Treading on broken glass

A cirque-themed family weekend may have been postponed indefinitely due to the October snowstorm, but UB is still finding a way for students to have some big top fun.

Performing partners Chris Chelko and Michael DuBois worked their magic for a crowd of 200 this past Friday in the Student Union Theater with their latest stage show, "Adult Circus."

The duo, who have appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and make the rounds on college campuses regularly, performed a seven-segment act consisting of card tricks, juggling, illusions, mind reading, a straightjacket escape from on top of a unicycle and a seemingly painful feat in which Chelko stood on broken glass while DuBois stood on his shoulders juggling razor-sharp machete knives.

The crowd cringed in unison when Chelko put his microphone on the ground so they could hear the crunch as he jumped onto the pile of glass shards.

"My favorite part of performing is the audience involvement," Chelko said. "You never know how they will react."

Chelko and DuBois certainly pulled off the unexpected, and also found time to work their magic with the ladies.

During a card trick in the opening act, Chelko had an audience member come onstage and write her name and phone number on a card, which mysteriously ended up in his back pocket several times. The trick ended when the entire deck ended up in his pocket except for the card with the name and phone number.

DuBois then flaunted his master juggling skills, starting with three balls and gradually increasing to seven.

"Juggling seven balls took many years to master," DuBois said. "Only about 50 people in the world can do it, and only about 10 people do it in their shows."

He then juggled clubs, moving up from three to five.

Chelko returned to the stage with an audience-assisted newspaper trick. He had a participant follow him as he shredded a newspaper. When he magically put it back together, his assistant's shreds fell to the floor.

Chelko was however gracious enough to explain to the audience 'how the trick was done.' While ripping up the newspaper again, DuBois crept on stage in a Superman costume and switched the crumpled newspaper with a fresh one.

Next, DuBois stuck a partially inflated long balloon up his nose and had his assistant pull it out of his mouth.

"It was awesome!" said Jeff Pollock, a freshman undecided major. A mind reading skeptic during the show, DuBois had Pollock pick a random word from a book and knew that the word was "apartment." He also guessed another skeptic's word, "illustration."

More telepathy acts left viewers stunned. During one stint, an audience member was asked to select several cards from a deck and hand them out to people in the audience. Chelko guessed the suits of every card in the order that they were handed out.

In another trick, two audience members were asked to write down a series of ten random numbers. Another person was selected to add the numbers together and a third person to dial the number created that was on their cell phone. A phone kept in a locked box began to ring and when it was answered the crowd went wild.

The audience was welcomed to stay behind after the show to see more tricks. Most involved either Chelko or DuBois having an audience member whisper their birth date and homeland into his ear and the other would say what they were.

"I don't even know these countries!" said DuBois after revealing the birth date of one girl as March 4 and her homeland as Macedonia.

"I'm leaving like woahed!" said Takla Boujaoude, SA Entertainment Public Relations Manager. Boujaoude had her home land of Lebanon guessed by Chelko. "It's going to bother me because I want to know how. I want to know how far mind reading goes."