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They would appear to have little in common.

At 81, Minerva Park resident George Stewart is more than twice as old as Carroll Baker, 36, of the Hilliard area, who is nearly double the age of 19-year-old Katie Brizius, an Ohio State University student from Gahanna.

But one thing binds all three: They can do magic.

Tricks are their trade.

Together, Katie Brizius, Carroll Baker and George Stewart represent the morning, afternoon and evening of people who fool people for the best of reasons.

Combined, the three have been performing for nearly a century: nothing up their sleeves, the hand is quicker than the eye, now you see it and now you don't.

Baker and Stewart were drawn to magic after watching famous magicians perform.

Brizius practically inherited magic as part of her genetic makeup. Her father, David A. Brizius, is a magician. His father, David B. Brizius, is also a magician. And David B. picked up magic from his father, Katie's great-grandfather, who bought magic tricks in the arcade of the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago on buying trips for his furniture store in the small Highland County town of Greenfield.

George Stewart has been a magician for 51 years.

"That's a long time," he mused.

It's long enough, in fact, that the International Brotherhood of Magicians has bestowed upon him the exalted status of "Merlin Excalibur," conferred only on those who have performed for more than half a century.

Stewart, who performs as "The Amazing Nebo," has his sights set on achieving the even loftier title of "Merlin Excelsior," granted only to those with careers spanning six decades or more.

Children's birthday parties, grand openings for grocery and hardware stores, restaurants, conventions, The Amazing Nebo has done them all over the years.

"I love it all the way," Stewart said. "I really do. If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it at my age."

And he's still got it: As recently as 2001, Stewart was named "close-up magician of the year" by the local International Brotherhood of Magicians chapter.

"I can take coins and a deck of cards and a piece of rope and mystify you," he boasted.

Stewart was himself mystified by the magicians he saw perform when he was growing up in his hometown of Greeley, Colo.

"All the big shows went through Greeley for one-night stands," Stewart said. "That's when the bug bit."

For a time, he was the assistant to a minister who had a magic act. So many people tried to prevail upon the minister to perform free of charge that eventually he sold his equipment to his assistant.

Stewart and his wife Jo have been married for 55 years. They came to the Columbus area 40 years ago to pursue a job opportunity for him, liked the area and decided to stay. Aside from the magic, he has made a living as a professional photographer and then spent 32 years in real estate.

He's retired now, which enables him to accept bookings his fellow magicians with day jobs are forced to turn down, including kiddie parties.

"Some magicians don't do them, but I do," Stewart said. "I love kids."

And whether it's a sugar-frenzied bunch of 5-year-olds, shoppers awaiting a store's opening or colleagues in the trade, he's always in a tuxedo when he performs.

"If you're going to do it, do it right," he said.

While Stewart believes some people have a natural aptitude for performing tricks, the secret to mastering magic is the same as the directions for a musician to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice.

"It's a learned skill," Stewart said.

He has had the good fortune over the years to acquire at least some of his learning through contact with famous magicians.

"I have met some of the greats of the past," he said.

Among them were Harry Blackstone Sr. (1885-1965), Mandrake the Magician (1911-1993) and Morgan County native MacDonald Birch (1902-1992).

"There's probably many others," Stewart said.

He also was privileged to see a performance by Columbus-born Howard Thurston (1869-1936), who "was the most famous magician in the U.S. for over three decades," according to the 1988 book, "The Encyclopedia of Magic and Magicians" by T.A. Waters.

In addition, Stewart was friends with U.F. "Gen" Grant (1901-1978) who started a magic shop and magic manufacturing business on the Hilltop. It's now solely an equipment manufacturing operation being run by Grant's granddaughter.

"He and I were real close," Stewart recalled. "In fact, if he got something into his shop that was really unusual, he would call me and many times, he would present it to me as a gift."

Magic has meant so much to George Stewart that he has tried to give back to the profession, offering guidance to youngsters who have at least purchased equipment for an act and serving several terms as head of the local chapter of an international organization.

"George is a good friend of mine," said Joseph E. Elliott of Reynoldsburg, the historian for the Wheeler McGory Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in Columbus.

"I've known him for quite a number of years. At one time, the mayor of Columbus called him 'The Ambassador of Magic' for this area. He's been very active in magic in this area with the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He was territorial vice president for a number of years.

"He had a really active role."

Stewart still has an active role. After all, he's got that "Merlin Excelsior" to shoot for.

