn't." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Locally, a smattering of residents call themselves magicians. They are part
of a self-taught bunch that feed Americans' fascination with coins that vanish
in thin air and reappear; with ladies sawed in half and bunnies pulled from
hats; and with chosen playing cards miraculously recovered from the deck. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "There's much more magic around the country, definitely a resurgence," says
George Schindler, a Brooklynite who's president of the 7,000-member Society of
American Magicians, which has a chapter in Northeastern Pennsylvania. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In the last three years, Schindler says, membership in the society has
increased by about 30 percent. Many more women and girls, he says, are proving
magic isn't just for little boys. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Television specials also have helped popularize magic, which encyclopedias
say has been around since the dawn of history -- dating to at least 50,000
B.C. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It's one of the oldest professions," says 38-year-old Hazleton music
teacher Tony Baronio of his "very prosperous sideline," performing magic shows
and inventing magic tricks. Baronio also is writing a book about magic, due to
be published next year by a Harrisburg-area company. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Baronio thinks magic has become steadily more popular since magic shows hit
Broadway in the 1970s. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It's a hobby. I love it," says 35-year-old graphic artist Mark Piazza of
Luzerne, who moonlights as a magician. "The kids, when you see their faces....
Sometimes the parents are even better." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It just fascinates me how it can look like it's really happening
sometimes," says Piazza, whose assistant is his 4-year-old daughter, Malia. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Few make magic a full-time profession, as does Pat Ward of Wilkes-Barre. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Ward hauls his red padded platform stocked with tricks and props to about
200 children's birthday parties a year and another 100 bazaars, grand
openings, Christmas parties and corporate events. December is his busiest
month. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "You can be a fantastic magician and have a lousy show," says Ward. "You
have to be a good entertainer first. In reality, a magician is just an actor
playing the role of magician." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Like most magicians, Ward taught himself the basics. He got hooked on magic
as a teenager, buying magic tricks advertised on television and later doing
tricks for customers at his father's bar. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I'm probably the classic introvert that gets on stage and becomes the
extrovert," says Ward, who is soft-spoken and shy. Without tricks and clown
make-up, he says at a party he'd be "the wallflower." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But as a magician, parties are his lifeblood. He now traces routes from
Binghamton to Allentown, from the Poconos to Williamsport. He even did the 4th
birthday party for singer Stephen Stills' daughter, while Stills (of Crosby,
Stills and Nash fame) was in Wilkes-Barre to perform. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 At Jimmy Blight's birthday party, Ward had to juggle not only such feats as
"the famous little red ball trick" ("You roll it around and it becomes two
balls"), but also keep a partying crowd of 9-year-olds -- busy making balloons
squeak -- in line at the new, neon-lit McDonald's restaurant in Wilkes-Barre. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 From a "magic box" he pulls out a rat, red sock, boxer shorts, rubber
chicken, string of hot dogs, skunk and white bunny. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 It's a tough crowd. One kid yells, "Fake!" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "This next trick is medium scary. Who wants to do it?" says Ward, dressed
as a clown in checks, stripes and polka-dots. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Hands shoot up. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Ward fastens a black wooden collar around a volunteer's neck. "Sword
through the neck trick!" he announces. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Yes!" hisses the crowd. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Ward pretends to hypnotize his hapless volunteer, then shoves the blade
into the collar. The tip emerges from the back of the boy's neck. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It's stuck," Ward says. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Then he pulls the blade out, saying, "Just don't drink any water for about
three days. You'll be okay." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Later, Ward says that kids are tough to fool -- harder even that adults:
"Kids will sometimes see the simple explanation. Adults a lot of times will
look for more complex (explanations). &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Usually, the smarter a person is the more they can just enjoy a good magic
trick and not lose any sleep over it. Usually, someone who is not as bright
will think you are trying to challenge their intellect." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Both Ward and Baronio say they -- and all magicians -- use tricks that are
a variation of about seven basic types. Among those trick prototypes:
producing an object that had disappeared; levitating a person or object;
making an object vanish; and identifying an object chosen by a spectator. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Baronio, who does 200 to 300 shows a year, says tricks he's invented play
off of and modernize those basic themes. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 For example, one of his inventions is a trick called Just the Fax. A person
chooses a card, looks at it and then returns the card to its deck. The person
then shuffles the deck and hands it back to the magician. The magician tries
to the cut the deck to the card the person has chosen. He or she is wrong.
Another attempt -- wrong again. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "The guy that sold me that trick told me it's a self-working trick," the
puzzled magician will say. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The magician whips out a cellular phone to call the magic shop and gets a
fax-like beep. Out of the phone pops a fax print-out of the card the volunteer
chose. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Magic used to hold a lot of power over people -- and in some primitive
societies it still does. Anthropologists say the power of magic is that it
reduces people's fear and uncertainty over situations beyond their complete
control. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Nowadays, though, science can explain many of the phenomena that made our
ancestors turn to magic. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But Baronio says, "Something must be out there as far as interest (in
magic). It might be the fact that there aren't many variety entertainers out
there any more." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Another local magician, Bill Dickson, a 31-year-old engineer from Exeter,
says he can't explain the interest people show when he performs illusions and
tricks with his wife Nadine, a 29-year-old file clerk. She climbs into a
cabinet that he skewers with blades; she emerges unscathed. He escapes,
shackled, from a trunk; she appears in the trunk instead. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "People just stop and I guess they're fascinated by what we do," says
Dickson, who performs at malls, birthday parties, charitable events and other
engagements about 50 to 60 times a year. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 While Dickson says the recession hasn't dented his business, Ward says
fewer people seem able to pull together the $75 or more he charges per show. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 However, Schindler, of the Society of American Magicians, says the
recession has been good for some magicians. When times are tough, he says,
people do more entertaining at home, and therefore are more likely to book a
magician. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Mark Piazza hopes that will be the case locally. He all but gave up on
magic 10 years ago and auctioned off a lot of his props. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A tireless hobbyist who collects comic books, writes horror stories and
even designed his own line of greeting cards, his interest in magic was
renewed after the birth of his daughter, Malia, four years ago. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 His half-hour show consists of a dozen tricks. His favorite, he says, is
when he pulls a rope through his stomach. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But props are expensive, he says, displaying one that he says -- to his
wife's consternation -- cost $80. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Piazza saves money by blowing up balloons for balloon animals the night
before his shows, rather than buying a device that would quickly inflate
balloons on the spot. The jacket he wears, with removable sleeves attached by
velcro, was made by his mother. For an assistant, he relies on his daughter,
who is as amazed at the tricks as his young audience. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 A precocious little girl, Malia runs around the living room of her parents'
Luzerne home waving a magic wand. She wants to be a scientist, she says, but
then changes her career goal to dancing magician. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 She urges her dad to do tricks like the one in which he switches a peanut
butter jar with a jelly jar, but he tells her it would take too long to
prepare. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Someday I'm going to have to tell her" the secrets of magic, says Piazza
of his daughter, "or she'll think the whole world works on magic."

Magic 
***************************** 
Photos 
Times Leader Richard Sabatura 
Magician Mark Piazza Of Luzerne, With The Help Of Elysia Balavage, 4, Performs 
A Trick At The Jenny Lynn Academy In Kingston 
Times Leader/fred Adams

Magic ***************************** Photos Times Leader Richard Sabatura Magician Mark Piazza Of Luzerne, With The Help Of Elysia Balavage, 4, Performs A Trick At The Jenny Lynn Academy In Kingston Times Leader/fred Adams