A professional magician for more than 20 years, Varma became one of youngest members of Hollywood's exclusive Magic Castle in 1997 and performs magic there and at private venues throughout Southern California. An up and coming entrepreneur, he also oversees his fledgling publishing empire which includes visual word puzzles and books and his newly completed mystery novel "Death by Magic," for which he is currently publisher shopping.

The art of magic can be defined in two ways, Varma explained. Certainly it's pure entertainment. A $2 deck of cards can yield hours of enjoyment and challenge while watching, learning and performing magic tricks.

"I think that everyone understands that it's a trick and that they're being fooled," Varma, 38, said. "If your presentation is entertaining enough, people are willing to suspend their belief systems in order to enjoy the effect."

Secondly, on a more ethereal level, Varma said there is magic all around us illustrated by the magic of our ability to manifest what we desire: a career, a vehicle . . . a wonderful wife. Even a job. During the years when Varma needed to book 10 magic performances per month to meet expenses, he learned to "magically" create the opportunities he wanted. When, for example, he had only eight shows booked in a given month, he would first request that the Universe help him magically create two more bookings.

Shortly thereafter, he might visit a grocery store and spot someone putting a box of cake mix into her shopping cart. "I'd introduce myself and say, 'I'm a magician and it looks like you're having a party' and would offer my services. Usually the person would say, 'You read my mind.' I wasn't reading her mind. I was reading her groceries." Just as with the sleight of hand magic at which Varma is so adept, the synchronicity of having each person's needs met feels like magic to both parties. "Whether it's synchronicity or serendipity, something magical does happen," Varma said.

Magician and Author Michael Varma

Photo by www.HocusPocusFocus.com 

Photo by www.HocusPocusFocus.com 

Instilled with practicality as a youngster from his Indian father, Sunil, and creativity from his American mother Karen, Varma learned that the blending of the two cultures at home mirrored the meshing of discipline and outside-the-box thinking required in his chosen career.

Eventually he taught his father by example that it's unnecessary to follow traditional career paths or to work "hard" in order to be successful. "For many years Dad didn't understand how I'd make a living doing magic," Varma said, until his father's first visit to the Magic Castle, a world-renowned private "clubhouse" for magicians and special guests in Southern California. "I gave a show for immediate family and friends held in a room that was open for other people to come in, too. It was supposed to be a 20 minute show but everyone liked it so much I performed for almost an hour."

When his father saw how much the audience members enjoyed watching Varma's antics with a simple deck of cards and engaging story-telling, he understood that a person could earn good money by entertaining.

And how entertaining magic can be. "Every magic trick is potentially explosive," Varma said. "It can get what I sometimes call the killer reaction of 'Oh, no way! How did he do that?' "

It was his mother's innocent support of a childhood magic trick gone awry when he was about 6 years old that launched him on the road to magic. When he tossed a small toy race car over his shoulder behind him - to make it disappear, of course - and broke a lamp, his mother sweetly said, "My, you're quite a magician," a declaration that stuck with him as fact.

"From that point on I said to myself, 'I'm a magician. I'm a magician,' and I was always thinking about magic," Varma said. When his mother brought home a book of magic tricks, he read it cover to cover, promptly memorizing nearly half the tricks. An added bonus: his mother never said a word about the broken lamp.

Now retired from the full-time magic show circuit because it requires too much travel time away from home and his wife, Varma performs magic on evenings and weekends at the Magic Castle and other private parties. On weekdays he is a data analyst for pharmaceutical wholesaler giant AmerisourceBergen, a position in which his magic - and Indian-influenced critical thinking skills - serve him well.

"Magic is somewhat deceptive," he said. "You think you're being shown a card, but in reality, you're being shown the back of a card. In business scenarios, I can think with my magician's mind and wonder what I'm really being shown. It helps me discern the true facts behind someone's presentation."

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

One of the reasons professional magician Michael Varma enjoys performing close-up magic is its portability - he can do it anywhere with all types of props. "You're able to have magic happen in the spectators' hands. It becomes that much more meaningful, impressive and, well, magical."

Most fascinating close-up magic tricks combine mathematical or logical rules that create "self-working" tricks (ones that always work reliably) with sleight of hand techniques. The seamless interplay of skills leaves those who don't know the secret in awe, and that's the way Varma likes it. "People have pre-conceived notions of what magicians can do," he said. "They think you can cut to all four aces in a deck of cards immediately. That's impossible - unless you're a magician."

See if you can figure out how these are done:

Staracle
"This one is simple and great in a restaurant while you're waiting for your food," Varma said. 

that was torn from the larger piece, it is in the perfect shape of a five-point star. Hint: The trick is in the fold.

Magic Square
Or try the magic square, a variation on an 8th century trick that might be Chinese in origin. Varma draws a box comprised of 16 squares. Audience members are chosen to randomly fill in half of the squares with numbers of their choosing. Varma fills in the rest, seemingly haphazardly. When columns, rows or diagonals are added together, each one results in the same sum. Hint: Part of the trick is in the order of the numbers. [See illustration.]

Salt Shaker through the Table
Then there's the one in which he makes a salt shaker appear to go through a table - another great one for restaurants. It's guaranteed to garner the attention of other diners when your party roars with pleasure and amazement. We'll let you figure this one out for yourself.

Take a paper napkin and fold it a certain way. Carefully tear out one piece in a straight line from the center so that when the napkin is unfolded, it reveals a round full moon-shaped window.

When you unfold the part of the napkin