When Carroll Baker was 6 years old, he won a prize at Vacation Bible School: lunch with famed magician Harry Blackstone Jr. (1934-1997), the son of another noted stage magician, Harry Blackstone Sr.

That lunch 30 years ago led to young Carroll getting to carry the magician's equipment on a visit to Children's Hospital.

The little boy was transformed into a budding magician.

"That's what sparked my interest," Baker said. "I saw the look on those kids' faces, some of them older than I was. He was making them so happy. They were forgetting their problems.

"Even at 6 years old, I knew that was something special."

Today, Carroll Baker bills himself as "the hardest-working magician in the central Ohio area," and can be seen performing weekly at several Max and Erma's restaurants.

"Short-attention-span magic, I call it," Baker said of restaurant work, which requires a magician to quickly capture the attention of people at their tables in the midst of all sorts of distractions.

This subgenre of the profession involves what is termed "close-up magic," and Baker has won several awards for this type of performance. He generally does it wearing short-sleeved shirts.

"I try to make the magic happen in their hands as much as possible," he said.

Although the Max and Erma's gigs keep Baker busy, he considers himself more of a "general practitioner."

"A little bit of everything. Every day I get a chance to perform is a good day for me."

Unlike many magicians, Baker did not learn his craft from a mentor. When young people ask him for his secret as a magician, he instead offers them a secret number: 793.8. That's the Dewey Decimal System designation for books on magic.

"Ninety percent of what I've learned has come from books," Baker said.

That and practice, lots of it.

"I've learned what people liked, what made them happy, what fooled them the most," he said.

The West Side resident has also learned to rely on the instincts of his wife, Andrea Jane.

"My wife has been a big supporter of my magic," Baker said. "She'll give me a critique on my tricks. If they don't fool her, I don't generally try them on audiences."

Carroll and Andrea Baker have an 8-year-old daughter and another daughter is due in December.

Along with his performing schedule, Carroll Baker has, for the past several years, been teaching after-school magic programs in the Worthington, Upper Arlington and Columbus school districts. Working with children, he said, is very satisfying.

"That is probably the highlight of what I do."

Katie Brizius is something of a novelty in the world of magicians: a woman.

But being a magician is hardly a novelty in her family.

She comes from a long line of prestidigitators and admits to feeling some slight pressure to carry on the family tradition.

"There is a little pressure, but it's something I'm inclined to do," Katie Brizius said. "It's something I want to do. I know my grandfather and my father wish I did a little more of it, but being in college, I don't have the time to practice it like I used to do."

Brizius, who is kept quite busy these days as a member of the percussion section of the Ohio State University Marching Band, feels she will focus more attention on her magic after she graduates.

"She'll do magic forever, no matter what she ends up doing (for a living)," predicted her father, David A. Brizius, a Mifflin Township Fire Department fire safety investigator who incorporates magic into appearances at school assemblies.

"When Katie started out, I was just so pleased about that," said her grandfather, David B. "Boonie" Brizius of Bainbridge in Ross County.

"In all reality, Katie is the best magician in the family," said her proud grandmother, Janice Brizius. "She's just so blessed in so many ways with so many talents, it's incredible."

It was David B.'s father who got the family tradition started by picking up tricks at a magic shop in Chicago during annual buying trips for his furniture store in Greenfield.

"Every year, he would buy a magic trick to come home and show around," David B. Brizius.

Problem: Greenfield's population back then was only 4,000 or so people.

"In about two weeks, everybody had seen the trick."

His father would tuck it away in a drawer. One day, young David discovered all the old tricks.

"I was able to do them quite well," he recalled.

During World War II, David B.'s father saved ration stamps to buy gasoline for trips to theaters in Columbus to see the likes of Harry Blackstone Sr., further fueling his son's ambitions. When David B. Brizius was in the seventh grade, a local magician sold him all of his tricks for $75, and the youth soon created his own magic show.

"I thought it was great," he said. "It probably was terrible, but the kids loved it."

Brizius began attending Magi-Fest, the major gathering of magicians held each year in Columbus since 1931. He eventually became partners, in about 1955, with a man named Tom Patterson who ran the "Seven Tons of Magic Scenery and Equipment" show in Columbus.

The advent of television put an end to that show, so David B. Brizius went to work in sales for a paper company in Columbus. He is retired from that line and now runs his own outdoor theater in Bainbridge. The Magic Waters Theater has four shows during its summer season, and he performs an hour of magic before each one.

"He's a wonderful magician," wife Janice said. "He loves it. He does not consider himself an especially talented magician, but he is."

