Summerlin-area magician puts on show at library
Oohs and ahs rang across the theater at Summerlin Library as about 100 children and adults anticipated the magician’s next move.
Jackson Rayne, of Summerlin, was teaching the crowd street magic tricks they could perform anywhere. With rubber bands and rope, he twisted, turned and snapped until three ropes became one and tangled rubber bands became undone.
Attendees fumbled with ropes and rubber bands as they tried to perform Rayne’s tricks. Many were magic enthusiasts looking to learn more.
“I’ve dabbled with magic a little bit,” said 60-year-old Robert Emerick, an attendee. “I learned some new stuff here, though. The rubber band tricks he did were amazing, and I liked the subtleties with the rope tricks. It’s cool to take an ordinary object and do a magic trick and just amaze people. That was really fun.”
Jackson Rayne is an escape artist and illusionist who’s performed magic tricks since he was a child, he said. Many of his performances He’s been in Las Vegas for 12 years and tours regularly, performing aboard cruise ships.
“I like to share what I know with other people,” Rayne said. “I think magic is an amazing art and does a lot for people. I think sharing the art is an important thing because it inspires other magicians — furthers the art. It gets more people talking about it. These mini-workshops were born on the cruise ships. I would do these workshops for fun and I’m bringing it here.”
Rayne pursued a career as an illusionist after college. He was a freshman on the football team and tasked with coming up with an act for a talent show all freshman players had to participate in.
“So I did a magic trick and one of my teammates was on the programming board for the university, and he wanted to hire me to do a show for the university, and I did. I created an underwater escape. Our local newspaper wrote a feature and it went AP wire. People from all over the country found out and wanted to interview me. I’ve doing this full time since.”
Tim Williams, 67, of Summerlin said he’d heard of Rayne’s one-hour memory talk, in which he teaches people how to access additional information in the brain.
“I usually don’t like magic tricks,” Williams said. “But I love how real his performance was. He was involving the crowd even during the times where he wasn’t showing a trick. I think his workshop is perfectly good for adults and kids, which isn’t always the case.”
Contact Mia Sims at msims@
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