Pfocus Pocus

Abra Quadbra! Pfoho residents got a break from the pressures of reading period Wednesday night when Samuel A. Wright, a Pfoho night guard of two years, put on a magic show at a special study break in the dining hall.

The room was packed with excited students, tutors, and even the House Master’s wife and daughter, who watched Wright’s card tricks, rope illusions, and ring acrobatics with amazement.

To one particularly impressive trick, in which Wright made a lime appear under a cup, one Pfoho resident shouted “How did that just happen?! That was amazing!”

But it was the final illusion that really proved Wright to be a master magician. He took a $20 bill which had the name of a Pfoho resident written on it, turned it into one dollar bill, then opened a bag which contained an orange, peeled the orange, and revealed the twenty dollar bill with the student’s name on it. Wright received a standing ovation.

“I know how Harvard can solve the budget crisis,” said Anne E. DeAngelo ’12. “Cut open magic oranges and find twenties inside.”

Flyby has to admit, we were impressed. Find out more about the man behind the magic, after the jump.

Wright said that he has been persuing magic since he was 8 years old and started putting on shows professionally when he was 18. He said that he performs because he loves creating “an ideal of childlike wonderment” in the audience.

“As adults, sometimes we forget that sense of childlike hope,” he said. “I hope to create that with my magic.”

Wright said that when he works as a nighttime guard in Pfoho, students often come to the office to watch him perform.  It was Robb Fitzsimmons ’10, a late-night regular in the dining hall, who decided to put the show together to share Wright’s magic, which he called “pretty amazing stuff,” with the whole Pfoho community.

Wright said he enjoyed performing for Pfoho.

“Any time a show ends in a standing ovation, it's good,” he said.