The Mystery, The Energy

By Gabe Fajuri

As he launched the deck of cards towardthe ceiling, the audience held its collectivebreath, teetering somewhere on the brinkbetween belief and disbelief.

The set-up sounded preposterous.The magician strode out onto the plat-form and suggested the impossible.Unwrapping a brand new deck of cards,he tossed a pillow into the crowd. Aftera few more throws to ensure a randomselection, a willing spectator was askedto merely think of a card and keep itsidentity a secret — that is, until thedeck was airborne. Then, the magician

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promised, the thought-of pasteboard wouldstick itself to the ceiling!

Eat your heart out, Michael Ammar. On the count of three, the deck flew from

his hand, headed on a quick upward trajec-tory toward the ceiling some 30 feet away.No one seemed to believe what was happen-ing. This must be a gag. At the same moment,the chosen-at-random spectator called out ina voice loud enough for the audience of 300to hear it clearly, “Six of Spades!”

This has to be a gag, right?

HOLD THAT THOUGHT… Kostya Kimlat, his first name pronounced

Coast-ah, was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1983.At 22 years old, already he’s able to build ten-sion, create moments, and stun spectatorswith the ability of a seasoned professional.

Why? Because he is a seasoned profes-sional. He’s a full-time worker with a fullcalendar. And his date book isn’t just full oflectures for the local IBM ring or the occa-sional $50 birthday party; it’s dotted withcorporate shows and walk-around gigs asmuch as it includes engagements in front ofthe magic-minded masses. He’s at home as aperformer under nearly every circumstance,in any surrounding — on the trade-showfloor, cozying up to a table at a restaurant,lecturing or performing to magicians —whatever the situation.

Kostya immigrated to the Orlando,Florida area with his parents, sister, andgrandmother in 1992, at the age of 9. Hisparents wanted to raise their children awayfrom communism and away from Chernobylwhere, when Kostya was three years old, thefamily fled their home when the nuclearplant accident struck. They also wanted toraise their children in a country where theirreligion — Judaism — would never bedrawn into question. Kostya was the firstchild in two generations of his family tocelebrate his Bar Mitzvah publicly.

It was about that time, as he became ateenager, that Kostya was bitten by themagic bug after watching Jeff McBride andBill Malone on The World’s Greatest Magic.Shortly thereafter, he started working, per-forming for the first time at a restaurant atthe age of 14. It wasn’t long before he cuthis teeth as a demonstrator in various touristmagic shops, kiosks, and destinations in andaround the Orlando area. Additional inspi-ration came in the form of all eight volumesof the Tarbell Course in Magic, which henot only devoured, but also made an easilysearchable, personalized index of, grantingquick access to his favorite effects.

By the time Kostya was a freshman in highschool, he’d started an on-line magic newslet-ter, The Magic Express. It was through thatnewsletter he met San Francisco magicianPH

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Walt Anthony, who suggested different ideasto Kostya, not only about what to perform,but what to read and how to think. To thisday, the two stay in touch and Kostya citeshim as a major influence in his growth as aperformer and as a person.

At the age of 15 Kostya found himselfdoing walk-around magic for five hours aday at a 21-screen movie theatre opening inOrlando, ending each evening with a movie.In Kostya’s mind, things couldn’t get anybetter: he was doing magic, getting paid forit, and the movies were free, too.

Then, he says, things changed when ameeting with Jon Racherbaumer in 1996opened his eyes to a maxim that colors hiswork to this day. Racherbaumer phrased itsimply and succinctly: mystery is energy.

Jon and Kostya met and talked at Magicon the Beach, a convention held in Florida.

It was at that point that Kostya was devas-tated by two card tricks Jon performed —tricks that would send him searching foranswers in the works of Ed Marlo, AlSharpe, and Eddie Fields, and through theliterature in general. The mystery Racher-baumer brought to Kostya was translatedinto energy in the form of his personalsearch for answers, information, and furtherinspiration, one that would last for the nextyear and a half.

