Magic Nate’s performance on September 21 will benefit the Westerville Education Foundation.
While growing up, Nate LeGros sometimes felt caught in the middle. A self-described “middle child” and “average student who ranked near the middle” of approximately 550 students in the Westerville North High School Class of 2005, LeGros sees and appreciates the irony in how things turned out.
“Though I wasn’t the worst student, I certainly wasn’t the best,” LeGros said. “Now, my brother, my two sisters and my wife are all teachers in different school districts.”
While in school, LeGros observed that the demands on his teachers gave them only enough time to focus their attention on the students who were either excelling or falling behind. As a result, LeGros said he sometimes felt overlooked.
“I never really enjoyed school, and I certainly didn't help things by actively refusing to speak or volunteer during class,” LeGros admitted. “Years of this will lead anyone to want to act out, but fortunately I became adept at card tricks. I carried a deck of cards with me and if I was ever yearning for attention, I could simply start shuffling. It wouldn't be long before I had a small audience.”
LeGros’ interest in magic began at an early age. He recalls a time when “seeing a magic program on television was as normal as seeing a baseball game,” which prompted him to begin practicing and performing his own magic acts.
“When I was 10 years old, my grandmother got me a book on magic for Christmas,” LeGros said. “The best thing about that book was when other kids around me were getting magic kits filled with cheap, plastic versions of great tricks that would always break or get lost, my book was teaching me how to actually make those great tricks.”
A year later as a fifth-grade student, LeGros gave his very first public performance at the McVay Elementary Talent Show. For the past three years, LeGros (who now goes by the stage name of Magic Nate) has returned to where it all started to perform free magic shows at the McVay Elementary Fun Fair.
Despite a fear of meeting new people, LeGros has spoken to individual classrooms, addressed entire schools, given lectures, taught seven after-school magic classes, and operated three summer magic camps.
“Even though I’m actually quite comfortable with public speaking, I tend to be very quiet and a lot of people will take that for me being shy,” LeGros said. “Incidentally, I never talk when I’m on stage. A lot of people have misinterpreted that the two are connected. There are 11 reasons why I don’t talk on stage, but stage fright has never been one of them.”
Now an experienced magician who has moved out of the middle and into the spotlight, LeGros is partnering with the Westerville Education Foundation and Ralphoto Studio on an upcoming community fundraiser. LeGros will perform The Magic Nate Show at 7:00 p.m. on September 21, in the Westerville Central High School Theater, 7118 Mount Royal Ave. Tickets cost $10 each and proceeds from ticket sales will support innovative classroom initiatives benefitting Westerville City School District students. Tickets may be purchased at the door or in advance at www.themagicnate.com.
LeGros acknowledges that it’s been a long and an amazing journey from his fifth-grade talent show to where he finds himself today. In addition to developing an exceptional array of illusions over that time, LeGros also has developed a desire to use his talent, and his voice, to help those students who may share those same feelings he once had of being in the middle.
“I’ve met plenty of wonderful people who work in the school system and have always just chalked it up to dumb luck that I never got to be in their class or involved while I was a student,” LeGros explained. “Part of the reason for doing this show is to get more involved and try to create opportunities for kids who otherwise might repeat the experience I had. After all, not everyone may be as lucky as me to have such a rich and fulfilling hobby to not only fall back on, but also to turn into a career.”