Wes Kroninger
Magician Nate LeGros entertains Westerville with his magic tricks and makes his audiences laugh—without saying a word.
The 28-year-old, who performs as Magic Nate, finds much of his audience in Westerville, where he grew up. He started learning tricks at age 10 while he was a student at McVay Elementary School, next to the family home he shared with his parents, Joe and Aggie, two sisters and a brother.
His first trick—learned from a book, a Christmas present from his grandmother—was making a piece of silk vanish in his palm.
The second, which he still uses to this day, was a trick in which he appears to transform three pieces of rope of different lengths into a single piece.
His first performance was at a talent show at McVay. His curiosity and enthusiasm for magic waxed and waned during his formative years.
Before heading off to The Ohio State University to major in English, the Westerville North High School student worked at RalphotoStudio as a photographer’s assistant, helping determine the identities of those posing for team and event photos at Westerville South High School.
He wasn’t the best student at OSU, LeGros admits. He played on a club rugby team, as he had in high school. Even though he relied on a counselor to help with scheduling, after five years, he learned he still needed two more years of coursework to earn a degree.
LeGros left school and worked for the Cheryl’s Cookies call center that eventually morphed into a 1-800-Flowers.com center. During the two years he was there, he practiced tricks as a hobby, often entertaining new employees after they finished training. He was dubbed Magic Nate.
Out of work and determined to be a magician, LeGros decided to do it full-time, but he had no bookings or money to buy or build large tricks.
“I had to be a street performer,” LeGros says.
LeGros had to carry his equipment in a large bag and work from a small table. His first impromptu shows were at Westerville’s 4th Friday events, where he set up on the sidewalk in front of Ralphoto, with the owner’s permission.
When he took his unsigned act to the Westerville Area Chamber of Commerce Music & Arts Festival, he was asked to leave. However, organizers noted the popularity of his series of five-minute shows.
LeGros says they paid him to come back.
He has held sidewalk performances at the Columbus Arts Festival, the Grove City Browsing Broadway event and the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival, among other Central Ohio events.
For sidewalk shows, attracting kids is key.
“Kids love the stuff, but adults will try to walk away,” he says. “People will watch the kids watch me.”
Early on, LeGros says, speaking was a part of his show. But when his sister, Emily Fermier, who teaches American Sign Language at OSU, asked him to perform at a deaf community picnic, he realized speaking would be fruitless.
LeGros found the challenge interesting.
“I always liked clowns and mimes,” he says.
LeGros created ways to present tricks or illusions that entertained the audience in silence. He opted to keep his mouth shut and hands busy from then on.
“I wanted to be good when I performed. I had to be good no matter what audience,” LeGros says.
The equipment for most shows fits in LeGros’ car. Only a very large show, which features a “floating lady” illusion, requires a truck and perhaps two hours to set up. For a while, he used a trick where he caught a bullet in his teeth, but it didn’t work because “everything else in the show was so funny,” LeGros says.
Three years ago, his life became a tad more serious as he and high school sweetheart Meredith Phillips were married. The Ohio Dominican University graduate is a private school teacher.
LeGros won’t, of course, reveal how tricks are performed, but he often tells kids the basics of some. A primary lesson involves how to conceal coins – he gives them flat washers – in the palm.
After practicing, they show it to their mothers and proclaim, “I made a coin disappear.”
While he can’t say how many tricks he knows, LeGros explains there are a dozen different ways of doing just one, such as using one hand or the other.
Usually, someone from the audience is included, whether it’s for a card trick or being the victim in the arm chopper trick he used for his deaf audience. Two carrots and a volunteer’s arm are inserted into holes in a device, and a sharp blade is quickly lowered. The vegetables are sliced in two, but the arm is not cut.
“It’s hilarious. There’s confusion, intense fear, laughing,” LeGros says. “The volunteer’s the hero.”
LeGros stays busy doing paid shows — prices range from $100 to $850, depending on length and number of shows per appearance. His shows include sidewalks, kids’ birthdays, social gatherings and fundraisers.
He appeared last fall in Westerville’s Got Talent, where he was judged best unique act. He has done fundraisers for Highland and McVay elementary schools this winter and the Westerville Education Foundation last fall. For those, he turns over 35 percent of the admissions.
His finale is two tricks: swallowing a twisted balloon and three “disappearing” balls and cups. During sidewalk shows, he displays a large “applause” sign. He also puts out a bucket and a sign: “If you liked it, $1; If you really liked it, $5; If you really, really liked it, $10; If you hated it, $20.”
While numerous websites sell complex magic tricks and explanations on how to do them, LeGros is skeptical of such enterprises.
“It’s not so much about the secrets as it is about the other guy wanting to make money. They’re fully willing to tell you a secret for a (high) price,” he says
“Magic should be used as entertainment, not how much money you can make,” LeGros says.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at hbealer@cityscenecolumbus.com.
