Magician Ben Seidman uses sleight of hand, comedy to wow Washburn students

Brian Cervantez

On March 30, Campus Activities Board (CAB) brought to the students of Washburn University a magician named Ben Seidman, who is doing a tour of thirteen shows in fourteen days. Seidman performs sleight of hand magic with comedy combined with the show. Seidman has been doing magic since he was six years old. His passion has grown into a career that he is very passionate about.

He started off with a few jokes to relaxed the crowd and combine with this is a simple trick of having an object go through an object that it’s not suppose to go through. There are some tricks the crowd can see but the participant on the stage does not see the sleight of hand that the rest of the crowd would see. It makes it fun for the crowd because the tricks can be real simple, but the one thing that is always constant no matter how much the crowd tries to figure out the trick the hand is quicker than the eye.

The audience last night was amazed that Seidman could make these tricks look easy when it has taken him years to perfect these tricks. Seidman was able to relate to Washburn students last night by doing magic tricks that would relate to Washburn students and this made it fun and inventive. Seidman was having a good time as well because the students were having fun at his event and being respectful when he was performing. At first, Seidman might have been nervous, but as soon as the crowd was relaxed, so was Seidman.

“I really enjoyed Ben Seidman performance. I had a lot of fun and there were a lot of unbelievable tricks,” said Shane Broxterman, sophomore biology major.

The students enjoyed Seidman’s performance and some stuck around afterwards to talk with Seidman and took pictures. The event also let students have fun because with school all students need to de-stress every now and then. Seidman is just one of the many performers that CAB brings in for events and you never know who they might bring in next. The best way to find out more about events by CAB is look for flyers on campus or visit the CAB office, located in the basement of the Union.

“I thought the turnout for the event was good,” said Bree Zuchowski, CAB Programs Director. “I’m always happy to see students show up to events and enjoy themselves.” 

The more students come to these events and see how much students like an event can help CAB members bring in events just like this one. These events are always new and unpredictable because no student will know what a performer will do. CAB is promoting the FYE Faculty Debate Starting at 6:30 P.M. in Washburn A/B. There will be free t-shirts to the first 100 students who arrive and free pizza for all. CAB events are always free to Washburn students.