Entertainment

David Copperfield might have walked through the Great Wall of China, but David Williamson once turned his own hocus pocus on the Far East — he made the president of Hyundai disappear.

And when David Blaine sealed himself in ice, David Williamson, uh, made a live donkey appear onstage for IBM.

So as you can see, magic is practiced by an awful lot of Davids — two you know and the third you should know.

After all, Copperfield and Blaine know Williamson.

But the Greene County native, performing in Kuss Auditorium on Feb. 9, has risen to the top of the magic world behind the closed doors of corporate America.

Williamson has given tricks to guys like Copperfield and Blaine, but his job as a corporate entertainer allows him to live the normal life in Yellow Springs.

Of course, he could have once chosen to play comedy clubs and taken a stab at becoming a superstar. But he went the corporate route, "Which means the check doesn't bounce," he said.

Had he taken on a life of crime, though, he would have made for one heck of a petty thief — he snatched the watch right off my wrist and I had no clue until he dangled it before me.

"Magic is like sausage," joked Williamson, a sleight-of-hand specialist with a comedian's wit. "Everybody loves it, but you don't want to see how it's made. It's a huge letdown."

If you insist on learning how it's done, most magicians clam up tighter than Houdini's straightjacket.

"You have to prove yourself before they open up," Williamson said.

At age 45, he's more than proven himself, and that means he gets to hang out at Hollywood's exclusive Magic Castle club and dine with Teller — you know, as in Penn and Teller.

"Even the guys at the very top, they're accessible," he said.

To hear him put it, all magicians share a common bond, whether they've had a prime-time special or not.

"I am convinced it's a genetic defect," Williamson explained. "The other boys put down the magic sets and start chasing girls. You have to have a huge hole in your life. I'd have to sit on a couch to figure it out."

Growing up in Xenia — he moved back to Ohio six years ago to raise a family — Williamson knew what he wanted to do before he even hit 13.

At 15, he landed his first paying gig at Scot's Inn, a motel on Leffel Lane. Every Thursday night, he'd do his thing alongside a troupe of belly dancers.

"They dressed me like a genie and I'd come out and do magic," he recalled.

But he's come a long way from the kid in the genie suit who once watched in horror as the extra ball in the cups and balls trick got loose and rolled into the boot of a trucker.

For starters, Copperfield does some of Williamson's tricks, including one in which he takes a couple of women and gives them each others' underwear.

"Creating magic is much different than doing a trick," he said.

That means you can learn some really cool tricks off the Internet, but he still recommends the classic magic books to master the "mechanics of deception and the psychology of deception."

But that doesn't mean things still can't go wrong.

Even at this stage in his career, the occasional trick can go awry — and that's where the comedian reappears.

"I take the magic seriously, but I want to do it in a fun way," he said. "Since mine is comedy based, I can walk away from almost anything with a raise of the eyebrow."

That's an advantage those other two Davids don't have.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

How to go

Magician-comedian David Williamson plays Kuss Auditorium at 8 p.m. Feb. 9. Comedian-illusionist El Gleno Grande opens.

Tickets are $10 to $25. Call 328-3874 or go to pactkts.com.