Street magician speaks about giving hope to people
Street magician Kim Jun-pyo presents magic show on a street in Insa-dong, central Seoul. / Courtesy of Kim Jun-pyo
By Kim Rahn
Street magician Kim Jun-pyo / Korea Times photo by Kim Jin-ju
Magic is a medium that can make people get close to each other quickly, says Kim Jun-pyo, a street magician.
The 21-year-old gives magic performances on the streets in and near Insa-dong, central Seoul. He enjoys his shows as much as the dozens of people surrounding him, who cheer and laugh as he shows tricks.
Kim, who had been a promising swimmer since elementary school, became interested in magic when he was 15 after one of his friends showed him a simple magic trick. Kim then learned tricks through YouTube videos, but still just for fun.
But he had to quit swimming when he was 17 as he had not grown tall enough to become a good swimmer. “Disappointed, I found comfort in magic and wanted to learn more about it,” he said.
He joined an agency that nurtures magicians. “But most of such agencies are small and exploit their members. My agency made me perform magic shows at hundreds of small events such as children’s parties at churches, with almost no payment. Moreover, I could not learn high-level magic tricks there. So I left it after six months.”
Kim then started street performance in Insa-dong the next year. “I worked really hard, eight to nine shows a day, four days a week. I performed for about 10 minutes at the beginning but later, 30 minutes as I added more programs,” he said.
Then he entered Dong-Pusan College, which was one of two schools offering magic as a major here. “Most students went there according to their college admission test scores, not out of interest in magic. Professors taught old-fashioned magic tricks, and the facilities were so old. And the school suddenly said it would abolish the major the next year. So I left the school.”
With no proper agencies or schools, there was no place in Korea to learn magic systematically, he said. So now Kim dreams of learning magic tricks at an academy in Madrid, Spain, and is raising money to study there through street performances.
“Foreign academies have systematic courses. For example, the school I want to enter offers a program in which students can learn from Juan Tamariz, a famous Spanish magician, for one month,” Kim said.
After coming back to Korea, he said he hopes to pass down what he has learned in Spain to magician-hopefuls here. “I want to hold lectures or seminars to teach such people and develop the nation’s magic sector,” he said.