The best part of magician David Copperfield`s show Wednesday at the Paramount Arts Centre, Aurora, will take place behind the screen.
There, Paul Massey will slip backstage and meet Copperfield, his hero. And Copperfield will meet one of the proudest graduates of Project Magic, a rehabilitation program Copperfield launched in 1982.
Copperfield`s inspiration for the program came from a young magician with whom Copperfield had been corresponding. Eventually, Copperfield received a photograph--of the young man in a wheelchair. Copperfield, impressed with the man`s self-image, thought that magic might have therapeutic value to many disabled persons.
At the time, Copperfield knew next to nothing about physical therapy and rehabilitation, yet instinctively he had touched on a need. And, working through Julie DeJean, director of occupational therapy for the Carondelet Rehabilitation Centers of America, he developed Project Magic, which now is in place in 500 U.S. hospitals and 18 countries. (More information available by writing to Project Magic, c/o Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, P.O. Box 100, Inglewood, Calif. 90306-0008.)
Physical rehabilitation is boring, repetitive work, whose rewards can be relatively uninspiring. Most patients are disabled severely enough that they literally must relearn how to live--retraining their muscles to brush teeth, comb hair, put on clothing. Patient motivation, therapists say, is a constant challenge. How do you keep a patient interested in an exercise that, after weeks and weeks of repetition, will allow him to unscrew the cap of a toothpaste tube?
The aim of Project Magic is to exercise those same muscles by practicing a magic trick. Then, when a patient masters a skill, he not only can unscrew a toothpaste tube cap, which most people can do, but he also can perform a magical illusion that most people can`t do.
``In one exercise, they (patients) squeeze a rubber ball all day,`` says Don Bothwell, a magician who teaches magic to patients at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Center in Wheaton. ``If instead, I teach them the Jumping Rubber Band trick, they`re doing the same work, only it`s fun. You`re tricking them into it, really.``
Ann Gillespie, director of recreational therapy at Marianjoy, says the patients` renewed enthusiasm is only one benefit.
``There`s a definite therapeutic value,`` she says. ``You`re working on one-handed skills, eye-hand coordination, dexterity, cognitive skills--all those things. Plus, you`re working on people`s self-esteem. People with disabilities don`t always feel accomplishment from learning simple motor skills. But when they learn to do something out of the ordinary, something that amazes the rest of us, they do feel a sense of accomplishment.``
``We know, for example, that if you practice this coordination exercise, it should help you take the toothpaste cap off,`` adds DeJean. ``Magic is like that, too. If you learn to perform this trick, it`s also going to help your dexterity when you go to do other skills as well. But magic can also be a neat little leisure skill that you can develop. That`s an unexpected outcome of this for us; it really has turned into a hobby or skill that people can use to socialize and interact with people.``
Paul Massey is a good example of that. Disabled since age 14 with a brain injury suffered while playing football, the shy, 31-year-old Aurora native has been to Marianjoy three previous times, never achieving more than nonfunctional (extremely limited) walking. Two months ago, he returned to Marianjoy and immediately became involved in Project Magic. Since then, he has mastered about eight tricks, Bothwell says, and has taken to performing them for some of the nurses.
``I first showed him a trick in which you stick a pin through a balloon,`` Bothwell says. ``It`s not easy. He picked the balloon up and did it on his first try. There was no stopping him after that.``
``This is definitely an interest area he has picked up on,`` Gillespie says. ``On the days that Don comes, Paul takes the initiative to be there on time, and he practices a lot. I have no testing to prove it, but I`d say that Project Magic has helped the rest of his rehabilitation, too. Now he practices his walking when he goes out with us. He`s real slow, but he does it.``