As he mystically reveals the card signed with the trickee’s name from his sleeve, Latin students in the audience are mesmerized. The card becomes an artifact sealing in this moment of time, and the magic trick will go down in history.

Many schools have students with various athletic and artistic talents, but few schools are enchanted by real magic living between the walls of their building.

Junior Ajay Singh, Latin’s very own magician, has performed magic at school gatherings, pep rallies, and even during class. Most recently, he showed off his skills during the winter pep rally.

Ajay’s love of magic began in 2020, upon the start of the COVID pandemic. “I started with a deck of cards, probably at 12 a.m., trying to find an excuse to not fall asleep,” he said. Since then, magic remained one of his top interests. “It’s kind of a unique art form that not a lot of people know.”

He added, “It’s a good thing to know, and a very unique thing to know. But otherwise it’s just a good thing to have in your back pocket, kind of like how being able to play an instrument is just a cool thing—sometimes it comes in handy.”

While he has a wide range of tricks up his sleeve, his favorite is the “Poker Chip” trick, where he picks an audience member to both pick a card and shuffle the deck. The audience member fans all of the cards in a row so Ajay can drop the poker chip on a random card. When the card is flipped over, it is magically the card that the audience member originally chose.

Junior Emmet Lippitz said, “I am always so confused; I have no idea how he does it so cleanly.”

Ajay also mentioned the importance of adapting to different audiences based on their varying levels of maturity. “If you do a magic trick on a Lower School student, they might not understand the more complex tricks, so it’s better to stay away from card tricks and stay with simple, visual tricks,” he said. “High school teachers and students like more complex things.”

Upper School science teacher Faye Wells said, “Ajay’s magic tricks are always a pleasantly confusing experience in my day. As a science person, Ajay’s magic helps me appreciate the limitations of human attention and perception. He is a great showman!”