Amateur magicians cast their spell at Memorial Health's Children's Hospital

Kaidyn Jackson dabs a damp washcloth against her nose to hold back a nosebleed – a result of the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy she endured the day before. She is missing class at the STEM Academy at Bartlett Middle School, but she is getting a lesson in misdirection as magician Tina Kelly throws her an “invisible deck” of cards.

Kelly melds a bit of mentalism with a card trick that induces awe in the 12-year-old patient at Memorial Health University Medical Center’s Dwaine and Cynthia Willett Children’s Hospital. Off to the side, Jackson’s mom Ashley Bryant, gasps.

Dressed in black with a vest imprinted with bunnies peeking out of top hats and sporting bunny earrings, Kelly is part of a duo of volunteers from The Landings Magic Society who performs tricks for children who aren’t feeling their best.

Her partner on most visits is Dr. Gary Poleynard, a retired gastroenterologist who has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with false shuffles and cuts as well as the sleights of hand that make silks disappear in a palm as if there is an invisible hole burrowed into his lifeline. Poleynard is a member of the prestigious Magic Castle, an invitation-only private club in California that also serves as the headquarters of the Academy of Magical Arts. For him, magic is more than a hobby.

Like medical residents, Poleynard and Kelly consult a list of patients as they make their rounds. Unlike the nurses and practitioners who carry charts, pills and IV bags, Poleynard and Kelly wheel carts filled with rubber chickens, card decks, colored ropes, sealed envelopes. Instead of diagnoses, they deliver parlor tricks, illusion and a bit of enchantment ― a much-needed break from the mix of mundane and scary that can come with being in a hospital.

As Kelly says, they have one goal: to entertain. “Take a card any card is a call to the present. It’s virtually impossible to think of an upcoming MRI or lab test when you’re trying to follow a rapidly changing sponge ball.”

A side of magical arts mixed with equal parts good works and healing

Magic has experienced a renaissance in the past few years with the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise and magicians and illusionists crowned three of the 18 season winners of NBC's America's Got Talent.

Kelly joined The Landings Magic Society when she and her husband retired to the Skidaway Island community a decade ago. She sought meaningful volunteer work and even considered training as a first responder. But after a night at a community talent show, where an acquaintance who turned out to be an amateur magician performed with props that “defied laws of science and gravity,” she was hooked and wanted in on the secrets.

She started showing up at the monthly meetings where she met Poleynard and the club’s cofounders –  Jim Ruhl, a retired pharmaceutical executive from New Jersey, and the late Ed Heiser, a retired businessman from Ohio. They started the magic club 15 years ago to support their interest in the magical arts as well as charitable endeavors. Ruhl, who began studying magic in the late-1980s at the invitation of a work colleague, started volunteering at the children’s hospital in 2008.

Kelly and Poleynard alternate Friday visits with other volunteers, which has 12 regular members, most of whom live in The Landings, although the club is open to anyone who lives in the greater Savannah area.

A magic wand and a respite from the medical

Kelly likens giving a sick child a magic wand to giving them power over a powerless situation. And in many ways, that’s the purpose of the volunteers who participate in the variety of programs offered at the children’s hospital.

“Our role is to help decrease the stress and help normalize it, to help provide a little respite from the medical,” explains Kristen King, manager of Child Life and Pediatric Wellness.

She describes the different programs her department coordinates, from outdoor concerts so that families can socialize in the fresh air to interactive culinary demonstrations like the one involving healthy snacks made from bananas setting up in the lobby as she talks.

“It’s just great. Kids are able to relax, a little bit distracted and, kind of, immersed in something new or something that may be more typical or fun. Our goal is to help them feel a little bit relaxed, feel like this is a safe place and place that can be comfortable as we’re all taking care of them.”

Kelly says that nurses have warned her that an unknown adult entering a child’s hospital room can translate into pain, so she and her fellow magic-makers have mastered the art of patter and corny jokes – as much a form of misdirection as the sleight-of-hand card tricks that she and Poleynard perform.

As they consider their next stop, a group of pediatric residents gather by the elevator. Their attending introduces them and says, “We love our magicians.”

“You want to see some magic?”

Go ahead, their attending says, motioning them toward the break room. They settle in, looking like they may need a bit of a lift after more than six hours on their feet.

Poleynard, who can recall these long, exhausting days as a young medical student, does a brief disappearing act with a red silk handkerchief. One of the residents gasps.

As Kelly launches into a mind-bending card trick that defies all logic ― "How did you do that?" asks one incredulous resident ― the toddler daughter of another resident comes into the room with her mother, who is carrying takeout for her hungry husband. The little girl runs over to her father and climbs into his lap.

Kelly, a novelist and essayist, says later that being a good magician is all about being a good storyteller, because “successful tricks also have dramatic structure with beginnings, middles and ends.” Magicians must also build trust like a writer.

She pulls out a bottle of bubbles and begins to blow them into the air. The little girl smiles and grabs at the bubbles. Kelly snatches one out of the air and instead of it popping, she opens her hand to reveal a clear acrylic ball. There is a collective “aww” that goes around the room.

“All done,” squeals the little girl and claps.

Everyone around the room laughs, which might be the best bit of magic of all.

Amy Paige Condon is an editor and content coach for Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at acondon@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: The Landings Magic Society casts spell at Memorial Health's Children's Hospital