The latest entertainment event from the Campus Activities Board (CAB) brought magic to Murray State.
On Jan. 28, the CAB booked Heka the Magi to perform at Lovett Auditorium for a crowd of Murray State students and staff. Since the age of nine, this New Orleans magician has been dazzling audiences of all sizes and leaving them to wonder, “How did he do that?”
Heka began his show with a hair-raising stunt, swallowing five small razor blades and pulling them back out with a line of thread. In the hour-long show that followed, Heka entertained the audience with a series of card tricks, optical illusions and mind-reading acts. Whether he transferred one volunteer’s card to another’s pocket or multiplied a single foam rabbit into an overflowing handful, the crowd met each act of magic with a round of captivated applause.
Joanna Odom, junior accounting major, said she was very entertained by Heka’s act, especially when he had a spectator access his phone using her own password.
“I really enjoyed this,” Odom said. “It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a magic show, and Heka the Magi did a fantastic job.”
CAB is a branch of the Student Government Association (SGA) in charge of organizing fun events for student engagement. Ty Boggess, CAB entertainment co-chair, said the idea of a campus magic show came from the National Association for Campus Activities, an organization providing ideas and resources for activity programming. Live magic tended to do well on other campuses, and Kade Gambill, SGA adviser and student activities coordinator, suggested Heka the Magi.
“It lined up perfectly for us to bring (Heka) in,” Boggess said. “It was probably one of our bigger campus activity events … since Covid. I enjoyed the show, I thought (he) did a very good job with engaging the crowd and keeping everyone active.”
Boggess said students should look out for upcoming SGA sponsored events including a Murray State branded beanie giveaway on Feb. 6 and a murder mystery night on March 12.
In addition to an entertaining performance, SGA offered a $100 gift card to the University Bookstore to Joanna Odom, a randomly selected student in the audience. SGA also challenged student organizations on campus to bring the highest number of attendees to the show for a prize of $250 towards a philanthropy of their choice. Alpha Kappa Alpha won and directed those funds towards Empower Our Families.
