Graduate student balances jobs as engineer, professional magician

Raahul Srinivasan spreads a previously disordered deck of cards face up across a table to reveal all black cards on one side and all red cards on the other.

The cards separate like oil and water, he tells his audience.

Since his days in middle school, it was rare to catch Srinivasan without a deck of cards in his pocket.

The graduate student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management is a professional magician, but his sleight of hand is just one of his many interests.

Srinivasan is also an engineer with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from UCLA.

“I’ve always been one of those people who likes to fill their plates as much as possible,” he said.

Srinivasan splits his time between Mountain View – where he works as an analyst and engineer – and UCLA. The graduate program he is enrolled in is designed for students employed full time.

He began performing magic professionally at small parties and events in the Bay Area about five years ago, but he also has a community of magicians he connects with when he is in Los Angeles. Srinivasan is a member of the Magic Castle, a nearly 5,000-member Hollywood clubhouse for magicians.

Though his passions seem unrelated, Srinivasan said he hopes to use both his skills as a magician and his skills as an engineer when pursuing a career in product development.

Product development is about connecting with people and understanding their needs and requirements, he said. It is like performing a magic trick.

Srinivasan began doing magic tricks when he received a magic kit as a gift when he was a child.

When he was younger, he would jump out from behind the drapes in his house with a flourish before performing a magic trick, his mother Maya Srinivasan said.

Originally, he was drawn to magic because it was a puzzle.

“What keeps me going with it is when I feel I can give others wonder or complete astonishment,” he said.

He started performing magic at events when he was 12 years old and his neighbors hired him to do a show for their 4-year-old’s birthday party, Maya Srinivasan said.

It took years of work to master the art.

“There are tricks that are three minutes long that take years and years of practice to perfect,” Raahul Srinivasan said.

His father, Ram Srinivasan, said he recalls hearing his son dropping coins throughout the night when Raahul Srinivasan was younger.

Raahul Srinivasan would tell his father that he had been studying late, but Ram Srinivasan said he knew his son was practicing magic tricks in his room.

Ram Srinivasan said his son works at his passions until he has reached a level of perfection that he is happy with.

Jason Scott, a UCLA alumnus and one of Raahul Srinivasan’s close friends, said his first memory of Srinivasan was outside of Dykstra Hall on move-in day of Raahul’s first year.

The fire alarm had just gone off and students gathered outside the residence halls. They barely knew each other.

Srinivasan, armed with his deck of cards, seized the opportunity to bring some joy to the situation and started doing magic tricks for a group of 10 to 20 strangers.

“He was definitely good at drawing a crowd and entertaining people and making friends,” Scott said.

Small intimate shows, like his impromptu card tricks outside Dykstra Hall, are Srinivasan’s favorite way to perform.

When he sees a magician perform a trick on a big stage, Srinivasan said he sometimes thinks that there must be a special box or trap door.

In a small group setting, however, people can see every move he makes.

Although he’s happy with doing magic on the side for now, Srinivasan said he can see himself becoming a full-time magician later in life – perhaps when he retires from engineering and business.

Massimo Chimienti, a friend and classmate in the graduate program, said he was astonished by Srinivasan’s skills after one trick.

The two were at a restaurant near Venice Beach eating lunch when Srinivasan – never without his cards – pulled out his deck and began a trick.

When Srinivasan told Chimienti he could not find his card, Chimienti began to doubt his friend’s talent.

Srinivasan then called a waiter over, asked for a lime and cut it in two. From the center of the lime, he pulled out Chimienti’s wet crumpled card – much to his friend’s disbelief.

“Being able to give someone an experience or a story they will tell years from now is a wonderful feeling,” Srinivasan said.