Kirkland magician uses dancing monk to garner laughs, lose weight

Ruben Barron placed a red foam ball into a woman’s outreached hand. He directed her to squeeze it, and seconds later two balls lay where the single one once stood.

Barron can not only duplicate items in quantity but the comedic magician has a knack for turning a $1 bill into $100 – or so it seems.

“I’ve never been one where the act and the routine is so rigid that there’s no room to play with it,” said Barron, a Kirkland resident. “…Sometimes when I’m setting up, I’ll eavesdrop on people’s conversations.”

Barron said the trick to summoning laughs during his comedy show Bold Bazooka is connected to a proper interpretation of body language.

The 11-year Kirklander has performed all over the Northwest with a tour in Canada and a special show in Las Vegas, Nev. Barron was voted Seattle Weekly’s “Best Local Celebrity”  in August 2005 and he’s featured in a children’s book about two dogs at Pike Place Market, “Salt and Pepper at the Pike Place Market” by Carol A. Losi. The local celebrity has performed at the Laughs Comedy Stage at Hemp Fest, the 2001 Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa, Fla. and Alki’s Snow train to Leavenworth for 10 years – to name a few.

But behind the layers of jokes and tricks, Barron’s most recent act deemed “Pseudoscience Theater,” which teaches levitation, “metal bending” and “psychic surgery,” proclaims a deep and meaningful message: With positive energy comes positive outcomes.

“At first it was going to be a silly show, a mentalism show, but then it just turned into this ‘oh wow, I actually have a message here,’” Barron said. “Whatever makes you laugh, good. Whatever makes you feel right or feel good, good! If you can tap that energy, then you can start accomplishing whatever it is you want to do.”

Barron says his 70 pound weight loss is the prime example that this mentality works.

“I haven’t changed what I eat, what I drink, I’ve changed my relationship with food and once you get that, your head starts to clear up,” he says. “Once your head starts to clear up, you can start finding what other talents you need to tap into.”

That includes talents such as Barron’s tai chi-like moves with a thing called the “dancing monk,” an 8-ball attached to a cord covered in rubberized paint that he created. The dance is incorporated into his act and has also been a factor in his weight loss.

By pairing the positive message with magic tricks, such as levitation, it allows him to give the audience an example of how positive energy works. And many don’t believe it ‘til they see it.

“I’ve had a couple of people just freak out. They’re like ‘wait a minute, what kind of mystic power are you using?’” he says. “But I say ‘no, no it’s not mystic power, it’s positive power.’ Then I tell them ‘that’s the same thing I use to get my diet in order, that’s the same thing I use to get my relationship in order, same thing I use to get my act, my head, the weight loss – everything – you just focus on the positive and everything else just falls into place.”

Although Barron acknowledges it is sometimes hard for people to accept that weight loss can come from positive thoughts and levitation can be a cultivated skill, he insists it’s “just believing you can do things.”

Barron said his career took off professionally about 15 years ago in Seattle and Kirkland.

“I’ve never been in a place such as the Northwest and Seattle – especially Kirkland – they embrace the arts here,” said Barron.

Barron also teaches magic at Coyote Central in Seattle and he’s taught classes at the Boys and Girls Club, however, he said he would love to do more performances around his Kirkland home.

To book Barron the entertainer, contact him at BarronComedy@yahoo.com, call 425-821-2712 or visit his Facebook page at facebook.com/RubenBarronComedy.