MIST brought magic to the masses Monday evening.

UCLA’s Magic and Illusion Student Team presented their Spring Showcase in Ackerman Grand Ballroom on Monday evening, filling nearly every seat at the group’s biggest on-campus event yet. Ten student magicians and illusionists performed tricks, “effects,” as they are known among professionals, over a nearly two-hour setlist – with some taking the stage for the very first time. Nathaniel Grandinetti – co-president of MIST and a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student – said he prides the club for being open to members of all skill levels and performance experience.

“I love to see how they (the new performers) choose to handle it (performing),” Grandinetti said. “I don’t expect it (their effects) to be perfect or clean, but I expect them to have fun with it.”

Grandinetti, who started practicing magic at age nine, performed three effects in the showcase. In one of these effects, Grandinetti accurately predicted the name and several articles of clothing worn by a randomly selected volunteer before she ever stepped onstage. Nearly every act in MIST’s showcase included some kind of audience participation, all eagerly embraced by a rambunctious audience, helping to demonstrate everything from a donut seemingly detaching itself from a string to a mock game of staple gun Russian roulette.

Grandinetti then summoned Jolene Tang, a first-year theater student, onstage for one of his tricks, having her shuffle a stack of letters printed on paper cards to reveal the word “miracle.” Tang said she found out about MIST’s showcase through a table flyer in De Neve dining hall.

“(When I was called onstage) I was thinking, ‘Oh, so this isn’t a plant,’” Tang said. “They’re actually the real deal.”

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Sean He, a third-year mathematics student, performed a twist on the typical magician’s card trick by trading in his deck of cards for a stack of cheese slices. His set drew loud laughter from the audience, leaning into the absurdity of making magic out of something as ordinary as processed cheese.

He said he joined MIST this past fall after seeing them perform at the Enormous Activities Fair.

“They were doing this trick, and they completely got me,” He said. “I was like, ‘I have no idea how you do this. I have to come to this club.’”

Multiple performers at the showcase joined MIST this academic year and have learned their tricks in weekly meetings, where members practice sleight of hand, workshop effects and learn from one another in a low-pressure environment, He said.

Each of MIST’s effects came accompanied with a story or series of jokes. Yudi Liu, a first-year cognitive science student, made her MIST showcase debut with a sleight-of-hand effect where she created the illusion of a Daily Bruin page regenerating after tearing it to pieces. On stage, Liu lamented in a monologue about finding a full-page ad for Google Gemini in the Bruin, but the page kept stitching itself back together somehow in her attempts to shred it. Liu said she found her community quickly at MIST, in her second quarter at UCLA.

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“A part of being in a community rather than learning alone is that there are people to talk to,” Liu said. “You can have your own thing, your own inner tricks, (and) everyone can help each other out when they’re doing stuff, and pulling off quarter shows is definitely really fun. It makes me feel like I belong here.”

As the show wound to a close and MIST took their bows, several members of the audience waited to greet their friends. Marielle Mabaet, a fourth year physiological sciences and psychobiology student, said she came to the showcase to see one of her best friends perform.

“Seeing it (Aaron Chang’s set) performed made me so proud of him, and it made me really happy to see the crowd happy as well,” Mabaet said. “I’m just really happy to see everything come to fruition for the club.”

MIST has seen a large increase in membership this past year, Grandinetti said. Grandinetti added that the goal of MIST has always been to “bring magic to the masses.” Whether performing for a live audience, inviting spectators to participate in the magic or teaching the skills behind the tricks themselves, MIST is about making magic accessible to everyone, Grandinetti said.

“I always say with magic, you can never lose,” Grandinetti said. “If you figure out how it’s done, you feel good because you figured it out, and if you get fooled, you feel good. If you get fooled, that’s the fun of magic. It’s a win-win situation.”