A magician who performs under the stage name of Justin Sight was recently welcomed to campus by Jesse Waters, director of Elizabethtown College’s Bowers Writers House. Sight specializes in a variety of card tricks.
The event started at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10, in Gibble Auditorium on Etown’s campus. His hour-long performance kept the audience focused and amazed.
Waters introduced the mysterious magician and said Sight was one of the most brilliant performers he’s ever seen. Waters’ introduction seemed to get the crowd excited and eager for the show to start.
Many of Sight’s tricks involved a member of the crowd which seemed to keep the audience engaged. Sight is legally blind, meaning he could only see things very close to him when performing his tricks.
Because of his blindness, he does not ask for volunteers, but instead points to random spots in the room, hoping a person is there. He then asks them, or the nearest person, to join him on stage. Nobody knew who was going to be selected next.
Before Sight enlightened the audience with his abilities, he explained what got him into magic and this type of performance. The performer said he discovered magic when he was only 10 years old. He said when he first saw magic on television, it felt like an affirmation of a truth he’s always felt. Sight followed this concept and said, “There is more to this reality.”
The large audience was a mix of community members and Etown students who gasped at all Sight’s illusions. One aspect of the performance that made the crowd speechless was when the card’s number and face continued to change once the card touched an audience member’s hand.
Another act Sight performed was when he called three students to the stage and asked them to link hands. Sight then wrote on the girl’s hand on one end of the group and the writing only appeared at the same spot on the girl at the opposite end, not the girl he supposedly drew the mark on. This left both girls utterly shocked as he did not touch the hand of the girl who had the writing.
This concept of unexpectedness was demonstrated multiple times during the duration of the performance. He made an audience member’s signed card reappear multiple times at the top of the deck.
The unexplainable acts left the audience gasping throughout the performance. One of these moments was when the magician pulled a specifically requested card off an audience member’s phone. Sight had the audience member go to his Instagram page, @Justinsightmagic, and Sight then found the post with the folded card. The trick impressed the audience as the post was blank and had been posted on Sight’s account back in 2017.
Though Sight specialized in card tricks during his performance, it was clear he knew many other forms of magic as well. One of which was making an audience member’s coin float through the air and land back into his hand.
Another alternate trick the magician performed was when he seemingly turned a flame from a lighter into a large chunk of ice, which then fell into the hands of one of the volunteers. This caused a collective shocking gasp from the crowd in Gibble.
Sight’s multitude of tricks entertained the people and everyone was excited to witness it.
After the performance, Waters thanked Sight for his time and willingness to come out to the college. Waters first brought Justin Sight to campus roughly 10 years ago where he performed a similar act.
When asked about the process of finding Sight and bringing him to campus Waters said, “I wondered if there are any blind magicians and I just googled it and I found Justin.”
Waters runs many events for the Bowers Writing House and encourages students to reach out if they come across a performer that they would like to see on campus. Waters can be reached through his email, watersj@etown.edu, if you have any specific requests for performers.