“Uncovering the methods behind thoseeffects was the least important part,”explains Kostya. “It was the search for themthat was of the utmost importance. In thatyear and a half I slowly came to hundreds ofideas and conclusions, hundreds of methods,and thousands of thoughts that still inspireme to create to this day. In that time, I gainedrespect not only for magic, but also forteaching and learning.”

Kostya’s eyes were opened to the magicworld at large and, at the same time, he wasinstilled with a sense of enthusiastic rever-ence for his forebears, a sense that’s appar-ent whenever he discusses their magic or his.You can’t help but be impressed by a 20-something who loudly and proudly acknowl-edges the rich history that inspires, fuels,and motivates the magic he performs.

PREPARE TO BE CULLEDFor the next two years, Kostya spent

his time — his free time, away from highschool, and on summer vacations, that is —soaking up magic in every possible form. Forone month, he served as an assistant to JohnCalvert. Dai Vernon appeared on his literaryhorizon, and so did Paul Harris. Meetingswith Florida magicians like Paul Cummins,Chad Long, Bill Malone, and Jim Swain,coupled with visiting lecturers like GuyHollingworth and Chris Power, also fannedthe flames.

By the age of 17, with those varied expe-riences under his belt, Kostya took thenext logical step any other magic-mindedteenager would have taken: he delivered hisfirst lecture.

His mentor, Walt Anthony, had bookedhim for the Oakland 75th AnniversaryConvention and introduced him to Alain Nu,who invited Kostya to lecture at his Phoenix

Gathering convention later that year. His firstlecture tour, which he booked on his ownby simply calling up one magic club afteranother, was something of an adventure.Instead of driving or flying from place toplace, Kostya made the trip by Greyhoundbus. He took dozens of routes from city to city, including a 25-hour ride fromRichmond, Virginia to Peoria, Illinois. “Myparents have always been very supportive,”Kostya says. “Whenever I wanted to travelto a magic convention, there was never anyquestion that they’d let me go — alone. Aslong as I called home, they were happy tohear of my adventures on the road.”

The question is: what does a 17-year-oldkid know about magic? What can he teachsomeone in a lecture?

Enter the Roadrunner Cull. While demon-strating the finer points of a Stripper Deck atone of Orlando’s magic shops, Kostya sud-denly realized that he’d forgotten to reversethe pack. He’d typically perform a Triumph-like effect with the shaved cards, strippingthe face-up and face-down cards apart withone deft move. Not this time. He was forcedto think quickly, and in the process, devisedthe bare bones of what is one of the mostastonishing versions of Vernon’s classicever devised. In his lecture notes, the trickis referred to as Cull-igula, The HardcoreTriumph. Read the following description.Then read it again. It is this good. And this

kid is this good, too: The set-up is extremely fair. As usual, a

card is selected, noted, and returned to thepack. Then, the spectator shuffles the pack.In fact, the spectator does all of the shuf-fling. The cards are dovetailed together in the usual fashion. Then they’re mixedtogether face up and face down. For goodmeasure, Kostya then invites the spectatorto go wild. The pack is tossed on the tableor floor, where the mishmash of backs andfaces are further mixed. Kostya, all thewhile, is completely hands-off, though hewears a slight grin in anticipation of theeye-popping finale that’s about to come.

Once the spectator is satisfied with thealtered state of the deck, Kostya squares itup and quickly recaps the situation. Runningthrough all of the cards in no more than 10or 12 seconds, there’s no question that thecards have been hopelessly mixed together,face up and face down. Nothing could bemore certain.

Finally, with no strip-outs, shuffles, block-transfer work, and with no fishy funny stuff,Kostya spreads the pack between his hands.As if guided by Vernon himself, the pack hasmiraculously righted itself. All of the cardsare face up. All of them, that is, except forone: the spectator’s selection.

The crowd, wherever it happens to havecongregated on this particular occasion,goes nuts.

The secret to this miracle of near-biblicalproportions? What Kostya discovered thatafternoon with Stripper Deck in hand wasthat he’d refined the traditional HofzinserSpread Cull to such a fine degree — modify-ing it to suit his own purposes — and cre-ated The Roadrunner Cull. In less than aquarter of a minute, no matter what the con-dition of the cards, and under the guise ofwhat appears to be a casual stroll throughthe pack, the Roadrunner Cull allows Kostyato cull multiple cards incredibly quickly.Reds separate from blacks. Face-up cardsmelt apart from the face-down ones. It hap-pens faster than you can believe.

