Towson turnovers lead to record-setting defeat, 57-7 - Baltimore ...

Derek Hughes gets
down and dirty
Not all fun is
clean at Family
Weekend
comedy show
AUTUMN ROSE
Contributing Writer
Comedian and magician Derek
Hughes enchanted a crowd of
almost 300 people in the Potomac
Lounge of the University Union
Friday night.
The show, sponsored by the
Campus Activities Board, kicked off
Family Weekend with a night of
magic, laughs and subtle sexual
innuendos.
“Magic
is like sex,”
Hughes said.
“We get the
timing down
and it’s fantastic.”
Hughes has
been featured
on Comedy
Central,
MTV’s “Room
401” and
VH1’s hit show “Celebracadabra.”
He has also worked as an actor
in television and film, including
appearances in “CSI: New York” and
Adam Sandler’s film, “Mr. Deeds.”
Hughes first became interested in
agic when he traded a chemistry
et for a magic kit when he was 10
years old.
Later that year, he had openeart
surgery to repair a hole in his
eart.
The downtime spent recovering
rom surgery, coupled with his move
o rural Minnesota, kept him intersted
in magic.
“The circumstances kept me
nterested in magic, and it became
ore and more a part of my idenity,”
Hughes said.
Hughes studied theater at the
niversity of Minnesota for six
years.
He is close friends with and has
een influenced most by famous
agician David Blaine, whom
ughes has known for several
years.
“Slowly but surely all of the things
e would talk about would manifest
ecause of his actions and his tenacty,”
Hughes said. “I’ve learned a lot
bout what it means to set intenions
in my life from knowing him
nd knowing people like him.”
The audience at Hughes’ show
was a mix of Towson students and
heir parents and siblings who were
visiting for Family Weekend.
Hughes opened his act with a
magic trick and a set of jokes.
He engaged the audience and
involved them in the show from the
very beginning.
Hughes brought several audience
members on stage, including a student’s
11-year-old little brother and
another student’s little sister, who
described her age as “seven, turning
eight, so I’m eight.”
For one of his tricks, Hughes
brought a freshman from the audience
on to the stage to assist him in
a card trick.
He made her put on a latex glove
on and kept the crowd laughing
when he made her check his “oral
cavity” to make sure he wasn’t hiding
any cards in there.
To close the show, Hughes performed
a
card trick
in which he
made a deck
of cards disappear
into
thin air.
He then
pulled the
cards out of
DEREK HUGHES his pants,
Magician/comedian and took
one special
card out of
his boxer briefs, mooning the audience.
Ruby Halpern, a North Penn High
School student from Lansdale, Pa.,
came to the show with her sister, a
Towson student.
Halpern and her family stayed
after the show to get a picture with
Hughes, and were treated to a private
card trick performance.
“It was really impressive,” Halpern
said. “Even if you tried you couldn’t
figure out what he was doing.”
Senior communication major
Michelle Herndon thought Hughes
was “really entertaining and hilarious.”
“I love how he had this kind of
sexual innuendo,” Herndon said.
“He kept it clean, but it was very
age-appropriate for college students.
It wasn’t dumbed down or trashy.”
Hughes said he loves performing
on college campuses.
“I like seeing that material that
I’ve developed is entertaining in
a multiplicity of venues,” Hughes
said.
“Magic Magic is is lik like lik sex. We
get the tim timing down
and it’s fantastic.
Was Family Weekend
family friendly?
Did Derek Hughe’s magic
show have to much
innuendo for a “family
friendly” show?
Comment at TheTowerlight.com
ARTS
Photos by Alan Dovell/The Towerlight
Above, Derek Hughes ends his show Friday night by making a deck of cards disappear and reappear
in his boxers. Below, he interacts with an audience member during a card trick. Almost 300 people
attended his show in the Potomac Lounge of the University Union as a kick-off to Family Weekend.
The Towerlight October 5, 2009
15