By Madison Mings
Editor
SPRINGFIELD- As you walk into the A. Lincoln commons you will see a magician and a woman doing tricks with a hula-hoop, photo booth sessions, a character drawer, and the student life table set up to give out goodies.
The Crescent circus got a chance to visit LLCC Wed Jan. 13. It included Nathan Kepner and Morgan Tsu-Raun who are performance artist and have been performing together since 2009. They began as street performers in New Orleans, They now perform for colleges and corporate events across the country. They have appeared on HBO’s series Treme and The Tonight Show.
Kepner started doing magic since he was 5-years-old and Juggling since he was 12 years old. Tsu-Raun’s story behind being a performer started with her and her friends attending festivals and her friend told her she should do it! Tsu-Raun is outstanding with hula hopping and Kepner is amazing with his crazy cool magic tricks and juggling skills! Her favorite part of it is being able to be silly and have fun.
A trick I caught was Kepner was asking the audience if they had a cell phone, and Jake Eiltes a student at LLCC was chosen to be a volunteer. Kepner made Eiltes give him his phone, and joked about if it was okay if he didn’t get it back, then Kepner asked him to pick a kind of cereal box between Trix or Life, Elites chose Life, then Kepner asked him to pick one card from the fanned out cards he had presented in front of him. He told him to sit on the card, and to hold the cereal box. Kepner held Eiltes phone and covered it with a red bandana, and asked Eiltes to make a gun hand gesture and make a gun noise at the phone.
Eiltes made the hand gesture but failed at making a gun sound, Kepner told him “That sounded like a weak British gun noise, you know how a gun sounds? Go like Grat-ta-ta.” They tried the attempt again and Eiltes pointed his fingers towards the bandana and made the gun noise and once he did that the phone disappeared.
The audience was shocked and asking where the phone could have gone. Kepner asked Eiltes to open the cereal box and he did but the bag was heavy he said, he opened the cereal bag and the phone was sealed inside with the cereal! Next was the card, Kepner had no idea what Eiltes had chosen, so he asked another audience member who has a phone to get on Facebook and type in The Crescent Circus and the card should pop up and it was the 9 of hearts and that was posted an hour before and that was the card he had chosen! It was shocking and amazing how he did that!
I asked Eiltes how he thought about being in the act? “It was fun!” he said. I also asked him if he has ever been in a magic act before, “That was my first time.” I asked him where he thought his phone had disappeared too, “I thought it was in the cereal box, but it was still crazy and fun!”
I also asked reading Professor Mrs. Klatt about The Crescent Circus being here and the magic act. “It’s something different and unique and the variety they brought.” I asked her what her favorite part was, “The phone trick in the box and the card was my favorite!”
Afterwards, they were teaching students and faculty how to hula-hoop and juggle some already knew how. I had to touch up on how to hula-hoop again, but Tsu-Raun taught me how to hula-hoop with my hand which was awesome! I didn’t attempt to juggle but Kepner can juggle behind his back.
The other fun activities were the photo booth with different props you could include in your photos to make them more fun, from a pirate hat, joker hat, a feather boa, and more! I love taking photos so I was all over the photo booth with assistant editor Teresa Brummet. It is Fire Guys Photo booth, a Photo Booth rental for all events and parties. Email: [email protected] WEB: www.fireguysphotbooth.com Bart Zaborac (217) 502-1496 and Dan Hannah (217) 652-7228.
They also had a Character sketch drawer, named Miguel Bohrer, 19, who just started college and his major is graphic design. He was doing sketches for free for anyone who wanted one. He did one of me and it was awesome, he is very talented!
Logger activities gave away cool sunglasses, a sleepy hollow tote bag, hand sanitizer spray, a little flashlight, a mobile phone card holder, and candy.