YORKTON – Children and parents alike were treated to a magic show at the Yorkton Public Library August 10.
The performance from Lumsden's Danny Kazam served to entertain and educate attendees.
Kazam, approaching his 13th year as a practicing magician, is currently in his 10th year as a full time entertainer.
"I've always wanted to be an entertainer and performer — but one of the reasons for becoming a children's entertainer is because during my life I worked as a child development worker and as a counsellor for children and troubled teens," said Kazam in an interview with Yorkton This Week after his performance at the YPL.
Prior to his current occupation, Kazam said he owned a painting company, but it wasn't fulfilling for him.
"By the time I was 40 years old and going through my mid-life crisis and going, 'Gee, what am I going to do with my life now — oh — maybe chase after my dreams'," said Kazam, adding "I decided that everything kind of just fit together for becoming a children's entertainer."
Though you wouldn't have guessed it from his stage presence, Kazam didn't start practicing magic until he was into his late 30s.
"I didn't start learning magic until I was about 38 ... it was after watching David Blaine's Street Magic and seeing his show ... he did a thing where he levitated and I thought, 'maybe he's real,'" said Kazam with a laugh.
"I decided to do the Google check and that's when I found out — not only what he did — but I found online magic shops and started learning magic out of curiosity and wanting to know how the secrets were done," said Kazam.
"Everything just kind of perfectly fell into place for me — the magic and just the fact that I have experience working with kids," said Kazam.
Kazam said he never looked at his age as a detriment to his skills when it came to entertaining.
"Where there's people who started off in their teenage years — and they have 20 years experience by the time they're in there 30s ... two advantages I have is — one — I've spent more time in my life as a layperson and so I know what the audience will want to see or what will make them laugh or what will amaze them," said Kazam, "magicians — when they start off really young — they never have that opportunity because they're always learning magic — they're always on the other side of it."
"I think that's to my advantage and of course my life experiences," said Kazam.
From Montreal originally, Kazam moved to Alberta when he was nine years old and would find himself on "the streets" of Calgary during his teenage years.
"I was out there until I was about 15 and then I left home and lived on the streets for a while," said Kazam, "I moved out to BC and lived out on the streets of BC for a while."
Kazam said living on the streets taught him the importance of libraries and stressed the relevance of them to the young and old audience attendees during his performance, encouraging them to sign up for a library card.
"When I lived on the streets in Vancouver one of the reasons I stayed out of trouble was because I hung around the libraries," said Kazam, "otherwise you're on the streets getting in trouble or being part of a victim of trouble."
Kazam said educating young minds on different subjects is important.
"If I can use my platform and the opportunity to be able to teach them good things — most of them know it anyways — but when they hear it enough times ... they'll act on it," said Kazam, "if I can leave them with a positive message at the same time than it's even better."
"I have an anti-bullying show that I do as well and it's more of a program — an educational program — the confusion out of that sometimes is they're hiring me for the entertainment aspect but I try to explain to them that it's ... lesson driven," said Kazam.
"The show kind of progresses from one lesson to the next lesson but it's instilling ideas of not only about what bullying is and how to avoid it and being just an onlooker as well too," said Kazam, "I think a lot of times people forget that the person — the child who is doing the bullying — is also a victim."
Kazam said having fun is typically the main goal of his performances.
"There's lot of shows that I do that are just fun — just plain open fun — and I enjoy myself doing those kinds of shows as well."
For more information on Danny Kazam, visit DannyKazam.com.
