Illuisionist Tom Coverly performs in Tulare

By Shiloh Appel
 On Wednesday, January 8th, illusionist, comedian and professional speaker, Tom Coverly, performed for Hitchock-Tulare and Doland School Districts at the Hitchcock-Tulare gym. He also performed a free show for the general public on the evening of January 8th.
  According to Jeff Clark, superintendent of Hitchcock-Tulare School District, the school first contacted Coverly in September.

“He opened for Bob Lenz when Bob came in September,” said Clark. “We stayed in contact with him ever since. It worked out to have him come back and kick off the new year and new semester for our students.”
 Bob Lenz is the founder of Dignity Revolution, a new curriculum that Hitchcock-Tulare School District has incorporated into their classrooms. The curriculum emphasizes value, courage, and respect for all people. Tom Coverly’s message goes hand-in-hand with Dignity Revolution’s values.
 “He does a couple cool tricks and then he tells the kids, ‘you know, everything you just saw is an illusion. Let’s destroy some illusions that society is selling you guys.’ One was about self-image and self-worth. He talked a lot about respect. Respect for authority, respect for people in general,” said Clark. “He destroys the illusion that it is okay to make fun of other people and post things about them. He [states] that we should take the time to invest in those people.Then he challenges them to be what he calls ‘real men’ and ‘real women’ and challenges them to stand up and show respect and stop being the ‘little boys’ and ‘little girls’ that just point fingers and laugh at people.”
  Clark said Coverly’s message was well received by both students and the general public. Some of the illusions Coverly performed included a trick with a quarter in a full can of pop and one called the ‘Invisible Deck of Cards’, according to Clark. During the card trick, Coverly had a volunteer from the audience shuffle an invisible deck of cards, pull a card out, and throw it up in the air.
“Then there is a deck of cards behind him and he pulls it out and there is one card turned upside down in the deck. The [volunteer] tells the audience what their card was beforehand. They pull that card out and here it is-that card. And he never touches the deck or anything. It is pretty cool,” said Clark.
 A well-known speaker, Coverly has performed for millions around the world and has been seen on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX. He has entertained celebrities Jep and Jessica Robertson form the TV show “Duck Dynasty,” Rick the Reptile Guy, iShine, Amber Montana, Victoria Koloff, and the entire cast and producers for the “Batman vs. Superman” movie, as well as many others. He traveled with Criss Angel and met Cindy Crawford and other Hollywood stars. When he was performing, Coverly talked about one of his conversations with Cindy Crawford.
“He held up the cover of two magazines. One more male, and one more female and said this is what society says we are supposed to look like..and one was Cindy Crawford.  He said, ‘I got a chance to work with Cindy Crawford and the funny thing is that she told me ‘I wish I looked like the Cindy Crawford on the front of a magazine.’ He said, ‘This is an illusion. It took a thousand pictures and countless hours of editing to make it look like this, but yet society tells us we have to look this way and we can’t, because this is an illusion. It’s not real,” said Clark. “They talked about the fact that everyone deserves respect. All kids deserve respect. They talked about the social media aspect of that. You can’t escape it. So, for some kids, that is what really rang true with them.”
Overall, Clark said it was a great time and everyone seemed to enjoy Coverly’s humor.
“We appreciate him  coming out and doing it,” said Clark. “He is a great entertainer and he is passionate about our youth.”