Iseli wows crowd at Glenvar Public Library

Iseli wows crowd at Glenvar Public Library 

By Jonathan Crib 

 

It was a hot beautiful Thursday afternoon at Glenvar Library, so why were so many kids and parents inside? 

Wes Iseli and his daughter, Lana, perform with Broadway the bird. Photo by Jonathan Cribb.

The audience gathered to see profesional magician Wes Iseli perform a magic show for free. The event was to promote the library's summer reading program for kids. And promote he did. 

Iseli spent time talking about when he first wanted to be a magician and scrambled to the library to find books on magic and magic tricks, only to find a couple. 

"I thought for a while that those were the only books avaialbel, and then a friend came to me when I was 19 and told me that magic was the 3rd most written about subject in the late 1900's" he said "so now I spend four hours a night catching up on the reading I missed, but you dont have to do that. You can talk to the people at the library to help you find any book you want" 

Along with his lecture on reading, Iseli performed magic to a captivated audience, which consisted of fans from 1 to 60 years old. He perfromed sleight of hand card tricks, dissapearing acts, some pyrotechnics, and acts with a rabbit named Lucky and a Dove named Broadway. 

Iseli used members of the audience as his best tool to create an atmosphere of wonder. Children of all ages scrambled to get their hand up to be called to the stage to be a volunteer. But Iseli had two of his own Assistants that he could always count on: his daughter Lana and his wife Natalie. Both performed magic tricks of their own and Lana had clear showmanship as the event continued. 

"It's a family event and we try to promote that," Natalie Iseli said. "Lana has been doing this since she was 4 days old."

It was clear to see that they enjoyed touring together as they traveled from one place to the next doing magic, even doing work on a tevevision show The Carbonaro Effect on Tru TV. The family even does a 24-hour magic show to raise money for Children's Miracle Network. 

But for now, they move on to their next show happy as can be. 

Wes Iseli performs a magic trick with a little help from a volunteer. Photo by Jonathan Cribb.

Lollipop Station Book signing and show

My book The Magical Life of Jordan is now available. We are selling them online at both wesiseli.com and Amazon.com and at several retailers.

We are even doing several book signings. To make my book signing different and exciting I am doing a signing and show which really helps draw a crowd. At my most recent book signing at Lollipop Station in Culpeper, Va things were crazy. When we got there I told Natalie to wait outside with my books and magic while I found the store owner. Once I got inside I couldn't see more than two feet in front of me because the place was packed with people. I politely pushed my way through the crowd to the back of the store, but I couldn't find an employee other than the one at the register but she was super busy so I went outside and said "Natalie it is your turn." She then came out one minute later with the owner and she said the crowd was for me. There was about seventy five folks there to see magic and buy autographed copies of my book. Below are photos from this show and signing.