Both for magicians and lay-audiences,Kostya’s close-up shows often involve pettylarceny.

On occasion, Kostya will invite a promi-nent spectator to assist in a card effect. Aftermixing the pack, seven cards are produced.When the audience volunteer is asked if theselected cards mean anything to him, theyare revealed to, in fact, make up the digits ofhis phone number! Not bad — for starters.

To follow up that strange “coincidence,” heasks the spectator to make random marks witha pen on a piece of paper on which Kostya haswritten out the alphabet and the digits onethrough nine. He then asks if the letters andnumbers that the spectator’s pen passed

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Kostya’s love of ideas, of history, and of magic,not to mention his genuine attraction to and abilityto interact with his crowds, are what make hisperformances transcend the ordinary.

through hold any significance to him. Thespectator is usually at a loss. So, in an effort tojog their memories, Kostya brings into play aprediction, which has been sitting on the tablethroughout the lecture, sealed in gift-wrap.When unwrapped, the prediction turns out tobe the license plate of the volunteer in ques-tion, removed off the back of their car!

Bob Elliot, David Oliver, and Hank Leehave all fallen victim to the license platetrick. In one instance, after the plate hadbeen stolen off the car of a corporate client,it was discovered that the client had drivenoff, none the wiser that the plate was gone.Luckily, before he got too far down the turn-pike, Kostya was able to reach him via cell phone and coax him back to the show,where he concluded the trick.

NEW TRICKS, YOUNG DOGAll of this gushing about Kostya’s finger

flinging in the cull department shouldn’t leadreaders to believe that he’s merely a one-hitwonder. Yes, pasteboards are both his firstlove and his strong suit, and he has wowedthe magic set with them at events likeFechter’s, The Magic Castle, and MAGICLive!. However, his work for the lay publicincludes a wide range of material, from close-up classics like the Chop Cup to a Mentalism-heavy stand-up act geared toward corporateclients. Other favorites of his ever-changing,ever-evolving stand-up show include classicsfrom Malini, Tarbell, and Corinda, and moremodern effects inspired by the likes of EricAnderson and Barrie Richardson. All of these,however, are carefully interwoven with mater-ial that Kostya has developed on his own,tricks that he has used successfully in close-up settings. “I’m surprised how well someof my close-up effects work on stage,” hesays. This means that card effects, includinghis Cull-igula Triumph and the licenseplate trick, often find their way into hisreal-world work.

Yes, the kid has corporate clients, and yes,the kid works trade shows. After hitting themagic circuit and lecturing, working at con-ventions, entering contests, and publishing hiseffects, Kostya began building his client list.He graduated from walk-around gigs andfamily shows to corporate cocktail partiesand trade shows, two areas of his business hecontinues to develop. Along the way, he hasconsulted for theatre groups, designed illu-sions for a dance company, and has had hishands featured in a nationally televised call-ing-card commercial. In the last two years,Kostya has traveled the country working forclients that include Absolut Vodka, IBM, CVSPharmacies, RaceTrac, and SunTrust Bank,and last year he made an appearance withMarco Tempest in an episode of his TV pro-gram, The Virtual Magician. This month he’s

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[Top] Kostya caught in the act, preparing forhis famous license plate miracle. At age 14[above], performing his first show, and pre-senting his first lecture [left] just one yearlater. Kostya amazing patrons at The Garlic[below] and posing with his latest book oflecture notes [facing page].

working at the Magic Castle and will lec-ture at the inaugural Session Convention inEngland. The following months are alreadyfilled with corporate events and a host ofstand-up engagements. And when he’s not onthe road, he performs at The Garlic, a beauti-ful, family-owned Italian restaurant in NewSmyrna Beach, Florida.

When it comes to running with the rightcrowd, magically speaking, he’s in goodcompany. This past summer in Toronto,Kostya was invited to 31 Faces North,where he both lectured and performed infront of 30 members of the glitterati. Tosay that the group of magic celebrities wasimpressed with Kostya’s work would be agross understatement.

