Illusionist Eric Wilzig awes for a cause

If Eric Wilzig could, he would make leukemia and lymphoma disappear with a wave of a wand, instead he’s helping the cause by hosting donation based magic shows outside his home in Oceanside for Halloween. Eric, 30, hosted his daring illusion show on Sunday, drawing in hundreds of spectators and thousands of dollars for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and Light the Night. Over $5,000 and counting were raised at the time the article went to press, double the amount from last year’s event.

The act showed off his and his wife and assistant, Eliana’s talents as they worked together to perform acts such as switching places in a locked box while handcuffed, Eliana disappearing into a box while Eric puts swords and hollow shapes in and assisting each other with various other activities in their Las Vegas-esque style show.

Eric started giving back last year, never thinking that it would blow up into a huge yearly event, “We thought maybe twenty people would show up and we ended up with hundreds, like over 800 people and we raised thousands of dollars for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.” Eric was originally inspired to give back after a cousin was diagnosed, grateful they’re a survivor, Eric chooses to continue helping the cause through his passion of magic.

He started dabbling in magic when he was five years old, after his father David gave him his first magic kit, “I just never grew out of it,” he said, “I did tricks on my friends and family growing up and I graduated college several years ago in finance and marketing and I do this full time. We’ve traveled the world, done America’s Got Talent.”

David still can recall that day which changed the course of Eric’s life, “I came home with a magic trick when he was five years old, I still remember it, I brought home a coin trick,” he said, saying, “he’s always been a performer.” From there he learned from his idols, David Copperfield and Houdini, who “were inspirations of mine growing up,” learning how to emulate and take their knowledge into his own acts. 

Eric, always trying to outdo himself and add new material beat his record for escaping a straitjacket while dangling upside down waiting for the metal jaws to close. Because of the very real danger, he says “it’s scary, even though you’ve seen it before, it’s live, you never know what will happen.”

Eliana says although she worries over her husband, she knows his abilities and knows he’ll conquer the showstopper. “I trust him, but everything is live and real, things can go wrong like anything. I’m always holding my breath a little bit, but every time the reaction of the audience once he does the escape, at the end people are always pointing out that trick,” she said.

Also, a performer, she said she loves being on the stage with him and seeing the audience’s reaction from their point of view, “I enjoy being on stage and seeing him do what he loves, he’s been doing it his whole life, he’s very good at it, but the reactions are my favorite, seeing the people react to his illusions and his tricks go crazy.” 

William Green brought his wife, son and daughter to the show and ended up as a volunteer on stage during Eric’s last stunt, checking to see if the leather straight jacket and metal jaws were real or not. Green said, “this is the first time I saw him and he’s really terrific,” also saying he donated while he was there, “always for a good cause.”

“Amazing, it was great it’s so nice to have someone local,” said volunteer Shetal Shah who participated in the show. Shah and another volunteer were “connected” by Eric, and on stage blindfolded each felt each other’s pain when Eric poked and prodded them.