Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. In the Community

Video: Richmond magician conjures up COVID-19 card trick

A Richmond magician has conjured up a special card trick to help people get the social-distancing message during the pandemic.
Alan Campbell
Kaplan
John Kaplan has devised a special card trick to illustrate how the virus easily spreads. YouTube screenshot

A Richmond magician has conjured up a special card trick to help people get the social-distancing message during the pandemic.

John Kaplan, who has been running his Abracadabra Show Productions, for decades, released a YouTube video of the illusion over the weekend from his east Richmond home.

Kaplan
John Kaplan has devised a special card trick to illustrate how the virus easily spreads. YouTube screenshot

Using the five of diamonds as the card “infected” with COVID-19, Kaplan illustrates, by magic, how the disease can and will spread if we don’t follow the orders of the provincial and federal governments about keeping a two-metre distance.

“I got the idea from my friend, Max Boyle, who I met when I hired him as a stage tech for my touring magic show a few years ago,” Kaplan told the Richmond News on Monday.

“He's a teacher and an accomplished musician ...he recently did a live Facebook stream show featuring his music, along with a card trick that he learned from me and presented it with a Covid-19 theme.

“I loved the idea and knew of another card trick, one I've been doing for over three decades that could be adapted to a safety message concerning Covid-19.  I couldn't wait to get it on video.”