Kostya Kimlat MAGIC Magazine

The Mystery, The Energy PHOTO: MICHAEL CAIRNS By Gabe Fajuri As he launched the deck of cards toward the ceiling, the audience held its collective breath, teetering somewhere on the brink between belief and disbelief. The set-up sounded preposterous. The magician strode out onto the plat- form and suggested the impossible. Unwrapping a brand new deck of cards, he tossed a pillow into the crowd. After a few more throws to ensure a random selection, a willing spectator was asked to merely think of a card and keep its identity a secret — that is, until the deck was airborne. Then, the magician promised, the thought-of pasteboard would stick itself to the ceiling! Eat your heart out, Michael Ammar. On the count of three, the deck flew from his hand, headed on a quick upward trajec- tory toward the ceiling some 30 feet away. No one seemed to believe what was happen- ing. This must be a gag. At the same moment, the chosen-at-random spectator called out in a voice loud enough for the audience of 300 to hear it clearly, “Six of Spades!” This has to be a gag, right? HOLD THAT THOUGHT… Kostya Kimlat, his first name pronounced Coast-ah, was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1983. At 22 years old, already he’s able to build ten- sion, create moments, and stun spectators with the ability of a seasoned professional. Why? Because he is a seasoned professional. He’s a full-time worker with a full calendar. And his date book isn’t just full of lectures for the local IBM ring or the occa- sional $50 birthday party; it’s dotted with corporate shows and walk-around gigs as much as it includes engagements in front of the magic-minded masses. He’s at home as a performer under nearly every circumstance, in any surrounding — on the trade-show floor, cozying up to a table at a restaurant, lecturing or performing to magicians — whatever the situation. Kostya immigrated to the Orlando, Florida area with his parents, sister, and grandmother in 1992, at the age of 9. His parents wanted to raise their children away from communism and away from Chernobyl where, when Kostya was three years old, the family fled their home when the nuclear plant accident struck. They also wanted to raise their children in a country where their religion — Judaism — would never be drawn into question. Kostya was the first child in two generations of his family to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah publicly. It was about that time, as he became a teenager, that Kostya was bitten by the magic bug after watching Jeff McBride and Bill Malone on The World’s Greatest Magic. Shortly thereafter, he started working, performing for the first time at a restaurant at the age of 14. It wasn’t long before he cut his teeth as a demonstrator in various tourist magic shops, kiosks, and destinations in and around the Orlando area. Additional inspiration came in the form of all eight volumes of the Tarbell Course in Magic, which he not only devoured, but also made an easily searchable, personalized index of, granting quick access to his favorite effects. By the time Kostya was a freshman in high school, he’d started an on-line magic newsletter, The Magic Express. It was through that PHOTO: MICHAEL CAIRNS newsletter he met San Francisco magician Walt Anthony, who suggested different ideas his time — his free time, away from high kid is this good, too: to Kostya, not only about what to perform, school, and on summer vacations, that is — The set-up is extremely fair. As usual, a but what to read and how to think. To this soaking up magic in every possible form. For card is selected, noted, and returned to the day, the two stay in touch and Kostya cites one month, he served as an assistant to John pack. Then, the spectator shuffles the pack. him as a major influence in his growth as a Calvert. Dai Vernon appeared on his literary In fact, the spectator does all of the shuf- performer and as a person. horizon, and so did Paul Harris. Meetings fling. The cards are dovetailed together At the age of 15 Kostya found himself with Florida magicians like Paul Cummins, in the usual fashion. Then they’re mixed doing walk-around magic for five hours a Chad Long, Bill Malone, and Jim Swain, together face up and face down. For good day at a 21-screen movie theatre opening in coupled with visiting lecturers like Guy measure, Kostya then invites the spectator Orlando, ending each evening with a movie. Hollingworth and Chris Power, also fanned to go wild. The pack is tossed on the table In Kostya’s mind, things couldn’t get any the flames. or floor, where the mishmash of backs and better: he was doing magic, getting paid for By the age of 17, with those varied expe- faces are further mixed. Kostya, all the it, and the movies were free, too. riences under his belt, Kostya took the while, is completely hands-off, though he Then, he says, things changed when a next logical step any other magic-minded wears a slight grin in anticipation of the meeting with Jon Racherbaumer in 1996 teenager would have taken: he delivered his eye-popping finale that’s about to come. opened his eyes to a maxim that colors his first lecture. Once the spectator is satisfied with the work to this day. Racherbaumer phrased it His mentor, Walt Anthony, had booked altered state of the deck, Kostya squares it simply and succinctly: mystery is energy. him for the Oakland 75th Anniversary up and quickly recaps the situation. Running Jon and Kostya met and talked at Magic Convention and introduced him to Alain Nu, through all of the cards in no more than 10 on the Beach, a convention held in Florida. who invited Kostya to lecture at his Phoenix or 12 seconds, there’s no question that the cards have been hopelessly mixed together, face up and face down. Nothing could be Kostya’s love of ideas, of history, and of magic, more certain. Finally, with no strip-outs, shuffles, block- not to mention his genuine attraction to and ability transfer work, and with no fishy funny stuff, Kostya spreads the pack between his hands. to interact with his crowds, are what make his As if guided by Vernon himself, the pack has miraculously righted itself. All of the cards performances transcend the ordinary. are face up. All of them, that is, except for one: the spectator’s selection. The crowd, wherever it happens to have It was at that point that Kostya was devas- Gathering convention later that year. His first congregated on this particular occasion, tated by two card tricks Jon performed — lecture tour, which he booked on his own goes nuts. tricks that would send him searching for by simply calling up one magic club after The secret to this miracle of near-biblical answers in the works of Ed Marlo, Al another, was something of an adventure. proportions? What Kostya discovered that Sharpe, and Eddie Fields, and through the Instead of driving or flying from place to afternoon with Stripper Deck in hand was literature in general. The mystery Racher- place, Kostya made the trip by Greyhound that he’d refined the traditional Hofzinser baumer brought to Kostya was translated bus. He took dozens of routes from city Spread Cull to such a fine degree — modify- into energy in the form of his personal to city, including a 25-hour ride from ing it to suit his own purposes — and cre- search for answers, information, and further Richmond, Virginia to Peoria, Illinois. “My ated The Roadrunner Cull. In less than a inspiration, one that would last for the next parents have always been very supportive,” quarter of a minute, no matter what the con- year and a half. Kostya says. “Whenever I wanted to travel dition of the cards, and under the guise of “Uncovering the methods behind those to a magic convention, there was never any what appears to be a casual stroll through effects was the least important part,” question that they’d let me go — alone. As the pack, the Roadrunner Cull allows Kostya explains Kostya. “It was the search for them long as I called home, they were happy to to cull multiple cards incredibly quickly. that was of the utmost importance. In that hear of my adventures on the road.” Reds separate from blacks. Face-up cards year and a half I slowly came to hundreds of The question is: what does a 17-year-old melt apart from the face-down ones. It hap- ideas and conclusions, hundreds of methods, kid know about magic? What can he teach pens faster than you can believe. and thousands of thoughts that still inspire someone in a lecture? Both for magicians and lay-audiences, me to create to this day. In that time, I gained Enter the Roadrunner Cull. While demon- Kostya’s close-up shows often involve petty respect not only for magic, but also for strating the finer points of a Stripper Deck at larceny. teaching and learning.” one of Orlando’s magic shops, Kostya sud- On occasion, Kostya will invite a promi- Kostya’s eyes were opened to the magic denly realized that he’d forgotten to reverse nent spectator to assist in a card effect. After world at large and, at the same time, he was the pack.

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