By Kendra Smith

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Families received a magical introduction to UK Friday night as standup magician Derek Hughes enchanted parents and students with sleight-of-hand and wry humor.

Hughes kicked off family weekend at 8 p.m., entertaining families with jokes and tricks. Freshman mechanical engineering major Alex Rosenzweig jumped at the opportunity to participate in the show and was called up to the stage by Hughes.

Rosenzweig was given a child’s block with the first six letters of the alphabet on its sides. He put the block in a paper bag, shook it up, and looked to see which letter was facing upward.

Hughes correctly wrote down Rozenzweig’s letter on a pad of paper.

“I was skeptical the entire performance,” Rosenzweig said. “When he picked my letter correctly, I was absolutely amazed and shocked.”

Hughes’ tricks were simple and used common household items such as books or newspapers.

He began the show holding three pieces of rope that were equal lengths. The audience laughed as he jokingly held two ropes together, claiming they were actually one long rope.

As the laughter subsided, he pulled the two ropes apart. Only now, one appeared inches long and the other was nearly a yard long.

His frequent tangents throughout the show contained stories from his life or jokes about audience members.

“I was very impressed with the fact that he was able to tie comedy in with magic,” Rosenzweig said. “Not many people can do that.”

Hughes asked an audience member her favorite card game as she was signing the face of a queen of hearts. She answered that she liked ‘war.’

“How American,” Hughes quipped, and the audience laughed.

“It was a nice event. We really hadn’t planned on coming, but we ended up getting tickets and I’m glad we came,” said Kathy Senter of Madisonville, Ky.

Hughes chose another audience member to shuffle an imaginary deck of cards. The individual was confused when Hughes suggested he pick a card at random from the imaginary deck, then count five cards past that illusionary chosen card. The individual thought of the card in his head as Hughes pulled out a real deck of cards.

After fanning the cards face out, the audience could clearly see that one card was facing the wrong way. Hughes asked the individual which card he was thinking of – the four of hearts.

Hughes flipped the reversed card. It was a perfect match.

“Of course I was skeptical,” said Bill Cherry of Warsaw, Ky. “But we were very happy with him. He was good.”