Janice Brizius tells the story of how son David A. began his career. It was 1958 and her husband was performing at a big show in Columbus to benefit cerebral palsy. In the audience with her was their 18-month-old son, and she was very determined the boy was going to sit still and behave during his father's appearance.

Hardly.

"When his daddy got up on stage, there was no stopping him," Janice Brizius said. "He hopped off my lap and before I could grab him, he was up on the stage."

The little boy was quickly incorporated into the act.

"The audience just roared," his mother recalled. "Well, he was hooked."

"It's not difficult to have three generations of magicians," David B. Brizius said, "but to have three generations of performing magicians is a little unusual."

Katie Brizius is the youngest of David A. Brizius' three daughters. When she was 5 years old, he took her to Magi-Fest.

"She goes, 'I want to do this,' " David A. recalled "I said, 'Sure.'"

He figured it was a momentary whim, but when the brochure arrived in the mail a year later, she reminded him of her desire to follow in his footsteps.

"I said, 'OK, but it's a commitment.'"

David A. Brizius taught his daughter some tricks and she entered the competition for youngsters at Magi-Fest. She won second place her first time performing.

"She just wowed people," the proud papa remembered.

The early success spurred young Katie to stick with it.

"I think that really, really helped, knowing that I can do it and having other people, especially other magicians, professional magicians, compliment me on my presence with people and how well I did sleight of hand," Katie Brizius said.

Friends at OSU get a kick out of her tricks.

"They love it," Katie Brizius said. "They think it's neat, for one, me being a female and being able to do magic is amazing to them. They always ask me, 'Show me a trick,' or, 'Show me how to do this.' Well, I won't show them, but I will wow them every now and then."

Practice, the young woman added, is vital to keeping up one's skills as a magician. However, unlike many magicians who must get a trick or routine perfect in rehearsal before they incorporate it into their performances, she does her best with an audience.

"When I get up on that show in front of people, I just hit it," Katie Brizius said. "I don't know where it comes from."

Sure she does: from her father before her, and his father before him, and his father before him.

<center>kparks@thisweeknews.com

Central Ohio has a rich and storied tradition of magic and magicians, from the greats of the past century or so who performed in Columbus to magic shops and even magic supply manufacturing operations, from magicians long in the tooth with the dried dust of dove poop lingering in hidden pockets of worn tuxedos to fresh-faced young men and women just beginning, at least figuratively and maybe literally, to pull rabbits out of their hats.

"There's a lot of magic that's come out of Columbus," said Joseph E. Elliott, historian for the local "ring" of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

"A lot of magicians started out in this area," he added. "I don't know why that is."

The IBM, which is organized in "rings" after the linking rings trick, has about 6,000 members worldwide, according to current territorial vice president Ronald Frank of Galloway. There is also a national organization, the American Society of Magicians, to which many local performers belong.

"This is a pretty good area for magic," Frank said. "I think the proof of the pudding is how many magicians are in the phone book."

If, as IBM historian Joe Elliott maintains, much magic has come out of Columbus, lots and lots of magic flows into the city each February.

Magi-Fest, one of the largest magic conventions in the United States, will turn 75 when the event is held Feb. 2, 3 and 4 at the Columbus Marriott North.

"It's probably one of the largest," according to Ronald Frank. "I wouldn't say THE largest ... but it stacks up as, I would say, probably the third-largest."

While most of the events at the convention are geared for professionals, Frank pointed out that a show held at Veterans Memorial on Feb. 3 will be open to the public.

And the public, according to a sampling of area magicians, is once again warming to the idea of having fun by being fooled.

"It'll never die," said George Stewart of Minerva Park. At 81 and with more than a half century of performing behind him, he is certainly one of the deans of local magicians. "People love to be fooled. Most people love magic, from 9 to 90."

"It's very popular at this time," Elliott said. "It's gone through stages all down through the years where it would be very popular, and then the popularity would fall off and it would come back."

"I think magic now is on the uptick," Frank said. "I think probably it's because of the new magicians, like David Blaine and Cris Angel. Today, as far as the younger people, the MTV crowd, they like things that are short and quick, and a little bit out there."

"There's always going to be an interest," offered magician Carroll Baker of the West Side.

Many magicians have stories to relate about what got them started.

IBM territorial vice president Frank tells the following:

"I told my mom when I was a kid when I grew up I wanted to be a magician. She said, 'Nothing doing. It's one or the other.'"