Leon Etienne, Illusionist

 By Megan Collins, ENG 336. 001

 

At 8:00 p.m. a free show called, Illusionist Leon Etienne, took place at Frostburg State University. The mood was already being set as you walked into the ARMAH at the Lane Center. The lights were roaming, greenish-blue, yellow, and pink swirls that sends you back to your childhood, dry ice fog that crawled across the floor, covering the room. Anticipation was at an all-time high before the show even started, with a full house, lots of music and plenty of jokes. The crowd’s expectations were not disappointed in the least as loud laughter and the occasional “NU-UH!” and “NO FREAKIN’ WAY!” were heard amongst the tricks and treats. 

Kaiya Duppins, a senior with a Math major from PG County Maryland said her favorite part of the show was “the end with the soda can.” This was when he made an already empty, and completely crumpled, soda can look brand new and even refilled the contents. Josh Sparks, a Junior Accounting major, from Sykesville, Maryland said “my favorite part was with Wey, (a Resident Assistant in Allen Hall) when he was showing the point of view by throwing the toilet paper.” Evangeline Cade, a Senior with a major in Foreign Languages from Colmar Manor, Maryland said her favorite part of the show was “the cards,” she had no preference as all the card tricks were amazing. Megan Fisher, a Junior with an Interpretive Biology major from Myersville, Maryland said her favorite part of the show was “the fact that he kept things entertaining. There were no dull moments. I also really liked his straight jacket escape. Not only did he get me to laugh my butt off to the point of almost crying while it was being put on, but watching him figure out how to get out of it was fascinating ” All agreed that the show was entertaining, funny, and at some points unbelievable.

27 year old illusionist, Leon Etienne started when he was 12 and has been doing it ever since, his inspiration? Pure boredom. “I was grounded by my mother, bored out of my mind, so I read a magic book.” Leon said, while mentioning an incident he was lucky to have survived, “when I was 13 I was struck by lightning, and that’s why my hair sticks up this way. You can see it on YouTube, well not me getting struck by lightning but afterwards when I was interviewed for it.” His favorite trick to perform is a trick that, unfortunately, was not performed at the show at Frostburg State University. This trick is called Snow Storm; this is his favorite because it is about “family and his dad and snow, and what’s not magical about snow?” Snow Storm is performed in his larger theatrical show. His favorite out of the illusions he performed was the bowling ball trick at the beginning of the show, where he drew a bowling ball, closed the notepad, dropped a bowling ball out of thin air, and then went on to show that the bowling ball that he drew had indeed vanished from the paper. He has been working with illusions for 15 years now, and in 2011 won campus entertainer of the year.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCE_GjbJuuA

Straight Jacket Escape, video by Megan Fisher. 
http://youtu.be/47IsAqGy1Hc