November 20, 2019 | The Clarion
Arts & Life
Page 3
Students have
a magical night
with Zak Mirzadeh
By Margaret Correll
Layout & Design
Great magicians like Harry Houdini amazed
audiences. Penn and Teller added comedic
flare to their performances. David Copperfleld
brought simple card tricks to the next level.
What do all of these have in common? They
are exactly what magician Zak Mirzadeh
brought to Brevard College on Thursday, Nov.
14, 2019.
Mirzadeh took the stage with three strings
hanging from his mouth and plenty of confetti
to throw from his pocket. The tone was set for
the rest of the night, that this was going to be a
witty and sarcastic event.
Mirzadeh asked audience member, Courtney
Agusto, to pull the strings out of his mouth. He
warned that there was a fish hook tied to the
end of one of them and to choose carefully. It
proceeded without any injury and he stunned
the crowd by revealing the hook and removing
it from his mouth.
Mirzadeh then asked the entire room to
interlock their hands and twist them in a weird
fashion, revealing who he was going to choose
for the next trick. He performed a simple coin
trick, asking the audience member to choose
which hand he had the coin in.
The next trick was a decision between two
envelopes: one that contained $1,500 and
another that contained a poster of Mirzadeh
himself With anticipation high, the envelope
with the poster was chosen, which made for a
nice souvenir.
Mirzadeh went on to the next trick, grabbing
a bucket on a long stick and walking into the
audience. He chose Ty Scales to reach into the
bucket and pull whatever was inside, stating that
he had only performed this trick a few times.
Scales pulled out a Rubix cube.
Mirzadeh then asked Scales to choose
someone to be his next participant to which he
promptly chose Xyan Chatman. She was asked
to stand on stage and mix up the cube along with
Mirzadeh who had one of his own.
When completed, the cubes turned out to be
exactly the same, with the exact same patterns
and color placements. The audience was
even more shocked when it was revealed that
Mirzadeh could solve one cube with one hand
by looking at the pattern of another.
Moving on to the next trick, JaMarcus
Walker was chosen to become “best friends”
with Mirzadeh. Walker was then invited up on
stage and asked to write his name on the face
of a playing card. Mirzadeh did the same, and
together they placed their cards within their
own mouths.
When they both removed the cards from their
mouths, Walker and the audience were shocked
to discover that their cards had been magically
switched.
The audience was then asked to write the
celebrity that they have always wanted to meet
on a piece of paper that was provided at the
beginning of the show. An audience member was
asked to help and chose a paper response from
a giant bucket. The one chosen was “Batman.”
Mirzadeh threw the cover off of a chair he
had left untouched until this portion of the
performance to reveal a strange and amorphous
metallic sculpture. To the audience's amazement,
Mirzadeh shined a light upon the figure at a
precise angle to project the “bat symbol” and
the silhouette of Batman on the surface behind it.
He gave a brief interlude towards the end of
his performanee to share some of his story. “My
mom didn’t want me to become a magician,
she wanted me to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an
engineer. If none of those, get out of the house,”
said Mirzadeh.
Mirzadeh then admitted that he wanted to give
someone a unique experience with the next triek.
He asked an audience member to come onstage,
and Jackson Ray was the lucky participant.
Mirzadeh performed a simple, yet humorous
trick using a sponge. Mirzadeh let the audience
in on the trick while Ray was in the dark for
most of the act.
Lastly, Mirzadeh performed a trick that
allowed him to meet his childhood hero. He
met magician David Blane with a trick where he
could get an exact card by stabbing a knife into
a deck. The audience was shocked by this trick
and Mirzadeh was met with a round of applause.
He thanked the crowd of students for their
participation and Brevard College for hosting
his performance.
Brevard College Campus Life continues to
schedule events for students and is thrilled
to have acts such as Illusionist Zak Mirzadeh
perform on campus.
Winter is
coming
Students avoid
the flu like the
plague
By Eli Goodhew
Contributor
As we all know the beloved flu and cold
season is upon us and with that there are
many things you can do in order to stay away
from catching one of these.
With temperatures dropping and everybody
coughing, germs are spreading like wildfires.
Drinking plenty of water and constantly
washing your hands are just a couple of things
you can do to maintain good hygiene during
the sick season.
Surviving cold and flu season as a college
student is near impossible. A college campus
is a virus’s kryptonite. Especially since here
at Brevard College we all live in such close
quarters, if someone gets sick, more than
likely a number of students that they come
in contact with will not be shortly behind.
A good preventative way to contain the
spreading is staying home and away from
others when you are sick and avoiding
contact with your hands to your eyes, nose,
and face to keep the germs from getting to
you.
The Wellness Center on campus is a great
resource to go to for tips on how to deal with
this and if you are feeling under the weather,
Pat Clackler is your go to. She is available
during the school week on Tuesdays and
Thursdays or you can reach out by email.
“I wish students would stay in bed when
they’re sick instead of going to class and
spreading it all around!” said Reese Finnia.
“Cold and flu season is a bitch,” said BC
sophomore Nathan St.Clair.
If you feel like you are starting to feel any
of the common symptoms of the cold or
flu, visit Pat Clackler at the school nurse's
office. Common symptoms include fever,
migraine, cough, chills and a nose running
so fast you can not catch it. There is nothing
worse than being sick, so wash your hands
boys and girls!