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Magic man!: Louie Mabrey, The Great Loudini, brings magic with a message to audiences
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| The Rev. Louie Maybrey - The 'Great Loudini' - shows astonishment when he realizes a rope trick didn't go as planned. MADELYN TROYANEK/Lake City Reporter |
By MARY SAVAGE msavage@lakecityreporter.com
LAKE CITY
With a clever joke or a rabbit in a hat, Louie Mabrey can change silence into laughter and make frowns disappear. Mabrey, better known by hundreds of youngsters and adults as The Great Loudini, has been entertaining generations for years with an outgoing personality and magic tricks designed not only to amaze, but also to teach life lessons.
"Magic speaks a universal language," said Mabrey, who also is known by another name that requires he forego his magician's tuxedo for clerical attire each Sunday.
As full-time pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church for the past 11 years, Mabrey says he incorporates positive messages and lessons about ethics into his acts of illusion and
surprise.
As a child, Mabrey was fascinated with the great magicians of his time. He read books about magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone Jr. and Mabrey's favorite master of illusion, Mark Wilson, who was popular in the 1970s.
Mabrey would meet Wilson at a magic show in Winter Haven while a pastor at his first church as a Methodist minister.
He would become The Great Loudini in 1994 thanks to the suggestion of a Wesley Memorial church member who said the magician-clergyman should change his name to The Great Loudini, sounding like Harry Houdini's last name, but with an L replacing the H.
Born in 1956 in the North Alabama town of Albertville, Mabrey remembers in the first grade when a magician came to his school and made a puppy appear out of an empty hat.
"I was just amazed at that magician," Mabrey said. "I was fascinated. I wondered 'How did he do that?' "
Mabrey went home and asked his parents for a magic set. Soon, he was learning magic tricks with his Dante's Magic Set, which was named after a famous magician and cost $8.10.
Mabrey then developed a friendship with a man who would become his first magician mentor - David Calhoun, the son of a Methodist minister.
In his late high school years, magic as a hobby would go by the wayside for Mabrey, whose career interests included veterinary medicine, dentistry and teaching.
But Calhoun's friendship later would inspire Mabrey to make magic part of his life's work as a Methodist minister.
"He took me under his wing," Mabrey said.
Mabrey says magic helps to reduce stress in counseling sessions and while at hospital visits.
His magic, he said, is designed "to enrich and uplift and motivate and build
character."
There's more fun when the fooling is performed with respect to the audience and not at the expense of anyone's self esteem, he said. "It's a wonderful profession."
Through the years, Mabrey has performed at schools, churches, birthday parties and at the annual Columbia County Public Library where Mabrey's show incorporates books and a positive message about reading.
In June, Mabrey was part of the library's Hats Off to Reading program. The Great Loudini's show attracted a full house.
"It's always great fun for everyone," said Beverly Schulz, the library's Outreach-Youth Services librarian.
After shows, Mabrey often is asked by enthusiastic youngsters where they can find a magic set to begin a new hobby. The gregarious pastor always tells aspiring magicians to first begin reading about magic from books.
"Laughter is healing. People are challenged, too," said Mabrey, whose wife, Nancy, often assists in the magic shows.
The couple's daughter, Christy, a student at Lake City Community College, was a magician's assistant when she was younger. She recalls hiding in a miniature Oriental temple while her father placed swords through the box and then made his daughter disappear.
She said she enjoyed being part of the show and watching the expressions from the audience.
"I like to watch them react," she said.
Besides enjoying the hobby of magic and the moment of surprise in his audiences' faces, Mabrey said he enjoys bringing family entertainment to youngsters and adults.
"There's a great need for family entertainment," he said. "We have fun. I use a lot of comedy in the magic (shows)."
The Great Loudini will perform his next magic show at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Melrose Elementary School Amphitheater.
With a clever joke or a rabbit in a hat, Louie Mabrey can change silence into laughter and make frowns disappear. Mabrey, better known by hundreds of youngsters and adults as The Great Loudini, has been entertaining generations for years with an outgoing personality and magic tricks designed not only to amaze, but also to teach life lessons.
"Magic speaks a universal language," said Mabrey, who also is known by another name that requires he forego his magician's tuxedo for clerical attire each Sunday.
As full-time pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church for the past 11 years, Mabrey says he incorporates positive messages and lessons about ethics into his acts of illusion and
surprise.
As a child, Mabrey was fascinated with the great magicians of his time. He read books about magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone Jr. and Mabrey's favorite master of illusion, Mark Wilson, who was popular in the 1970s.
Mabrey would meet Wilson at a magic show in Winter Haven while a pastor at his first church as a Methodist minister.
He would become The Great Loudini in 1994 thanks to the suggestion of a Wesley Memorial church member who said the magician-clergyman should change his name to The Great Loudini, sounding like Harry Houdini's last name, but with an L replacing the H.
Born in 1956 in the North Alabama town of Albertville, Mabrey remembers in the first grade when a magician came to his school and made a puppy appear out of an empty hat.
"I was just amazed at that magician," Mabrey said. "I was fascinated. I wondered 'How did he do that?' "
Mabrey went home and asked his parents for a magic set. Soon, he was learning magic tricks with his Dante's Magic Set, which was named after a famous magician and cost $8.10.
Mabrey then developed a friendship with a man who would become his first magician mentor - David Calhoun, the son of a Methodist minister.
In his late high school years, magic as a hobby would go by the wayside for Mabrey, whose career interests included veterinary medicine, dentistry and teaching.
But Calhoun's friendship later would inspire Mabrey to make magic part of his life's work as a Methodist minister.
"He took me under his wing," Mabrey said.
Mabrey says magic helps to reduce stress in counseling sessions and while at hospital visits.
His magic, he said, is designed "to enrich and uplift and motivate and build
character."
There's more fun when the fooling is performed with respect to the audience and not at the expense of anyone's self esteem, he said. "It's a wonderful profession."
Through the years, Mabrey has performed at schools, churches, birthday parties and at the annual Columbia County Public Library where Mabrey's show incorporates books and a positive message about reading.
In June, Mabrey was part of the library's Hats Off to Reading program. The Great Loudini's show attracted a full house.
"It's always great fun for everyone," said Beverly Schulz, the library's Outreach-Youth Services librarian.
After shows, Mabrey often is asked by enthusiastic youngsters where they can find a magic set to begin a new hobby. The gregarious pastor always tells aspiring magicians to first begin reading about magic from books.
"Laughter is healing. People are challenged, too," said Mabrey, whose wife, Nancy, often assists in the magic shows.
The couple's daughter, Christy, a student at Lake City Community College, was a magician's assistant when she was younger. She recalls hiding in a miniature Oriental temple while her father placed swords through the box and then made his daughter disappear.
She said she enjoyed being part of the show and watching the expressions from the audience.
"I like to watch them react," she said.
Besides enjoying the hobby of magic and the moment of surprise in his audiences' faces, Mabrey said he enjoys bringing family entertainment to youngsters and adults.
"There's a great need for family entertainment," he said. "We have fun. I use a lot of comedy in the magic (shows)."
The Great Loudini will perform his next magic show at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Melrose Elementary School Amphitheater.
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