Meadows student brings bit of magic to UMC pediatric patients

Meadows student Michael Blau visited the pediatric trauma center at Children's Hospital of Nevada at UMC Jan. 29, but he wasn't there for himself. Rather, he was there to perform some sleight-of-hand card tricks to entertain the young patients.

It took place in the playroom at the hospital, 800 Hope Place. The 17-year-old aspiring magician first entertained a 4-year-old girl. She sat at the child's-height table beside him as he wowed her with a quick card show. When her attention span was at its limit, she left saying, "That was fun, Mommy."

For the next group, Blau had a tougher audience: three tweenagers. As they arrived, Blau never seemed to notice their hospital gowns or the face mask one of the girls wore. He greeted them and had them sit close, the better to witness his handiwork.

Blau recalled how his interest in magic began. His family was moving, and his father, Robert Blau, was a professional magician at one time.

"When I first moved to Las Vegas, I was 5 years old. In the move, I discovered my dad's magic box in the garage," he said. "So I started learning (tricks) in the box, and he was my coach. ... He used to be a magician in New York and started his own entertainment business, Shazam."

The younger Blau went on to perform magic at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, school events and benefits.

The Jan. 29 event was his first hospital show. The tricks that day were all done with a deck of cards. In a "pick a card, any card" kind of trick, Blau pulled a selected card out of the shuffled deck. Then he fanned out the deck on the table, but oh, no, the card that had been selected wasn't there. He had the boy, a 12-year-old, lift up an object on the table. Card found.

Another trick had the children determining the order of certain cards. Blau then pulled $1 out of his wallet and had them compare the serial number. It matched the order of the cards perfectly.

But Blau wasn't just there to give a show; he also passed on tricks of the trade. He had one of the youngsters split the card deck and give him the top part. He held them to his ear and riffled them.

"I immediately know there are 11 cards in here — 11 exactly," he said and proceeded to count them out one at a time.

Sure enough, there were 11 cards. Blau explained that he'd trained himself to "hear" how many cards were being riffled. He also told them that he could determine the number of playing cards simply by the weight of them.

"No way," one of the hospital attendants murmured.

The three youths left the room in smiles after the 15-minute show.

Blau said he got serious about his magic five or six years ago and really applied himself.

His mother, Leora, a former dancer, was there for the hospital show and said the whole family was in show business. She said she and her husband were very supportive of their son's decision to be a professional magician.

"You've got to have a passion," she said. "So many kids today don't. He would do this all day, every day, for hours and hours (as he learned)."

Charles Newman, director of student life at The Meadows School, 8601 Scholar Lane, said all high school students there are required to perform 144 hours of community service by graduation.

"We want those 144 hours to be comprised of active community service," he said. "Of course, the premise behind it is to have some sort of civic responsibility to lead by example, if you will. As a result, the more active we are in the community, the more the benefits are reciprocal. It benefits the people that our students are there to help, but it also builds a greater perspective of the world for the students."

As for Blau, he said he'd love to be a performer on the Strip. For now, bringing smiles to the children at the trauma center was another step closer to his goal.

Besides, he said, "I like it when I get a good audience."

— To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.