Courtesy Dave Young

He has performed on the magician’s circuit, from the Sahara and MGM Grand hotels in Las Vegas, to the famous Magic Castle in San Francisco. He has opened for well-known magicians like David Copperfield. Now, by popular demand, he is bringing his show to Orem.

After a 40-year hiatus the “Dave Young presents: Grand Illusions” tour is performing July 23 at the Orchard at University Place as part of its Pioneer Day and Fireworks Celebrations.

Yes, Dave Young — as in Orem Mayor Dave Young — will be performing illusions and magic tricks for his hometown.

Long before Young was elected mayor, and before being the founder and president of a number businesses, he was a traveling magician performing 300-plus shows in a matter of three years from 1978 to 1981.

His love of magic, however, came much earlier than that.

Courtesy Dave Young

“When I was a kid I was pretty ambitious,” Young said. “One day I was eating a bowl of cereal – Trix. On the back of the box they offered a free magic kit.”

That was when Young was 8-years-old. He soon started studying magic, after all, “what else was there to do for a kid living in Roswell, New Mexico?”

Young said he would save up his money and, when he would come to visit his grandparents in Ogden, would hitchhike to Salt Lake City and buy magic books at Loftus Magic. It was there he purchased the Tarbell collection of magic encyclopedia books.

Those books broke down magic effects and became Young’s training guides.

Young got good enough to begin doing magic tricks for small parties around age 11. He did that until he was 16 when he was also performing magic tricks in local clubs — even though he was underage.

Courtesy Dave Young

Like other young men in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the mayor served a mission. His magic career in the states took a break as he was called to Australia.

“I was leaving and had a briefcase with magic stuff,” Young said. “I took it on the mission against my mother’s wishes. I used to do magic when knocking on doors.”

Young said he did about four or five magic shows for the wards “down under” in the first year.

“The second year, I was sent to Tasmania. There was a lot of anti-American sentiment because of the Vietnam War. No one would talk to us,” Young said. “We’d ride our bikes and kids would throw rocks at us.”

Young said that, although there were 40 missionaries in Tasmania, the missionary work was not happening. His mission president recognized Young’s magical talent and told him to make the missionary work happen, but to not break any rules.

Young prepped for his assignment and even learned how to eat fire. He planned a family home evening show and spread fliers all over with pictures of him eating fire. Eventually, 300 people showed up.

Tasmania also had a contest for Best Magician of the Year, which Elder Young subsequently entered and won.

“We started setting up magic shows and did them all over the island,” Young said. “We were known as the ‘Fire Eating Mormons.'”

Young became famous, and started doing radio call-in shows for free on the promise the station would run 12 weeks of Mormon ads.

“The missionary work turned around,” Young said with a smile in his voice.

The perception of his magical missionary work was purely positive until he came back to Utah and performed for two stakes in Springville. The morning after the show, he got a call.

As part of his act, Young had what he called a “Zombie Ball” and would levitate it around the room.

“The stake president called the day after saying that some of the sisters in the stake had been talking and wanted to know if the Zombie Ball was of the devil,” Young said. “I told him that it was magic.”

While Young was on his mission entertaining, his father was at home becoming his manager and booking shows for when Young got home. The father-son duo started building traveling sets, which included escape boxes and other boxes of illusion. He recruited his sister to help and they even did television shows.

Young had a great sound system for his show, so he would do a 90-minute act and then use the sound system for disco dances.

By this time, Young was attending Brigham Young University, and over a period of time had done a half-dozen shows on campus.

He noted that, after each show, he would bring some kind of controversy to the pages of the campus newspaper, The Daily Universe. Not because of magic, but because he had school permission to wear his hair longer as a student because he was a performer — just like the Osmonds. Apparently, other students felt he was taking advantage of the rule and should have been required to cut his hair short.

He and his new wife would travel the circuit and spend time together, then they had their first child. Young continued doing shows while his family stayed in Utah.

He had been gone for two months and flew back into town for his daughter’s first birthday party.

“She didn’t recognize me. That is when I stopped (doing magic shows) and started my own businesses,” Young said. “In 1986 I started Paragon so I could manage my own money.”

So now the rabbit is out of the hat. Mild-mannered Mayor Dave Young led a previous life of excitement and intrigue.

Through the cajoling — and several pretty-please requests from the folks at University Place — Young agreed and will be doing a 20-30 minute magic show as part of the July 23 festivities.

The University Place schedule of events for July 23 begins at 5 p.m. with food, games, pie eating competitions and stick-pulling competitions.

At 6 p.m. will be the “Dave Young Presents: Grand Illusions” magic show. At 6:45 p.m. Utah’s Madilyn Page will perform, followed by the Current Band concert at 8 p.m. A fireworks show will complete the night at 9:30 p.m.

The public is invited to bring chairs and blankets to sit on for all performances. The entire evening is free to the public.

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