His sincere enthusiasm demonstratedwhat Max Maven likes best about him:“Kostya has chops, but he’s also learninghow to think.” John Carney echoed Maven’sthoughts: “I was impressed with his cleareffects and clean routining. But no lessimportant was his manner. He’s neither cloy-ing nor arrogant. He genuinely connects withpeople. As Leipzig used to say, ‘People like tofeel they’ve been fooled by a gentleman.’”

Carney’s sentiment is perhaps the best wayto describe the manner in which Kostya goesabout fooling a crowd. Yes, the magic isstrong, and the technical foundation he baseshis tricks on is strong, too — very strong. Butthe gentlemanly part of his personality, thegenuine smile and joie de vive emanating fromhim while delving into philosophy, art, theol-ogy, house parties, or any of the other variedtopics he touches on while discussing cardtricks, doesn’t come across as mere patter orpart of a script. Kostya’s love of ideas, of his-tory, and of magic, not to mention his genuineattraction to and ability to interact with hiscrowds, are what make his performances tran-scend the ordinary. You, as a spectator likehim because he likes you.

It’s a philosophy that seems simpleenough to write about, but isn’t nearly aseasy to put into practice. Yet Kostya, alreadyin his career, has learned this lesson well.

“When I first decided to perform profes-sionally, I was afraid it would become toomuch of a job and I would get burned out,”says Kostya. “Now I’ve found that althoughI spend a large portion of my week takingcare of business, when I go on stage, it’s themost pure and wonderful experience, whereI think of nothing but the moment at hand.”

Recently influenced by Juan Tamariz,Penn & Teller, and numerous musical andtheatrical acts, Kostya is writing his one-man show. He hopes to find a quiet time inthe near future where he can perform art forart’s sake and develop this show outside of abusiness environment. At the same time, he’salso getting ready for another busy season of

trade shows, creating not just new magicand sales presentations, but entire marketingcampaigns for his clients. And if time allows,he will continue to share his thoughts andhis magic with the magic fraternity.

AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLYSCHEDULED CARD ON CEILING…

It seemed ludicrous to the crowd thatthe trick had gone this far. What Kostya hadproposed, and was apparently going throughwith, seemed to be the ultimate effect. Noteven with the most complicated of apparatus(unless a gaffed ceiling were involved), couldsuch an impossibility come to pass. Whocould stick a thought-of card to the ceilingof a theatre with 300 well-posted magicianswatching the proceedings? Apparently thisyoung man was about to do it — or he wasputting everyone on.

As the deck thumped against the ceilingand fell toward the floor, it became obvious.There was a solitary pasteboard stuck upthere. But it was stuck with its face towardthe ceiling. The crowd exploded with laugh-ter, releasing the built-up tension. Everyonebreathed a deep sigh of relief, as this clearlyhad been a put-on.

Or had it? Kostya stared at the card, looked at the

spectator, and then scanned the eyes ofthe crowd. “Okay, you have to believe me.That is the Six of Spades.” Then, a smilecame over his face and you could sense anidea had materialized. “Wait, where’s thedeck? We never shuffled the deck! Sir, pleasecome up here and help me out. You will actas the eyes of the audience.”

With that, Kostya picked the deck upfrom the floor and took off the rub-ber band holding it together.He ran through the firstblock of cards, theHearts, handingthem to thespectator.

They were all there, in new deck order.The same went for the Clubs and theDiamonds. Each card was in place. Finally,he came to the Spades. He spread throughthem slowly — too slow for any funnybusiness — and revealed, as the crowd hadboth been hoping and dreading, that indeedonly one card was missing from the pack –the Six of Spades.

The audience erupted in a burst ofapplause and cheers.

The crowd was convinced that the sixwas stuck up there, and yet the mysteryremained. The card looked down on themfor the rest of the show, a playful reminderthat the beauty of magic is in mystery; thatthe unknown can be both captivating andentertaining. For Kostya, that mystery is hisenergy. And for his audiences, that mysteryis highly contagious. ◆

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