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Is there anyone who doesn’t love magic? You know you’re being tricked; but try as you might, you can’t figure out how. The only thing you can do is laugh and enjoy it. The Oakland Magic Circle was founded on July 25, 1925, by, among others, Alfred J. Battle, above, who performed under the stage name “Professor El-Tab.” (photo courtesy of Byron Walker) Magicians have been delighting Oaklanders for more than a hundred years, when the Oakland Magic Circle was founded on July 25, 1925, by Lloyd E. Jones, Blue W. Williams and Alfred J. Battle, who performed under the stage name “Professor El-Tab.” “That’s his name spelled backwards, dropping a T,” says the club’s oldest member, Castro Valley’s Byron Walker, 91, who learned the magic arts from Jones himself and now owns his huge collection of magic books and tricks. “The basic principle of magic is misdirection,” he explains. “People will look where you look and where there’s motion, so if you want to make people look at your left hand, look at it yourself and keep it moving while your right hand does the dirty work.” There are many magic clubs in the area, and on Feb. 3 the Oakland Magic Circle will host its annual Northern California Interclub Stage Dinner and Pasta Fest at the Scottish Rite Center on Oakland’s Lakeside Drive. The clubs are sending the winners of their own contests to compete and be judged by a panel of pros. The top three will get cash prizes, bragging rights and, for the first-place winner, a trophy and a spot in the Magic Circle’s other big event of the year, the September Gala. Among the host club’s contestants will be its new president, Michael Nguyen. “I’m known as a ‘manipulator,’ ” he says. “I perform silently, like a dance; and using choreography and the rhythm of the music, I perform sleight-of-hand using small objects like cards, rubber balls and coins. A lot of it is pulling things out of thin air: stacks of cards, make it vanish, make cards bigger or smaller. It’s a beautiful form of magic. “The best part of manipulation magic is that it transcends language barriers. I can perform for anybody, including one of my high school teachers. He sliced his legs in class; and while we were at the hospital waiting for him to get a bed, I performed some magic tricks to distract him from his pain. Last Saturday, he finally got to see me perform on stage for the first time.” Meriam Al-Sultan does another kind of magic: close-up. “Small objects, like cards or coins, at a table surrounded by people. I can also tell you what you’re thinking of. If it’s an animal, I’ll show you an empty shoe box and a deflated balloon, then I’ll put the balloon in the box and close it. When we open it again, the balloon is inflated, and written on it is the word ‘animal.’ The audience don’t really want to know how it’s done. It’s magic!” Her love of magic is obvious despite the blocks that were placed in her way when she was growing up in Saudi Arabia. “Women had to cover their faces to drive a car. A man had to drive me to work, and I couldn’t perform on stage, period. Even the male magicians had to go through a lot of loops. They actually had to sit down with a religious cleric and explain how each trick is done before they were allowed to perform.” She moved here 12 years ago and now has a daughter of her own who laughs excitedly when her mom reaches behind her ear and pulls out a piece of candy. “Her real favorite is playing cards, though. She’s fascinated by them for some reason.” Finally, San Leandro’s Parry Yan is a sleight-of-hand artist who keeps sharp by practicing his technique for 45 minutes each day. “It’s still not where I want it to be, even though I’ve been doing this for 15 years. The magician’s job is to be foolproof. You want astonishment with every trick.” His advice for newbies: Save your best stuff for first and last. “Start off your routine with such strong tricks that if you mess up in the middle the audience will forgive you. Then I try to sneak in a couple…

It was nearing bedtime for Ayden Fang, but he begged his parents to let him stay up to finish his building-brick creation. He did not normally play with the toy set on weeknights, but that evening, he had pulled out a set of seawall-themed blocks and begun work on a colorful tower. Related Articles Man attacked in San Francisco dies 6 days later Fatal shooting in San Francisco’s Mission District Caltrain copper theft suspect caught in San Mateo County San Carlos home-invasion robbery under investigation Suspect arrested in armed confrontation at Peninsula gym Four-and-a-half-year-old Ayden was so proud of his project that he asked to take a photo with it, said his father, Ming Fang. He wanted to keep the finished tower, made of vibrant blues, greens and yellows and topped with a bear and two dinosaurs, so he placed it on the playroom’s mantel in his family’s Burlingame home. Two days later, on Aug. 8 of last year, Ayden was killed when he was struck by a car while playing on the sidewalk in front of Truffle Poké Bar in downtown Burlingame. The incident unfolded when two children were riding an e-bike down Donnelly Avenue, a two-lane road between Lorton Avenue and Primrose Road. Authorities said they had the right-of-way, but a 19-year-old woman pulling out of a parking lot did not see them as they headed perpendicular to her vehicle. The e-bike collided with the car, and the driver, who police said was startled by the collision, accelerated across the street, killing Ayden and injuring a 6-year-old girl, both of whom were with their family in front of the restaurant. The girl, who was not related to Ayden, was expected to recover. Four-year-old Ayden Fang of Burlingame died in August after being struck by a car while playing outside Truffle Poké Bar in downtown Burlingame. Now, his family is seeking to honor his memory by creating memorials and scholarships in his name. (Ming Fang) The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the driver of the vehicle because they could not prove criminal negligence, said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. He said that the driver was “startled by this scooter zipping by.” The DA’s decision likely brings the criminal aspect of the case to an end. “It’s a horribly sad case,” Wagstaffe said. “Not all things like this are crimes. Very often they are very simply civil lawsuits.” The DA’s decision not to file criminal charges has caused the family “profound sadness” and a feeling “of injustice,” Fang said. “We don’t really understand why this would not be considered gross negligence,” Fang said. “We disagree with that, but it’s not our decision to make.” Multiple calls to the Burlingame Police Department from the Bay Area News Group, asking about the investigation, were not returned. The city’s Public Works Department did not respond to a request for comment about the road and public safety. The city attorney’s office also did not respond to a request for comment. A few days after Ayden’s death, his mom noticed that two blocks Ayden built into his brick tower were stamped with a message: “Protect Our City.” It was later that his parents learned that two other pedestrians had been fatally struck by vehicles in the year preceding Ayden’s death, which, in a city of less than 31,000 people, puts the pedestrian fatality rate at four times the most recent U.S. average. They also found that two parking spots on Donnelly Street, including one adjacent to the scene of the crash that killed Ayden, were removed shortly after Ayden’s death; the city had determined in 2024 that the removal would provide visibility benefits, according to reporting by the San Mateo Daily Journal. “(It) just still sends chills down my spine to think about that,” Fang said. “He’s trying to tell us something.” The family is exploring its other legal options but has not yet made a decision about its next steps, Fang said. For now, the Fang family knows that they want each party…

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