 "Photo: MCT Campus")
(MCT) - The rubber bands on Nathan Kepner's wrist look innocuous - he's a Penn State student, so maybe they're there to organize his papers or fiddle with during a long lecture.
But after a while, Kepner has them stretched between his fingers. As you watch, two rubber bands cross through each other, defying the laws of science - ironic for a student who plans to become a chemistry teacher.
For now, however, the 19-year-old Schreyer Honors College freshman is better known as a nationally recognized magician. In 2005, he won the Lance Burton Teen Stage Champion award at the world magic seminar in Las Vegas - considered the most prestigious competition for junior magicians. He's won a Society of American Magicians' Genii Award for up-and-coming performers twice.
"I started when I was 5 years old. I got a magic set from Pizza Hut," Kepner said.
Unlike other children, Kepner didn't lose interest in magic.
Watching "The World's Greatest Magic" television series was a favorite pastime.
By the time he was 10, he wanted to have real doves to go with his growing repertoire.
His parents said he could get the birds if he still felt that way when he finished middle school.
"The day middle school was over, I was in the pet shop," Kepner said.
Those two doves have since grown to six.
Because they aren't welcomed in university dormitories, they usually stay with Kepner's parents near Harrisburg. Recently, they've taken up temporary residence in a biology lab on campus so Kepner can use them in a performance.
Mixing magic with school work is not new to Kepner. While in high school, Kepner, a member of the high school marching band, made the drum major disappear during a football game halftime performance.
He said he sees a strong connection between his magic and teaching, particularly the importance of understanding how people think.
Kepner performed his first show when he was 10 at a bowling alley for a 5-year-old's birthday party. He said he is largely self-taught from books and videos and is always trying to improve his act.
"I wouldn't say I have things go wrong. I'd say I have things go unexpectedly," he said of learning from unplanned turns in his show.
He also has Kenrick "ICE" McDonald, a master magician based in Los Angeles, as a mentor. McDonald described Kepner as daring.
"He's doing a lot of things older magicians wouldn't do or try," McDonald said. "He's willing to go out there and try to do something new until he gets it down. He's very creative."
McDonald said while it is standard for a magician to have a floating cane in an act, Kepner took it a step further: A floating saxophone and clarinet.
In his act, Kepner sports a black pin stripe suit. During the show, a tie and a hat, appearing out of nowhere, are added to the ensemble. He leans on a real 1944 jukebox reading a newspaper with a headline announcing "Dewey Wins." Out of the newspaper he produces a saxophone. He turns a burning dollar into a giant coin and his microphone into dust.
There are card tricks and ball tricks and a sketch of a clarinet that becomes a real instrument - one Kepner moves through the air without touching.
When Kepner first started practicing magic, he was drawn by "the feeling of seeing something you know you just couldn't have seen," he said. "It's just fun and cool to be able to do that for other people."
He said he thinks the interaction with the audience can be more important than the magic itself.
"My interest in magic has expanded to more aspects than just the illusion of it. It's the theatrics of it, the performance of it and the entertainment value."
A video of his 8½-minute act led to Kepner being selected in 2005 to perform at the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas, where he competed against other young magicians.
That performance earned him the Lance Burton Teen Stage Award.
He said it was exciting to perform in Las Vegas but "also one of the most nerve-wracking experiences."
"You have a couple hundred critics watching you," he said.
At Penn State, he displays his magic at birthday parties for professors' children and performances at university President Graham Spanier's tailgate parties. (Spanier, also a magician, is adviser to the Penn State Performing Magicians student club.) Kepner said he had been worried he wouldn't get to perform while in school, but that hasn't been a problem.
Paul Critelli, chairman of the Society of American Magicians Contest of Magic, described Kepner as "one of the brightest young stars in Magic, and a very decent and intelligent young man."
Critelli said he wasn't one of the five judges who picked the Genii award winners (one for a stage show, the other for a close-up), but he agrees with the choice of Kepner for the stage show awards.
"I can also make this prediction with a very high degree of confidence," Critelli said in an e-mail.
"If Nathan continues on his path, he will someday be the recipient of many awards, including honors and prizes which will put him into magical history."
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