Do you believe in magic?

I do!

After a visit to the world famous Magic Castle, a prestigious magic club located in downtown Hollywood, I am convinced. The Club is so exclusive that you can only get in if you're a member, or the guest of a member. Thankfully, Karissa's brother Jonathan is a Junior Member and last week was Future Stars Week at the Castle, so Johnny took Karissa, Sean, and I along for the night!

The Magic Castle is a huge old mansion built in the early 1900's and turned into a Magic Club in the 1960's. You walk into the front hall, get approved to enter, and then turn to the bookcase on the left wall and say, "Open Sesame," and the bookshelf opens before your eyes and you enter into the one of the most twisting, turning, confusing mansions imaginable.

We walked up and down staircases, through dimly lit hallways and past shadowy rooms and secluded alcoves. We got in line for the first Parlor Show of the evening, at which Karissa was called onto the stage to assist the magician in one of his tricks.

The moment that really changed my life was when we were all crowded in to a tiny little room down in the lower level of the mansion to see Magic Mike--a 23 year old magician who was one of the funniest people ever. Anyway, I was selected to assist him in a trick, which was very thrilling! The trick went like this: he flipped through the deck and had a random person in the audience tell him where to stop. Then, right where he stopped, he split the deck in two and handed me one of the piles, and told me to count the cards in front of everyone. I held the cards up high and counted 14 cards. Then he told me to put the cards someplace no one could get to them--so I sat on them. Then he had another girl in the audience choose a card out of the deck, and she picked a three of hearts. So he said that he would magically add three cards to the pile I was sitting on. He did all kinds of magical movements, and then told me to take the cards out and count them again. When I did, much to my utter amazement, I found SEVENTEEN CARDS IN THE PILE!!!!!!!!

How did he do it?????????


Jonathan's show was amazing! And I'm so glad we decided to stay for the stage show att 11:15 because it was mind-blowing and most of all FUNNY. I laughed so hard I had to cover up my face and put my head down because this one kid named Kyle had written his own routine and it was the funniest thing I have ever heard. "The nostalgia is overwhelming!!!"

The best part of it all is that we went to the Magic Castle on July 31st: HARRY POTTER'S BIRTHDAY! I mean, how fitting is that? We arrived home wearily at 2 a.m. after a very magical evening.