The real deal

With a little sleight of hand, Randy Shine went from the path of academia and took a different route, becoming magician Ran’D Shine.

“When people think of an entertainer, they think of actors, they think of musicians,” Shine said. “But there’s this whole 1% of this whole fantastic world of entertainers that are into different weird genres, magic is one of them.”

Shine is bringing his “Real Magic for Real People” performance to Quezada’s Comedy Club & Cantina on Friday, Dec. 19, and Saturday, Dec. 20.

He said he enjoys facilitating audience interactions at his shows. He likes when tricks get audience members talking to one another and finding similarities that can build relationships, even for a short while.

“It’s just bringing people together in a fun way,” Shine said.

Shine was on track to get his doctoral degree and become a professor before deciding to pivot to magic.

As a graduate student, he had acted as an adviser for a magic club after a student showed him a trick with a rubber band, pulling him into the world of magic.

As a magician, Shine said, he had to get used to being the performer, writer, stage designer and more.

“You’re doing everything for the most part,” Shine said, “and so that is part of the journey of being a magician, and you have to learn to love it.”

Passion, honing the talent and temperament, are traits Shine said make him successful as a magician. They are traits he would advise anyone looking to be successful — no matter the profession — to adopt.

One such way of honing his talent was leaning more into his comedic side. You are either a magician that does comedy or a comedian that does magic, Shine said, and he is the former.

Initially, he did not think of himself as particularly funny.

“I started to notice this pattern with reviews and people coming to me after the show,” Shine said. “They said, ‘You’re a really funny guy,’ I'm like, ‘No, I can’t tell a joke to save my life.’”

He decided to add more comedic elements to his show after attending comedy school and learning that there was more to comedy than telling jokes. Physical comedy and improv also play a role.

“So with that approach, I have to tailor or create the tricks, and come up with some comedic element from the tricks to bring them together,” Shine said.

He said he works comedy into his show by recognizing human nature, such as knowing that there are four different ways audience members typically shuffle cards and having prepared jokes for each.

“It’s just taking the moment and creating something funny out of the moment,” Shine said.

Over his years as a magician, he said he has grown from his initial reason for being a performer — wanting to incite reactions and to get people talking.

“I used to say I was the party starter, and then over time, it developed into these other things that I really like about performing,” Shine said. “It’s the community that it builds. It’s the inspiration that it builds. Those are the things that really draw me and keep me continuing to perform.”