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Vanishing act: Magic shop keeps fading tradition active
Submitted Photo - Doc Edal B. Allright, a.k.a. Chris Gracy, performs magic by orange during a Chestnut Square Farmer's Market. Chris and his wife, Jennifer, own Main Street Magic and Fun Company in downtown McKinney.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
It can mesmerize beyond the stage. It sparks wonder in schools and office buildings, at parties and mission trips.
Magic is still very much alive, at least in downtown McKinney.
"It's an illusion," said Chris Gracy, co-owner of Main Street Magic and Fun Company, a magic shop on the northeast corner of the McKinney Square. "It really happens all around you."
But Main Street thrives not on costumes and cards. It makes magic relevant, a thrill for any age.
"There are whole worlds of magic: kids' birthday parties, adult parties, trade shows," said Jennifer, who unlike Chris, sticks to enjoying rather than learning tricks. "The list just goes on and on."
The shop's retail side -- coins, balloons, rings and videos, to barely skim the Victorian-style surface -- takes second shelf to the couple's true purpose: let imagination, and confidence, run wild.
"We sell a lot of magic that's not necessarily for magicians," Jennifer said, referring to impromptu tricks people use to meet someone of the opposite sex or get their foot in the door at a business. "It's for people who just want to be the life of the party."
They're called "ice breakers," Chris said, and they can be adept tools for such missions. A 24-inch flame ignites from a special business card, without burning it, right before a prospective employee hands it to a barring receptionist. "Strolling magic" unites cliques at a previously dull party.
Corporate show salespersons use magicians to catch hurried onlookers' eyes as they swoop in for a pitch. Magic doesn't always translate to a stage act.
"You wouldn't deem some of it a magic trick, but then again, you don't deem a fake handoff in football a magic trick," Chris said. "But that's the same way we vanish coins and other items -- you think it's there when it's really over here."
If he would have understood the social power of magic years ago, his early life could have been enchantingly different, Chris said. His father was a clown, always traveling, but when the two spent time together, his father's magic tricks were their bond.
Chris said he simply wanted to be mesmerized by them, because "everything looked so incredible," and he didn't pursue a magician's role until his father died. He intended just to buy every kind of magic he could find, a quest that entailed frequent magic-shop visits with Jennifer.
Diamond Jim Tyler, a well-known local magician, noticed their affinity for the art at his Frisco shop and, eager to focus on his performances, offered it to them. They changed the name and opened their shop in Van Alstyne.
A wind storm damaged the historic building and forced Main Street to McKinney, almost a magical turn of events itself, the couple said.
"We may not have made the jump on our own if something wouldn't have pushed us," Jennifer said, "but it was the best thing that ever happened to us, because downtown McKinney is where we're supposed to be."
As they soon found out, magic can be the best thing to happen to a young kid.
They made their first sale to a shy teenage boy.
A few days later, his father -- in motorcycle-gang guise and apparel -- broke down in tears at the shop.
When he picked up his son from a recent school dance, the entire class surrounded his son, who he said never fit in before.
Magic had given his son something to take pride in, the father said.
"At that point is when we decided this is worth it," Jennifer said. "It's something we need to be doing."
Main Street offers beginner to intermediate classes, themed on cards, ropes, money, vanishes, sponges, balloons and mentalism. "Hocus Pocus" and "Abracadabra" teach basic tricks to kids 5 to 12 years old.
Weeklong summer camps delve deeper into the art form that can strengthen a kid's imagination, what Chris calls "the strongest thing in the world." Pranks, gags and tricks for every skill level are available at the shop, which hosts a cabaret show in its upstairs Magic Attic Theatre every second Saturday.
Professional magicians often gather at the shop, their presence pairing with constant stage music to emit a magical vibe.
"We try to play on everything to make that visit very specific, to have that magic live in them forever," Chris said. "We're interested in giving people the magic experience. We try to make learning the trick as magical as seeing it the first time."
Visitors come from Oklahoma on a regular basis, and from Louisiana and Arkansas, he said. One woman came in last week to purchase more tricks for her upcoming mission trip to the Dominican Republic, where the mostly visual magic can cross any language or cultural barrier.
Main Street's reach stretches beyond its colorful shelves and inviting glass entrance, as its magic turns up when and where it's least expected.
But the shop is where it begins, where the magic comes alive.
"Just by walking in here, you are part of a paragraph that will be written in a history book because some day, this will either be iconic, or it will be a legend for having existed in this new age," Chris said. "You can feel the magic when you walk in."
Main Street Magic and Fun Company is located at 211 N. Tennessee St. in McKinney. For more information, visit the shop's website at mainstreetmagicandfun.com.
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