A magical night at the Highland House Museum
By Pamela Nickell
HCP columnist
The big brick building on the corner of East Main and South East Street was a beckoning blaze of light Monday night. The open doors, cheerful greeters and promise of magic enticed a standing-room-only crowd, some arriving from Cincinnati, to an evening of delight and awe.
Highland County's native son (though he was actually born in Kansas) was in town to perform at the Highland House. Steve Faris, at least a third-generation Highland Countian, did not disappoint.
The packed house consisting of young children through octogenarians gasped, laughed and clapped for the amazing tricks of this excellent magician who made do in what was actually a very limited space.
Faris has performed in a variety of venues: TV, festivals, schools, street fairs, stage and the 1982 World's Fair (where my grandmother saw a magician perform so it must have been him) and as evidenced last night, crowded rooms.
Since about the age of 10, Faris has been obsessed with magic. From this young age, he read books on magic and sought to understand it through any means to which he had access, including TV and movies. Later on, he bought tricks and played with them constantly, otherwise known as practice.
These six decades later, he performs with great enthusiasm. Talking to and observing him before last night's show, it was obvious he was having just as much fun as the rest of us. He is very interactive with his audience and tunes in to all remarks, most of which are immediately incorporated into his act.
Faris is also a historian. He collects books, props, tricks, biographies and experiences of magic.
The beautiful fall décor of the Highland House Museum is now and for a limited time enhanced with a large sample of his collection of really beautiful posters of other magicians.
If you look up magician Steve Faris online, you will find articles about him and a video of him performing at a street festival in Cincinnati. Also, Leland Pennington interviewed him, resulting in an article that was published in the Highland County Magazine Fall 1998 (available in the museum library) that will make you think you know Faris personally. He definitely is a happy magician.
It was another great night in Hillsboro.