Onlookers shrieked Thursday evening after 36-year-old “bizarre” magician Brian Brushwood made a ghost appear on many audience members’ cellphones.

The University Union Ballroom was nearly full of students, all there to see Brushwood perform his cross of shock, magic and comedy. Though Brushwood is a regular on college campuses, he had never performed at Sacramento State.

“It was epic,” said sophomore speech pathology major Jennifer Hotta. “The ghost scared everybody; they jumped out of their seats.”

Brushwood’s performance also included fire-eating, a straitjacket escape, sleight of hand, inserting nails into his eyelids and his nasal cavity and mind-reading. He also performed his signature “Human Crazy Straw,” in which he wrapped transparent tubing around his entire body, inserted the tubing into his nasal cavity and then pulled it out his mouth. He then funneled a mixture of milk, cola, and orange juice though the tubing which exited his mouth and poured into a cup, all while striking a pose.

Throughout the show volunteers took the stage to assist Brushwood in his performance. They did everything from pulling a nail out of his nose to interacting with his puppet, “Mr. Happy Pants.”

“My favorite part was when I got to go on stage and describe to the audience how he put a small  nail in his eye and then spit it out his mouth,” said junior computer science major Gabe Thompson.

Appearing on television networks such as CNN, FOX, NBC and The Food Network is not uncommon for Brushwood and has performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and others across the country, in December of 2010 Brushwood even made the trip to Indonesia to perform.

Brushwood said he loved magic as a child after seeing magicians Penn and Teller; he later picked the practice back up again while attending college at University of Texas.

“A friend of mine did a card trick for me, but wouldn’t explain how he did it,” Brushwood said. “So I decided to pick magic back up to top him. Within a year I was stumbling into paying gigs.”

After performing a magic show for his senior honor thesis, Brushwood started doing more shows in clubs and schools around Texas. He soon received awards for “Best Club Magic” and “Best Comedy Magic” from the Texas Association of Magicians.

Brushwood now juggles 100 live shows and TV appearances and creates 52 new tricks a year for his podcast “Scam School,” which was named a best podcast in 2009 by iTunes.

“‘Scam School’ is a weekly podcast that teaches you bar tricks and how to scam beers from your friends,” Brushwood said. “I used to be better at creating new live material but now with ‘Scam School’ that’s where a lot of my energy goes.”

Brushwood’s performance lasted about an hour and audience members were literally jumping up and down for a chance to take the stage with him.

Although some attendees may have never heard of Brushwood, other than seeing posters and fliers around campus, the crowd seemed quite impressed.

“All of us at UNIQUE Programs and many of the Union employees were all very excited about the event,” said Interim Programs Adviser Karen Chu. “We chose Brushwood because we felt he was unique. He offered a performance that was not the typical magic show and would interest students as well as adults.”

Around 300 people attended the event and about 50 people stayed after to catch a few words with Brushwood or even grab an autograph, if they felt the urge.

He was also cutting deals on merchandise for people who approached him saying “Hey Brian, I’ll take the whole sha-bang,” in which he would only charge them $20 instead of $40 for a T-shirt, a DVD, a book and two bumper stickers.

“The crowd was so fantastic,” Brushwood said. “Huge turnout, no one threw anything and the audience clearly had a sick sense of humor, which made for a great performance.”

For more

information about Brian Brushwood and his

“Bizarre Magic” show, go to

shwood.squarespace.com

Benjamin Dewey can be reached [email protected].