Instructor performs magic with a message
It’s a trick students love: Mary Ann Campbell forces a card from a deck and shares its identity with the class, being sure not to reveal it to herself. Purposely, she guesses the card incorrectly and begins opening an insurance policy.
“I say, ‘It’s important to read your insurance policy so that you’ll know what’s covered and not covered,” she said.
As the policy unfolds, the image of the correct card appears on the back of the paper.
The trick is one of many she has up her sleeve to keep students engaged and help them retain knowledge of personal finance. After all, not only is Campbell–or
Dr. Mac, as students call her–an online graduate instructor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, but she’s also been practicing magic for more than 30 years.
“I use what I call magic with a message,” said Campbell, a certified financial planner who began teaching at the University of Central Arkansas in 2000 and began to teach fully online three years ago. In classrooms, she has used magic to enhance lessons on credit building, diversifying investments, retirement and more.
Campbell’s magic practice began when her son was 6 and struck up an interest in it, leading to the two taking classes together. When he lost interest, Campbell picked it up for herself and began incorporating it into the classroom.
She is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and was the state chapter’s first female member–and later, its president. Her membership, along with attending conventions, and networking with and mentoring other magicians over the years, has strengthened her practice and helped her learn new material.
“Magic is a method of entertainment, is a method of getting a point across and a method of having fun,” she said.
Her practice was so revered that in the late 1970s she helped develop an AETN program called “Money Magic.”
The show explored personal finances and ended with a magic trick each time. It ceased after a few years.
She’s also made friends with College Football Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz, who she has enjoyed collaborating with on tricks.
“I will learn the mechanics of a trick, and then I will teach it to him, but he is an absolute natural with patter,” she said, referring to what magicians say during a trick. “He’ll come up with a way to talk about it and use it with a memorable message.”
Campbell’s magic with a message has even extended to encouraging magic as a means of therapy. Through David Copperfield’s Project Magic, Campbell spent 15 years as a volunteer teaching magic to Arkansas physical and occupational therapists so that they could share the practice with their patients. Campbell first met Copperfield at a convention in the mid-’80s, and he asked her to help lead the project’s charge in Arkansas. By doing so, Campbell has provided community education on magic in hospitals in cities such as Little Rock, Fort Smith, Morrilton and Springdale.
According to Project Magic, which began in 1981, it teaches magic in order to help those with disabilities increase their motivation, physical dexterity, and communication and functional skills, as well as strengthen their problem-solving and other cognitive skills during therapy.
Campbell traveled to Las Vegas this year to share a presentation at the MGM Grand Hotel’s David Copperfield Theater on best practices in Project Magic and ways to keep the project current and adaptable to the needs of those with various disabilities and conditions. She was one of 14 magicians from seven countries who was invited to participate.
“It was fun to be a part of it, and it was unexpected,” she said of the invitation from Copperfield’s office. “It’s been a good relationship, a much-appreciated friendship. That was kind of a neat surprise.”
Because Campbell currently teaches UCA students online, she is developing a YouTube channel to share her magic with students and other interested viewers.
“I’m grateful for what magic has meant for my life and my family, and to my friends and to my students,” she said. “I’m grateful for that because my students remember me; they remember the magic. But most importantly, they remember the message.”
And if one tries to find out just how Campbell accomplishes her tricks, she won’t reveal her secrets.
“A magician never tells,” she said.