Skeptics of the supernatural may find their attitudes changed in the lounge of Houston Hall, where freshman Marcell Babai can be found mesmerizing students with his assortment of magic tricks.
Babai has been learning, practicing and performing the art of magic for years, and recently brought his talent to Tufts' "Halloween on the Hill" presentation, along with fellow freshman Eli Cushner.
Babai was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1988, but he and his family moved to Chicago not long after he finished nursery school. As a young boy, Babai developed an interest in magic when his father bought him toy magic kits. It was not until middle school, however, that Babai began seriously pursuing magic.
"Seventh grade was when I got a book and started learning real sleight of hand magic," he said.
Babai's inspiration to learn magic originally came from his interest in fantasy books like J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series. "My dad definitely got me started with those kits but I think actually probably what got me is fantasy novels," he said. "[The] persona of a magician wizard kind of person really interested me."
While Babai occasionally picked up magic tricks from fellow magicians during his adolescence, he learned the trade primarily from magic books and DVDs. "I didn't really know anybody that could tutor me so it was pretty much all self-taught," he said.
As Babai gained recognition as a legitimate magician in high school, he began to take other students under his wing. "My freshman year of high school [was] when I took on an apprentice and then I took on another one junior year of high school," he said. "The only magicians that I really knew well were the ones that I taught."
By tenth grade, Babai was famous at his small private high school for his talents as a magician. Although card tricks are his specialty, during high school he put on shows for hundreds of audience members and did tricks that included turning water into grape juice and even levitating other people. "I haven't gotten to the live animals yet," he said. "Hopefully I'll be able to do that sometime."
Babai also started to get offered paid jobs at birthday parties and bar mitzvahs. Performing in an array of settings, Babai took every opportunity he could to polish his skills in front of audiences, even spending two summers doing street magic in Chicago along the Magnificent Mile.
The freshman said that although his performances were somewhat profitable, he valued the experience more than the money he made. "Through that, basically I was able to do magic for anyone, anywhere, [even] if I had never met them," he said.
At Tufts, he continues to pursue his career as a magician, and he has used his tricks to open social doors. "At orientation I just did magic with everybody. It was a great way to meet people," he said. Babai said that people still approach him on campus and ask him to do magic tricks. "I'm always prepared to do something and it's a lot of fun," he said.
While showing others his magic, Babai said he likes to assess his audience and try to figure out what kinds of tricks they might be interested in. "College students like one type of trick, middle school [students] another and adults another."
Accordingly, Babai said that he does not have a favorite trick, and likes to think of his magic as a process. "I try not to think of it as individual tricks," he said. "It's just a flowing routine, getting things to go with each other."
Babai's magic career has been put on hold somewhat while he has been acclimating to college life, but he intends to continue his magical education and pursue more elaborate and complicated illusions. "Cards are really nice because I can just carry them around with me everywhere," he said. "But if I want to turn this into a bigger profession, which is what I'm looking to do, then I'm going to need to expand to more stage routines."
