Quotes

I was kind of nervous and didn't want to have to say anything to anybody," Erik recalled. "I just set up and tried to show off so someone would come up and ask me what I was doing, but no one paid any attention. So I finally got up the courage to ask one guy, 'Would you like to see a card trick?' And he said 'Sure.' Then he dragged a bunch of other people over, saying, 'You've got to see this!' After that it was really easy for me.

Sometimes I'm thinking about a magic problem, and I can't get it out of my head to concentrate on schoolwork," he said. "If I have a magic competition coming up, school can be boring, but it's OK.

I used to be nervous, where I'd shake a little bit or my heart would start running," Erik said. "But I don't get really nervous anymore. Instead of shaking I get dry-mouth. So before I go on I take one of those plastic lemons or limes full of concentrated juice and take a huge squirt of it. That helps.

I've built five treehouses. Usually they're in a park down the street. The last one was about 35 feet high, built on three levels, and we could get about seven kids on one floor.

"They only last about two weeks, though, because the city comes with tree trimmers and cuts them down. We've always wanted to be there when they were, with all our water balloons and water guns. But it always seems they hit on the one day we're not there."

I got to perform at the White House in a way," he said. "When we went by there, I stuck my foot in the gate and did a card trick.

When I'm preparing for a competition or a performing date, I'll work eight hours a day on my routine," he said. "Last Easter break, for two weeks I worked eight or nine hours a day on one routine, over and over. I set up a video camera in the living room, taping from all angles, then watching it back for mistakes.

I'd like to do magic as a career, though I know I'll have to do a lot more to make it work as a career because some make good money, but most magicians have to scrounge to get by. If it doesn't work out as a full-time career, I'll have to have something else as a job and then have magic as a second job. It's what I want to do full time, though.

When I look at anything now, I'm thinking about how I can turn it into a trick," Erik said. "It's a different way of thinking, after you know a lot about magic. I think if all the people in the world knew tons about magic, I'd almost believe that our technology would be a lot farther along than it is now.

I like appearing in front of people, and I like to fool them and leave them wondering how it was done," he said. "I like to be creative and having an act that's something new, so that if another magician sees me, he'll never have seen it before. Magic is the most fun.