His teacher pushed him on stage for a talent show in elementary school and Jason Verners has been chasing the spotlight ever since.
In December, the 15-year-old magician performed two shows for fellow students at Belmont Secondary School, did a solo number at the Al Smith Studio, opened a holiday concert for a pair of Victoria songwriters, and worked the Ivy Ballroom at the Fairmont Empress Hotel for a party hosted by the B.C. Human Resources Management Association.
Not bad for an act that began with a dollar-store magic kit and a simple desire to stand out from the crowd.
“I was just an only child who wanted to do something that nobody else did and magic was right there,” he said.
He got hooked the first time he floated a bill and fooled his dad.
“I was the man,” he said.
From that moment on, he spent hours perfecting tricks and testing them on his parents.
“I think he’d be in his room just practising until he got it right and some of them started to be really quite amazing,” Candace Verners said.
Eventually, he took his show on the road — to elementary school.
As a lunch monitor, he promised the younger students a magic trick if they stayed quiet.
They did.
He moved on from there to do birthday parties. A daycare hired him for a Halloween bash. Charities and companies signed Jason’s Magical Moments for special events.
“It’s just word of mouth,” he said.
Word of mouth and hours of practice.
He’s always polishing the act, he said, always thinking of new ideas, always trying out new tricks on his friends and classmates.
“Any free moment he has,” his mother said. “Even in school, he’s doing it. On his report card [it says,] ‘If Jason could just leave the deck of cards alone … ’”
How can he? Those cards have already taken him to Las Vegas, where, in 2012, he finished third in the close-up competition at the International Youth Magic Championship.
At 13, he was the youngest performer in the under-21 category for magic done in close proximity to the audience.
It was an intimidating, but rewarding experience, he said.
“You meet the scary competitors, and they were a lot older, too,” he said. “They were like 18 and I was like this little 13-year-old kid, going in, thinking he’s someone.”
You can watch his performance on YouTube, and see that, despite his youthfulness, he already demonstrates the patter and sleight-of-hand skills of a seasoned pro.
He was already at the airport, on his way home, when he found out that he had finished in third place.
He hopes to go back one day as a headliner. He also wants to perform magic on cruise ships, maybe tour Japan.
“I really want to go across Canada or I really want to do like a week-long show,” he said.
“Everything’s working out so well for me so far.”
