Magician Richard Hatch Kicks of Smithfield Library's Summer Reading Progam

June 6, 2012 - PRLog -- Magician Richard Hatch of the Hatch Academy of Magic and Music in Logan will present his 2012 Library program, "Dream the Impossible", at Skyview High School Auditorium in Smithfield at 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 14th. This program will serve as the kick off event for the Smithfield Public Library's Summer Reading Program, which has the theme, "Dream Big @ the Library!"

Richard’s program, “Dream the Impossible” engages young audiences by demonstrating how magicians – dreamers of the impossible – around the world have dreamed big and made their dreams come true. Often those dreams started with a book: Frenchman Robert-Houdin was a watchmaker until he was given a two-volume set of magic books by mistake. He became the greatest magician the world has ever known and prevented a war with his magic. A book he wrote inspired a young American immigrant to change the course of his life, changing his name from Ehrich Weiss to Harry Houdini and becoming the greatest escape artist the world has ever known. In turn, books by and about Houdini have inspired generations of readers to dream their own impossible dreams.

Magician Richard Hatch was inspired himself to become a magician by the gift of a book, “The Golden Book of Magic” by the great Merlini (Clayton Rawson) when he was just 8 years old. He soon read all the books on magic (Dewey Decimal number 793.8!) at the public library in Ames, Iowa and later at the public library in Logan, Utah and began creating performances based on what he read and dreamed at the libraries. His career as a magician has taken him around the world, to such exotic locales as the Magic Castle in Hollywood, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Eddie Murphy’s New Year’s Eve party! A lover and collector of books, he co-founded a company that has become the world’s largest supplier of magic books, H & R Magic Books (www.magicbookshop.com), eventually publishing dozens of books for the profession before moving back to his hometown of Logan, Utah in October 2010 where he and his wife, violinist Rosemary Kimura Hatch, opened the Hatch Academy of Magic and Music. He has also translated numerous magic books from German into English, including the first four volumes of Roberto Giobbi’s acclaimed Card College series.

In “Dream the Impossible” Richard Hatch performs Robert-Houdin’s feat of materializing large silver coins from the ambient atmosphere, assisted by a member of the audience. Hungarian Max Malini’s feat of making a real egg invisible and visible again with the help of two audience members will remind readers of Harry Potter’s Cloak of Invisibility! In the tale of “Taro-san the Fisherman and the Weeping Willow Tree”, the childhood dreams of young boy in Japan are magically illustrated with the ancient but seldom seen “tamasudare” bamboo mat. These are just a few examples from the program which can include magical feats of impossible dreamers from India, China, Egypt and America, in addition to the above.

The program will run 30 minutes and is suitable for young audiences. This is a free event open to the public. Skyview High School is located at 520 South 250 East in Smithfield. For more information call Karen Bowling, Children's Services at the Smithfield Public Library, 435 563-3555.