Magician Entertains Quad Residents

A professional magician entertained more than 100 students and staff at Currier House with card tricks and Harry Potter-style stunts during a magic show on Thursday.

Mark Mitton, a professional magician, presents a magic trick to a crowd of College students in the Currier Fishbowl on Thursday. By Zorigoo Tugsbayar

The show, dubbed “Quad Magic,” was hosted by magician and special effects consultant Mark Mitton. Mitton, who has practiced magic for over 25 years, travels the world performing magic shows, including one that involved Will Smith suddenly appearing in the middle of Times Square.

Sounds of applause and laughter filled Currier House Fishbowl as Mitton performed over a dozen tricks, including transforming dough into an egg and pulling one glass through another. An interactive performer, he invited various members of the audience, including Currier House Masters Richard W. Wrangham and Elizabeth A. Ross, to participate in particular steps of the tricks.

Mitton was invited to perform at Currier by Wrangham, who met him at an event a few months ago.

“I’m very keen on setting up events that bring together Quad students,” Wrangham said.

The performance was not Mitton’s first at Harvard. The magician, who has known Mather House Dean Luke A. Leafgren since high school, performed at Winthrop House and Mather House three years ago. His next show will be at Mather on Friday evening.

Mitton said he has always enjoyed performing for Harvard students and described the audience as “a fantastic crowd.”

After the show, he said the key to success as a magician is “curiosity.”

“If you are always curious about the world, you will always keep learning, and you don’t accept assumptions. [You need to] not think about things in a predicted way. It makes your thinking very adaptive,” Mitton said.

Members of the audience said they enjoyed the show, which some described as a welcome break as they settled into their classes.

Alexandra Rojek ’15, a resident of Currier House, said the show was “really fun.”

“It was a nice break from the craziness of shopping week and the beginning of the year,” she said. “He made the crowd really receptive.”

Happy Yang ’16 agreed.

“It makes me want to drop out of Harvard and become a magician,” she said.

—Staff Writer Zara Zhang can be contacted at zara.zhang@thecrimson.com.