By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

Marcelle Fabie would better off be called a mentalist than just a mere magician. His style can be compared to a lot of street magicians but he adds a bit of theatrics. He can trick your eyes with the speed of his hands, mesmerize you with his predictions and even show you how to bend a metallic object as if it was paper. Incidentally, Fabie is also online.

The 24-year old Fabie is one of the few magicians who uses the Internet to draw crowds of people to his magic. His blogs at mistervader.blogspot.com and www.magikel.multiply.com contain a lot of his ramblings, not just about magic, after having been introduced to blogging and its uses several years back. He claims to be an “archivist” and fears eventually losing his memory so having a blog would remind him of the things that he used to do. One of the things he loves is wrestling and some of his entries are dedicated to his passion.

He has also been nicknamed the “Blogger Boggler” as he has attended several events where he performed tricks for various communities of bloggers. He has been a regular fixture in blog meetings and is very popular among the large group of bloggers in Metro Manila. He also does a bit of hosting on the side since he does have experience as a DJ for Wave 89.1 and is now training in Campus Radio 99.5.

Fabie also garnered the Best Philippine Blog prize at the Asian Blog Awards in 2003.

Fabie is passionate about magic, illusions and mentalism and went professional a few years ago despite having done some magic tricks since he was eight years old. However, the onset of street magicians, as well as the lucrative business it could generate, also made Fabie interested in pursuing it in a professional level.

One of the most interesting trends in magic is mentalism, which Fabie is quite enthusiastic in describing. According to him, mentalism is a mix of mind reading, psychokinesis and hypnosis, which allows some extremely impossible tricks seem possible. In a demonstration, Fabie would write down on a piece of paper what colored chip a volunteer would choose. The paper would be given to the volunteer, who then proceeds to make the selection. The volunteer would later read the piece of paper to find out that Fabie had already written down what the volunteer would choose.

In another demonstration, Fabie twisted a metal fork by a mere wave of his hand.

Fabie likes the idea of street magic because audiences are captivated by tricks done in the open. At times, some of his friends would take videos of him during performances and have them posted online, usually in YouTube.

However, Fabie also detests magicians who reveal their secrets to a mass market. In particular was the one conducted by Val Valentino, who hid in the guise of a masked magician and revealed on TV many of the techniques used by magicians and illusionists. Fabie said that people like Valentino have broken long-guarded secrets that are essentially the livelihood of magicians.

Nevertheless, Fabie believes magic will always be there. Magicians, especially younger ones, will continue to create new tricks that captivate people. Of course, Fabie would still blog about his rants, raves and his magic.