Magician helps kick off book drive

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Cameryn Seaux, 2, laughs with Magician Mac King while trying to learn the trick of making an origami hat during storytime Wednesday in Town Square plaza in celebration of National Reading Month.

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 1:38 p.m.

Mac King was the guy with the tricks up his sleeve during the weekly story time at Town Square on Wednesday, but the one with the real magic was Blue of the Nickelodeon cable network show "Blue's Clues."

King, who stars in the Mac King Comedy Magic Show at Harrah's, read and performed at Town Square, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South, to kick off a monthlong book drive for the Through the Eyes of a Child Foundation. The nonprofit group, founded in 2002, provides scholarships to and activities for children who are current or former residents of Child Haven, the county-run temporary shelter for abused, neglected or abandoned children.

As King created an origami hat from a wad of tissue paper, the predominantly preschool set wriggled, and as he spewed cards out of his mouth, they stared in wonder.

Once King finished reading and packed up his suitcase of tricks, a mascot dressed as Blue of "Blue's Clues" entered the area and was mobbed by waist-high fans.

"I wish I had a big blue suit," King said with a grin, noting that he usually reads to groups of older children.

King did have fans in the crowd.

"He blew up the show," said Alex Goldwasser, 10, who was on track break from Charles and Phyllis Frias Elementary School in Southern Highlands. Now he wants to see the full show.

The event was one of many King does regularly to promote reading.

"Literacy is a huge, huge deal," said King, who noted he is the national spokesman for literacy for Optimists International.

Parents who frequent the weekly story time were pleasantly surprised by King's guest appearance.

"He's good," said Kim Scott, who brought her children Ethan, 5, Carmen, 2 1/2, and Hailey, 6 months. Carmen paced around her mother as King put on his "cloak of invisibility."

"It's hard to keep their attention," Scott said.

Jennifer Goldwasser, Alex's mother, said she, Alex and Annaliese, 6, didn't realize when they planned to go to Town Square Wednesday that they would get a show as well.

"It seemed like a really good combination — story time, magic and Child Haven," she said. "Anything that gets them excited about reading, I love."

King, who said his life was changed by a library book of magic tricks, agreed.

"Of course there's magic in reading," he said. "It sounds corny but it's true. Reading has the power to transport you to another time and land. There is nothing more magical."

Except, maybe, a big, blue, furry dog.

Jean Reid Norman can be reached at 990-2658 or jean.norman@hbcpub.com.