Blowing your mind comes easy for David Magee. But that doesn’t mean the Vegas-style entertainer, who calls Argyle home, isn’t willing to work really hard at it. Magee put on an impromptu show in the offices of The News Connection Tuesday as he made the rounds promoting a series of live performances that opens in Grapevine’s Palace Theater later this month. Anyone watching Magee perform will be moved to ask: “How did he do that?” The News Connection staff has been saying that all week.   

     Earlier that day, Magee had donned a thick blindfold and a black hood and driven around Grapevine in a new Toyota convertible with Good Morning Texas camera crews and former Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma Sooner Tony Casillas in the back seat.  All were nervous and uncomfortable, except, apparently Magee. “Tony was totally freaked out,” said Magee. As he had with his passengers, Magee allowed me to try out the blindfold.  All I could see was a little light where my nose held the blindfold away from my face. Then I put on the hood over the blindfold.  Now all was black in every direction. How can you drive like that? Magee discussed how the other senses can compensate, how you can hear the other vehicles around you accelerate, brake and slow down. Personally, I wouldn’t try it. Though it was captured on camera and involved a local celebrity, Tuesday’s stunt was not Magee’s most famous blindfolded drive.  He once drove billionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban six miles from Garland to Dallas. That time, though, he had a police escort. Tuesday morning in Grapevine, the only other vehicles were a car beside and truck behind to catch the action on video. Magee said it wasn’t a perfect drive; he hit a curb, but from the sound of it, he did better than some of the cell-phone distracted drivers I see on the streets of Flower Mound every day.

     This Monday, September 14, at 9 a.m., Magee will be live on Good Morning Texas, WFAA Channel 8. Though Magee has successfully taken his act on national television and the Vegas strip, his show is 100 percent wholesome.  Nothing like black magic or profanity appears.  In fact, Magee expects his pastor, Richard Wallace of Temple Baptist Church, to be in the audience and he has himself been asked to bring a portion of his act into church services. “I’m not a magician.  I’m not an illusionist. I’m not a hypnotist,” Magee explained. “I’m a mentalist.  What I do is take all five senses, (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell) and create the illusion of a sixth sense.”

     Magee has worked hard to impress local audiences, working events for the Lewisville Chamber of Commerce and doing meetings and events with numerous local athletes and celebrities. His personal website features a video endorsement from Hall of Fame Quarterback Terry Bradshaw and features pictures of Magee with Jay Leno, Dolly Parton and numerous other athletes and entertainers.  He was featured in an article in the Dallas Observer in which Richie Whitt described how Magee amazed and enthralled celebrities, including Dallas Cowboys players Roy Williams and Flozell Adams and Whitt himself. Working with a Vegas producer, Magee has come up with 70-75 minute show complete with music at the Grapevine Palace Arts Theater, premiering on Sept 24, with additional performances on Oct. 1, 8 and 16. The first three performances are on Thursday night, the final on Friday. Tickets will cost about one-third of the $80-90 one would expect to pay to see a similar performance in Las Vegas, he said. Performances start at 7:30 p.m. so families can attend and still be home by 9 p.m. or a little after. If you go, be ready to be part of the show, Magee may get 40-45 of the patrons in the place to come up on stage and be personally amazed.