AU Professor Has Got the Magic

The "Sort of Amazing Barry" - before he helped to mold young
minds, he used to blow them. Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Merica

A man treated his class to a surprise magic trick Thursday afternoon. Prof. Barry Gordemer, aka the “Sort of Amazing Barry,” claimed he could control his students’ minds with a simple card trick.   

Gordemer is an American University Communications professor and former professional magician. He said that Obi Wan Kenobi from “Star Wars” and his ability to Jedi mind-trick people got him into magic. But he first saw the trick he did for the class in Ireland. Gordemer started by splitting his class into five groups. He passed around cards and had each group pick one. He then placed the cards in rows and asked each group to show him which row their card was in, to make it easier for him to guess. 

Gordemer in action. 
Photo courtesy of Jaclyn Merica.

The highlight of the show was definitely the third group's card reveal. He gave a student, Shavawn White, an envelope with the name of the card in it. He asked me to say its name before White opened the envelope. He got all five. Gordemer said he can always tell if the trick will go well from the start. If he gets the first card right, it's likely he'll succeed. But he did advise that a magician needs to have a backup ready, for the times a trick does fail. His backup moves for this trick were to make cards disappear or throw them all in frustration and storm out.

Most of the class seemed to like the trick, if the gasps and murmurs after Gordemer showed a card are anything to go by. White really liked the envelope bit, which it let her down a little only because she wanted "confetti or birds to fly out of it." However, one student didn't like it at all, even with Gordemer’s success. If someone were to ask John Burns to describe the show in two words, he would say, "All luck." He was sure the professor wouldn't be able to get all the cards if he repeated the trick.