2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Student magician performs tricks for product promotion
Chloe Thompson
Issue date: 4/25/07 Section: Campus
|
But for 20-year-old University of Rhode Island junior Cameron Ramsay, it's a jumpstart for his career and has given him a chance to meet the Red Sox, among others.
"Three or four years ago I performed for Grady Little, the manager at that time," the communications and business major said. "For them, I did card tricks and comedy acts."
He added that after his act he received autographs and had drinks with the Sox.
"If I could get Red Sox season tickets for doing tricks the rest of my life, then I'll do it," he said with a laugh.
Ramsay, who started doing magic when he was 7 years old, now uses his talent in the corporate world as a gimmick in advertising.
"A lot of what I do is corporate work, and that's selling the message of the product," he said. "Instead of having girls in bikinis giving out toothpaste, they have a magician, in a suit, hopefully, giving out toothpaste."
Ramsay said in order to give a proper presentation, it takes a lot of research on his part to successfully sell products, which have ranged from dental hygiene items to baseballs to various fundraisers. He uses various tricks to make the product look more appealing to the buyer.
"You have to associate the product with the message," he said.
Ramsay specializes in a variety of acts including card tricks, mind reading and "slight of hand." He demonstrated one trick for a reporter as he pulled a previously chosen card with writing from a stack of cards and transferred the writing to another card, which had been sitting in front of him with a paper clip on it the entire time.
"[My magic] started as a snowball. Then it grew and became a big snowman," he said with a laugh.
Ramsay has performed across the country, including in Los Angeles and New York City, at trade shows and hospitality suites, and has met a variety of people.
"I had dinner on Saturday night with a magician from Portugal, one from France ... I was the only American there actually," he said Monday.
Ramsay has also met magicians David Copperfield and David Blaine, both whom he listed as mentors. But he said his primary way of learning about magic is through reading.