Magician mystifies students with trickery at Late Night

Mat Franco’s magic show at the Student Union on Saturday night was, indeed, full of laughs and surprises. Though it was an unpleasant, rainy evening, the turnout at the show was unexpectedly large, and even resulted in insufficient seating for the audience.

Franco, a Rhode Island native, started picking up magic tricks at the age of four, and is a fulltime magician.

Franco said, “I’m very excited to be back at UConn for the fourth time, it is one of my favorite campuses that I’ve performed in.”

For some students it was not their first time seeing Mat Franco. Despite tardiness, the crowd was still very excited for the start.

Franco began the show by throwing cards at the audience, which immediately got everyone’s attention. He successfully engaged the audience by encouraging audience participation. One student was asked to go up on the stage and join what Franco in doing a few dance moves and ripping a napkin into pieces.

The magician continued the trick by stuffing the napkin remnants into his mouth. The audience was bewildered and laughed at Franco’s comical facial expression. He then proceeded to pull out of his mouth not the napkin, but a colorful necklace approximately 10 feet long.

Throughout the performance Franco made numerous sex jokes but they only made the show even funnier and the audience to laugh harder.

Jennifer Yik, a 5th semester nursing major, was one of the audience members called to assist upon the magical stage said, “[Franco] is very charming. I’ve seen the trick that he just did on me but I still don’t know how he does it!”

Franco also taught the audience a trick of turning a handkerchief into an egg by switching between hands. Another tricks he had up in his sleeve involved the dancing napkin that was aroused using strands of hair from a couple in the audience.

 Max Calvert, a 1st semester political science major, said it was a lot of fun participating in the show with Franco. He said, “He is great and he can engage the crowd very well.”