Eric Wilzig, a renowned illusionist, performed for Heschel highschoolers in the Roanna Shorofsky Theater hours before the Heschel basketball team’s win during Homecoming, and he did not disappoint! 

Eic Wilzig’s interactive performance for the Heschel High School was nothing short of spectacular and helped set the stage for an energetic homecoming evening. Wilzig is a renowned illusionist, appearing on popular television shows like America’s Got Talent and winning many accolades for his impressive tricks. In my opinion, the two best illusions in his repertoire involved a Rubik’s Cube and levitation.

In his Rubik’s Cube trick, Wilzig asked a Heschel student in the audience to fidget with the cube and mix it up while he performed another stunt onstage. When Wilzig finished the stunt, the student came to the stage and turned the sides behind his back. Wilzig proceeded to ask Spanish teacher Ivania Marinero to name a pop culture icon. When the name Spongebob Squarepants was called out, Wilzig uncovered a picture of a Spongebob’s face, made out of Rubik’s cubes with one missing in the middle. Wilzig then placed the student’s randomly mixed cube in the middle of the picture which perfectly completed the character’s face. 

Considering there are precisely 43 quintillion different combinations of a Rubik’s Cube, I truly do not understand how a trick like this was executed–to say the least, it seems statistically unlikely.

Another mind-blowing magic trick was when senior Ruby Glimer was hypnotized and levitated above the table beneath her. Even though human levitation is scientifically impossible, I still wonder how Wilzig was able to create this illusion as there was nothing visible holding up her body. 

The show, organized by Jewish Student Life’s Julia Bernstein, was amazing; I hope that we can watch more of his magic next year before homecoming!