The Magic of Tony Daniels was once again the show of the summer at the Moapa Valley Library in Overton. Magician Tony Daniels along with his dove, Mariah and his bunny, Bunnicula put on a great show on Monday, July 13.

This year marks the ninth year that Daniels has performed for the children of Moapa Valley. This year approximately 60 children along with a handful of parents packed the story

Each year Daniels provides his audience with plenty of laughs and tricks as well as a bit of audience participation. His “victims”, or volunteers rather, are always eager to jump into the spotlight and learn a little magic themselves.

The show began with the invisible magical dart trick which had the audience roaring with laughter. Daniels brought up his first volunteer, Kaitlyn, age 8 who did a great job at her given task. When Kaitlyn threw the magic dart at a balloon it popped to reveal a beautiful dove named Mariah.

It was a 3 year old boy by the name of Ryan who really stole the show. It all began when 8 year old Luke was selected to volunteer for a trick. Luke was asked to repeat everything Daniels did and said. When Daniels got Luke dancing, Luke decided this wasn’t his cup of tea and he quickly sat down. In comes Ryan… Ryan quickly stepped up before Daniels could even react and started performing his own dance moves and instructed Daniels to follow along. Daniels took his dancing orders and gave the entire crowd a great laugh.

Daniels then called a new volunteer, Francesca who gladly took on the task and copied every move Daniels made before assisting in the hanger trick. Francesca’s hangers seemed to stay stuck together while Daniels’ hangers would magically come apart.

Daniels also performed the levitation trick, the missing plate trick, and the candy out of thin air trick. Young Mattea was the volunteer on the candy trick. Her innocent giggle lit up the room as she watch Daniels make candy bars appear into a bag out of thin air. Mattea received a handful of mini chocolate bars for her help with the trick.

Daniels took a moment at the end of the show to talk about this year’s Summer Reading Program. He encouraged kids to get busy reading, “After all, reading is magic,”he said.

Daniels then gave away door prizes to a handful of lucky kids who walked away with magic books and dvds, even a magic kit was raffled off to a lucky young lady.

Daniels finished off the show with a trick which turned Mariah the dove into Bunnicula the bunny. All of the children in attendance lined up and waited patiently for their turn to pet Bunnicula and say hello to the Magic Man.

Daniels is a Magician who resides in Los Angeles, California. Each year Daniels performs over 500 shows for schools and libraries throughout the West Coast.