Sleight of hand. Twitch of eye.
That`s magic, and that`s what John Fabjance of Mt. Prospect counts on when he performs.
But if you think all he`s doing is tricks as he produces coins from nowhere or displays the playing card you were thinking about, you`ve fallen under the spell of ”Mind Games,” as he calls his show.
You`ve also missed the point: Fabjance`s magic act usually delivers a message, often about alcohol.
It`s not a sermon but a quiet message, presented with a practiced subtlety that makes his presentation different from the typical anti-drug and anti-alcohol lecture that people-students in particular-are accustomed to hearing.
”Everyone has heard everything they can about alcohol awareness,”
Fabjance says, explaining the unorthodox approach he uses as he earns a living traveling across the country performing at high schools and colleges as well as for businesses.
Regardless of the audience, his function is to increase awareness of alcohol-related problems and to encourage people to take advantage of counseling and assistance programs.
The ease with which he moved through a crowd of students recently at George Washington University reflects the years Fabjance spent teaching communications and theater, mainly at a Downstate high school and an Illinois college.
Although he had performed as a magician for years, it wasn`t until 1987 that Fabjance founded his Rolling Meadows-based company, Magic Management, through which he organizes his shows.
At George Washington, he performed his standup routine and his roving act, which includes magic tricks and pickpocketing-he actually removes people`s watches and rings without their noticing. The lunchtime crowd at the university`s cafeteria enjoyed both.
Later, Fabjance performed to a captive Capitol Hill audience of congressional pages, who are high school students from around the country and serve as clerks and researchers for congressmen.
As the father of four children-three college-age and one in high school-Fabjance is in tune with teens.
His says his work is personalized by the impact alcohol has had in his life: He lost a family member ”because of an alcohol problem.”
While it`s generally acknowledged that denial is at the heart of alcohol problems, Fabjance approaches it from a different perspective.
”If they`re (alcoholics) not aware that they have a problem, they`re not going to listen to anything you say,” he said, adding that ”they keep themselves from coming to counseling groups and everything because they convince themselves that they don`t need it.
”They know it all. So with the magic, I show them the mind games on how you fool yourself.
”Every trick there has some sort of mind game,” he said. ”I tell them, you know, I do no magic. You thought you saw it because you wanted to see it.”
Fabjance says of his method, ”If I can say it in a friendly way, when they`re off guard, it gets in there.”
Laughing and learning enter lessons into a person`s long-term memory, he maintains, which is why he interjects serious statements in the middle of a trick.
When the high school pages listen attentively to an hourlong act after a 12-hour day, something must be registering.
Said one page after the show, ”I thought he got his point across,”
without the audience having to hear ”the structured lecture that everybody knows.”
