Magician

The city's zoning board told a father-and-son team of magicians Tuesday to produce more details on the acts they plan to offer at their bar before deciding whether to approve their application for a live entertainment license. Ken and Spencer Horsman, the owners of Illusions Magic Bar, are the first Federal Hill business owners to appear before the board to request the license under a program recently created by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to invigorate the city's nightlife.

The photo tells all. Arms raised in triumph, body flush with joy, Orioles pitcher Mike Cuellar leaps off the mound at Memorial Stadium, having stuffed the Cincinnati Reds, 9-3, in the deciding fifth game of the 1970 World Series. "I can still see the look on Mike's face," third baseman Brooks Robinson recalled Friday. "His mouth was wide open, and he had a big, big smile." Miguel Angel Cuellar died Friday of stomach cancer at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida. He was 72. Of his 185 major league victories, none meant more than that World Series win to Cuellar, the Cuban-born left-hander who revived his flagging career in Baltimore - as well as the Orioles' fortunes.

The folks who work with the Berg Dental Group in Forest Hill are always looking for ways to make their patients relax. On a recent afternoon, about 25 employees at the dental clinic gathered in their break room for a class on magic and balloon sculpting. For more than an hour, the employees watched as Jeff Teate, the balloon man, showed them how to lighten up a visit to the dentist. "I was terrified of the dentist when I was a kid," said Teate, 42, of Aberdeen. "I wanted to do something to help kids become more relaxed when they go to the dentist.

Annie Thomas, an 18-year-old counselor at the YMCA Summer Camp at Ellicott Mills Middle School, knew that magician Wayne Alan would not really cut off her hand. But, standing on stage, with her wrist locked into a frightening-looking contraption with a very sharp blade, she did feel a little nervous. "That blade was real," she said afterward, her hand still mercifully attached to her wrist. "He is really good." Alan, a professional magician, put on two shows at the YMCA camp Wednesday as part of his mission to warn kids about the dangers of smoking.

Jack Julius was 7 years old when his foster family dropped him off at the Villa Maria Orphanage in Baltimore. He doesn't remember the exact reason - the family moved or someone became ill - but Jack soon found an unlikely way to recover from the blow. A magician showed up at the orphanage, and as quickly as you can say "abracadabra," the outgoing and optimistic little boy discovered his calling. The man, whose blond hair stuck right up a la Alfalfa from The Little Rascals, mesmerized Jack, particularly the trick of balancing a ball on an umbrella's tip. It wasn't long before Jack borrowed that for his own budding act. "Magic and performing was a way to deal with the crisis in my life," said Julius, 46. "Since I didn't have a real family growing up, the audience was my family."

Magic show -- 49 West Coffeehouse, Winebar and Gallery will present Magician Jack Julius from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow, April 28, May 26 and June 30. His show features illusion, a mime performance, dance and comedy. Admission is $12. Reservations are suggested. 410-626-9796.

Jungle plants extend off the stage, reaching toward the audience. An African drum beat sounds, and a story of the beginning of the world begins, "My Best Beloved." Armed with creativity and charm, Glenelg Country School last week pulled the audience into the magical African world of Just So. Based on Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories," the performance combines Kipling's stories in one musical. In the beginning of the world, the Eldest Magician created all the animals, only to realize that they are all the same.

ATLANTA -- The oily agent Ari Gold in HBO's Entourage and the coked-out Vegas entertainer-cum-mobster Buddy "Aces" Israel in the movie Smokin' Aces (which opened Friday) are pure, manic energy. But Jeremy Piven, the guy who plays them both, is trying not to pass out on the table of a Midtown hotel conference room during a recent visit to Atlanta. "I don't know how rock stars do it, man," he groans, groggy, slouching forward. "Waking up really early and working all day until you get on a plane -- that's what's kind of brutal."

James E. Conner, a retired sales manager, book collector and amateur prestidigitator, died of heart failure Dec. 3 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Odenton resident was 79. Mr. Conner was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. After graduating from Catonsville High School in 1944, he served in the Coast Guard for two years as a storekeeper and trumpet player. He earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola College in 1949, and went to work for Garamond-Pridemark Press Inc., a division of Cadmus Communications Inc. He was a vice president and sales manager when he retired in 1989.

Hugh Jackman is neither a magician nor a pampered house rat. But he's playing one in the movies this year. He's also playing an emperor penguin, a mutant with razor-sharp claws and a really bad temper, a suspected upper-class British serial killer and a man obsessed with discovering the fabled fountain of youth. That's a pretty busy schedule for one actor, but Jackman chuckles when asked if he's vying to win the title of Busiest Man in Hollywood. He finished filming Darren Aronof- sky's The Fountain 18 months ago, and has been working on a pair of animated movies - Flushed Away (opening Nov. 3)