Magic Man at Northridge

Students at Austin Community College don't need a ticket to catch Las Vegas street magic, they just need to travel to Northridge Campus.

That's where Rodolfo Cantu, also known as Xpider (pronounced Spider), can be seen performing magic for students. Xpider is a first-year ACC student and plans to major in architecture.

He unleashed his talent in an impromptu show at the Northridge student lounge earlier this year. The show was such a success that the Office of Student Life hired him to do a show each month. Since then, he has performed three shows.

"The first two were fun, but the last one was difficult," Xpider said.

The popularity of his shows grew so big that the last one filled the entire student lounge. This presents a problem, he said, as most of his magic needs to be viewed from a close distance.

Xpider's interest in magic grew at an early age while watching David Copperfield shows. On his seventh birthday, he received a black box full of magic tricks and has since learned tricks from the Internet and television shows.

Card tricks do not make up his entire arsenal. He performs other tricks without using cards at all, but says that using the cards is simpler to perform.

A few years ago he became a fan of David Blaine and started doing his own version of street magic. His performances at ACC are his first official shows. Before performing at ACC, Xpider walked the Drag performing for people passing by.

Xpider's says his favorite part of magic is the responses he gets from his audience.

"The mystery of it, when I see people reacting from the trick, it gets me excited about magic," he said.

And true to magician form, he doesn't disclose the secrets to his tricks, strictly following a set a rules he learned along the way.

"Never do the same trick to the same crowd. Never tell anyone your tricks. And always practice before doing the trick," he says.

Xpider's next free show will be in the Northridge student lounge on April 18 at 5 p.m.