"Magic is a tool to communicate to people," he said.

With a sudden wave of his fingers he pulled a red foam ball from an unsuspecting reporter's hair and made it reappear in her palm, then vanish.

Mr. Greenbaum said that when he was 5, his father showed him a magic trick and he became so enthralled, he received a magic set for Hanukkah that year.

"I got addicted," he said.

From the New York Times, August 14, 2005, Long Island Section, p. 4