Magicians continue to astonish in Muncie.
Clyde Keeley performed his best trick when he opened The Magic Shop in the mid-80s on Wheeling Avenue, the only magic location Muncie had. Clyde was a retiree from Muncie’s BorgWarner factory after 42 years. According to Muncie Public Library records, the factory was built on Kilgore Avenue, where workers manufactured auto parts for cars. The factory was open from 1902 to 2009 and was later torn down in 2017. Rick Fisher found himself visiting the roughly 150-foot shop during his lunch breaks and quickly became good friends with Clyde. Rick worked at LJ Stone Co., also located on Wheeling Avenue.
Clyde, later alongside Rick, formed the Muncie Mystifiers, a magician group in search of smiling faces and “wowed” guests. In the beginning, Rick remembers there being a handful of members, some being Richard Powell, Tommy Shelton, Mike Hodge and Jerry Cargile. The group never stuck with the same tricks and always encouraged new ideas and tricks for performances.
Rick and Clyde were friends throughout their lives until Clyde’s death last year.
After 55 years of performing magic, Rick now owns FAB Magic located in Colon, Michigan, the world’s magic capital. The business has been open for nearly 18 years.
During its peak, the Muncie Mystifiers attracted Ball State University students to join its “ring,” a commonly used term to describe a group of magicians.
When Darry Hood was young, he attended a Saturday magic show led by magician Charles Stanley in his town of New Castle. Hood was sitting in the front row of Castle Theatre and was called onstage to volunteer where Darry says he was “tickled to death.”
“Once I got onstage and the lights hit me, I knew I wanted to do magic,” says Darry. “[Charles] took me under his wing. He was a mentor to me.”
Darry says Charles would often visit him and his family, where he would give him production boxes and other trinkets to help in Darry’s magic acts that he’d made as a woodworker at his furniture store. Charles also gave Darry stacks of magic magazines like The Tops, Genii Magazine and the Linking Ring Magazine.
Darry is 76 years old and continues to do magic. Most of the members of Muncie Mystifiers either have died or no longer do magic, says Darry.
The group commonly met at Muncie’s MCL, where they would eat and later perform tricks. Darry says magicians from all over Indiana would drive to Muncie to perform and meet.
Darry taught science at Eastern Hancock Middle School and physical science and criminology at the high school for 42 years and has performed as a musician for 45 years. Darry retired from his longtime band Dr. Rock and the Rollers in October 2019, where the group would perform 50s and 60s rock and roll all over central Indiana, at summer festivals, libraries, James Dean festivals in Fairmount, wedding receptions and some bookings for Bob Irsay, who owned the Colts team from 1972 till his death in 1997.
Ryan Siebert attended Ball State as a landscape architecture student, where he met professor John West, who was performing walkaround magic to support fundraising.
Growing up in Connersville, Ryan had no local magic shops and knew nobody that did magic. When he attended Ball State, that all changed.
According to Ryan, before entering the club one was asked to perform one or two tricks in front of existing members in order to join. The members would vote to keep or not keep the performer. Members were encouraged not to share secrets of tricks with non-members.
Members were also asked to pay annual dues to help afford a meeting space and host guest lectures who would travel and speak with magic clubs.
Through the group, Ryan began to practice magic to the point where he was performing all over campus; like the dorms, the architecture building, the student center dining area. His connections through Muncie Mystifiers led to him being a guest onstage with David Copperfield and meeting his wife with whom he shares six children.
It’s been over 20 years since Siebert has done magic in the Muncie Mystifiers, but he says at the time there were approximately 30 men and women who participated and frequently met at Holy
Trinity Lutheran Church. Siebert says that due to every audience being different, it’s impossible to master any one trick.
“I have to learn to change and adapt the effects, even more so this year with COVID-19,” says Ryan. His magic style is interactive and personal, consisting of card tricks and sleight of hand magic.
He says this field is all about the performers and sharing the magic itself. “I feel a younger generation needs these types of clubs to learn and interact with to learn the real secrets of magic,” says Ryan. “You can’t learn everything on the internet.”
