Hi, my name is Aric. A month or two ago I put a message on here asking if anyone had seen a guy named BJ Harris perform. I got a lot of good feedback, so I took off work to go see his show while he was here in my area, and wanted to come back here and let everyone know that it was awesome!!

First of all, I got a chance to talk to BJ after the show and he's a really nice and humble guy. He seems really young, (I'm not sure how old he is) but definitely wise for his age. He even took a few minutes to answer some questions that I had and gave me some really good advice.

His show was great. The magic he performed was good. There wasn't any magic that I hadn't seen before somewhere, but all of the routines he had for each effect were very, very entertaining. I guess he's proof of the fact that you don't have to do all original magic for audiences to like you. He closed with a simple Metamorphisis routine and got an instant standing ovation from the audience there that night. (Probably about a thousand people.)

His showmanship and presentation skills were what made the show. He really had the audience in the palm of his hand, and it didn't take him long to get them there! Everything was just really really professional. I saw kids, teenagers, parents and adults, and even grandparents there. Basically every age group, and all of them were laughing, clapping, smiling, and even buying stuff from him and lined up for his autograph after the show.

It was definitely worth taking off work for. Thank you to all of you who recommended me checking him out. I hope this post encourages you to hunt down the next time he'll be in your area and go check BJ Harris out!

Also, if anyone has any questions about the show I saw, I'd be happy to answer them.

Aric

P.S. I think he said he was going to be back in the Columbus area again later this month for those who live in the area.

I will be watching for him. Thanks for the tip.

I will watch for him too.

What type of illusions was he doing, and how long was his show?

Does he have a website where we can see some of his work?

Yrs, he does... bjharris.com

The show was about an hour and 15 minutes long I guess. Something like that. He did a dove act at first, and then a stage illusion that I don't know the name of. His assistant got in a box, and then it collasped to about half the size, and then he put a tube through it that bascially filled the entire box. She came out of it wearing a totally different colored outfit. Then he did a nest of boxes type routine with a lady's ring, and then something else that I can't remember. He did a spot card, a trick that blew me away with a kid on stage and a rabbit. It disappeared and reappeared in a bucket the kid was holding. It wasn't very "typical magician" though if that makes sense. It was sort of a modern way to use a rabbit and it was very good. I know how the bucket works, but the disappearance of the rabbit was really really good. He did a presentation of the gospel with some silks, and it was very, very, very clear. The audience responded really well to both the gospel messsage and his testimony. He closed with the metamorphisis trick...it was a fast switch and he did it surrounded with people standing on the stage during the trick.

His "Supernatural Experience" looks like a very valuable thing for secular audiences too... Since I've been studying more mentalism, that gives me ideas on how to present it for schools: as instruction for defense against lies and deception of occult stuff.

I think about James Randi's national exposure of psychics, but especially the charlatan thievangelist Peter Popoff, and think that the church could use some more of that work from within. It troubles me to see how much of the resources of the church body are sent to poseurs and con artists like Popoff-- who is still in business btw!

I think I'm going to call BJ Harris about expanding his reportoire...