Local magician takes his act to Vegas

Jason Latimer

Presto.

All the practice time, all the little party gigs are finally paying off as Jason Latimer, a 20-year-old magician from Agoura Hills, gets his first big break on stage at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Jason was performing at the Magic Castle Future Stars Week in Los Angeles during August when the Amazing Johnathan saw his act and asked him to appear this week as part of his Vegas show.

Among his other tricks, Jason will do a manipulation routine in which he reaches through a 10-inch hoop and pulls back large objects from the other side.

"You put you arm through it and produce things that aren’t there," said the young magician. "At the end, I reach inside and pull out a 30-inch steel hoop and four giant aces."

He also has a levitation scheme up his sleeve.

Misdirection tricks and sleight of hand are Jason’s bread and butter, his ace in the hole. As a youngster, he started out doing close-up magic with cards and other objects.

"I used to do magic all the time in school, in front of friends and teachers and sometimes they took away the cards, but that was okay," said Jason, a 1999 graduate of Agoura High.

He got his first taste of show business while on a cruise to Mexico with his parents. Only 9 years old, Jason was called up to the stage to serve as a volunteer during one of the ship’s magic shows. He fell in love with the lights, the sounds and the colors and went home to start learning tricks himself.

Practicing constantly, Jason went on to become one of the youngest juniors ever to perform at the Magic Castle and twice got to appear as a headliner for a full week, performing three shows every night.

"It was a hobby that eventually became a profession," Jason said. "It’s doing well enough now to put me through college."

The day after he returns from Las Vegas, Jason will begin his junior year at the University of California Santa Barbara as a math and economics major.

"It’ll take me some time but I’m going to get a degree, no doubt about it," Jason said.

When he’s not hitting the books, he’s back up to his old tricks. Jason works at the Café 50’s in Santa Monica and does regular shows for corporations and holiday parties.

He worked his way through high school as a magician at Lazer Craze in Agoura Hills and later appeared in Genii and Magic Magazine as a featured up-and-coming star. Next summer, Jason will take part in the International Brotherhood of Magicians competition in San Diego.

Unlike his tricks, Jason is hoping his success is no illusion