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Main Street Magic conjuring up business
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@acnpapers.com
Magic is alive and well and for sale in Historic Downtown.
Main Street Magic and Fun Company, located at 211 North Tennessee St., has a host of tricks and effects in stock, plus an atmosphere to match. Curtains frame the entrance to the store proper, where manager and main demonstrator Eric Knight waits to put on a show for anyone who walks through the door.
“The way it was described to me is that when you walk in it’s like the font entrance of a theater, and you’re literally walking through to the back of the stage to see what’s going on behind the curtain,” he said.
Buy one and you’ll be taught how to use it and sworn to secrecy.
“If just don’t take it home, they get a full-on experience,” Knight said.
Owners Chris and Jennifer Gracy have been in the magic business about four years. Originally they ran a shop in Van Alstyne, but a storm damaged the historic building that housed it, making it unsafe for use and prompting a move to McKinney.
Jennifer said that they decided to open shop both out of a love for magic and to offer kids that don’t fit into stereotypical roles an outlet for their time and energy.
Chris is the magician of the family. He’s been tampering since he was a kid, but Jennifer said he didn’t really get seriously into it until about five years ago.
Main Street Magic would have been an ideal place to make the transition, as the store caters to everyone from beginners to professionals. Part of Knight’s job is to be able to perform or at least describe how to perform every effect in the shop, as well as be able to match customers to those at their appropriate skill level.
Some effects play differently depending on who’s performing. The presentation is the biggest part, Knight said: Anyone can do a trick, but to have a crowd completely enthralled in that effect is the difference between beginners and professionals.
Knight, who has been performing magic for about three years, can do the majority of tricks in the store. One of his favorites is a set of spongy balls that he can multiply or make disappear from a participant’s hand.
Main Street Magic also sells pranks, gags and novelties, which Jennifer said bring in a lot of business.
The building that houses the shop fits perfectly in with the Historic District. Knight described it as a vintage, brick and mortar Victorian magic shop, adding that the only other place he’s seen like it is The Magic Castle in Las Vegas.
It even has a historical maker that reads, “On March 2, 1836 Texas declared her independence from Mexico. Wild Comanche roamed the plains. Rangers protected frontier settlement, and this building was not here yet.”
Alongside the usual tricks of the trade, Main Street Magic prides itself on the birthday parties it holds upstairs in a decorated space called the Magic Attic. The owners custom built much of the furniture up there, and parties include a specially designed magic show that makes sure to work in the audience.
For Knight, working in a magic shop is always an interesting job.
“Believe it or not there is a lot of psychology behind it that can really help you to communicate with people,” he said. “That’s what it’s really done for me. It’s helped me as a tool to communicate with others.”
One of the luxuries of working at Main Street Magic, Knight said, is that you get to makes people open up to you, laugh, smile and forgot about their troubles for as long as the routine lasts.
There aren’t many similar stores in the area, Plano has one, and Jennifer said the magic business is very much about word-of-mouth. The busiest time of the year is Halloween, when the shop participates in the Legends of McKinney Ghost Walk and holds Victorian séances.
“We’re gearing up for busy, busy times,” Jennifer said
Main Street Magic will begin hosting a lecture series from Lawrence Haaf, who Jennifer said is well-known in the magic community, in September. The shop also offers lessons to newcomers, with Magic 101 being one of their most popular.
Knight sees visiting a magic shop as a quintessential childhood experience, one that he’s not about to make disappear.
“It’s basically one of those things that every kid does,” he said. “It’s just another great experience to create a spark, not only in the kids, but in McKinney also.”
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