Variety is the spice of his magic

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The term variety seems to be the most indispensable term in the life of magician Nipin Niravath. He has been experimenting with a magic genre called mentalism, where the magician applies mental abilities to read the mind of his spectators. If asked why he decided to zero in his attention on mentalism, promptly comes the reply, “shouldn’t there be a variety in everything?”  The ‘mantra’ to read the mind of another, he says, is to observe a person up close, “The mannerisms and gestures of people give out their nature to a certain extent. Also, through some simple personal questions, many attributes of their mind can be read.” This self-taught magician says that a conducive atmosphere also has due importance and hence prefers some of the ideal venues such as Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan in the city to conduct his magic shows. In Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan, he performed a card magic called ‘Insane card illusion’, an application derived out of ‘Houdini card mystery’, the other day. In the show, a card signed by the chief guest, K Muraleedharan MLA, was kept locked inside a casket along with a pack of cards. After the casket was locked, the magician rang a bell. To the astonishment of the audience, the signed card arrived on the stage on a miniature helicopter. He had also performed ‘mentalism’ in 2010 at the same venue, where he had asked one among the audience to write his name on a small sheet of paper and keep it sealed in an envelope. Without even seeing what was inside, he predicted the name of the person, to the bafflement of many.  Nipin’s experiments pertain to an amalgamation of modern street magic, stage mentalism and close-up magic. He explains his penchant for trying out this rare mixture in magic, “Magic took life in the form of street magic in early days. Bringing it on to the stage along with the others will be a tribute to the genre.” The man hailing from Mundakkayam in Kottayam district began his acquaintance with magic during his early childhood by watching magic tricks being performed by street vendors in an effort to woo customers. Inspired by this, he tried out some tricks that he learnt from children’s magazines. At the age of eight, he converted a piece of silk cloth into a shiny egg that earned him the applause of his teachers and friends at school. From then on, there was no looking back for Nipin. In 1999, at the age of 18, he did ‘The great fire escape magic’ at Ponkunnam. A diploma holder in Print Technology, Nipin also runs an event management company named ADD at Kowdiar along with his friends. If asked how he juggles all this, comes the quick reply wrapped in a smile, “they are all part of variety entertainment.”