THREE RIVERS AREA — The first time Blayk Puckett’s mother saw him juggling knives while riding a unicycle, he said, she grounded him for a week. But that didn’t stop the 16-year-old magician from working to perfect his craft.
“The trick to juggling is practice,” he said as he hopped on his unicycle and pedaled down his driveway while tossing colorful rings into the air and catching them.
Blayk said that a couple of years ago, he and a friend were bored, so they began watching YouTube videos on juggling. Blayk started using balls made from Play-Doh, and he practiced until he mastered the art of juggling.
His dad, Rick Puckett, recalled that the thump of a dropped club was a common sound in the house for a while.
“He’d be up late at night with the clubs, and they’d hit the floor,” Rick said. “He’s gotten really good at it, and I’m fairly sure he’ll do something with it.”
Now, Blayk can juggle five balls at once; he can also juggle clubs, flaming torches and knives. Those skills, along with his “close-up” magic tricks, prompted Rick to invest in his son’s magic career.
“He wanted some torches for Christmas, so I bought the torches, and his momma bought him a fire extinguisher,” Rick said.
When Blayk decided to learn to juggle knives, he said that juggling knives were too expensive.
“So, I just went to Walmart and got some real knives,” Blayk said. “I got three 10-inch serrated knives and put duct tape on the edges until I learned.”
Scooting over a small table covered in a black cloth, Blayk demonstrated a few magic tricks: one with cards, and another with a dollar bill. He said he likes to use common things that can be found around the house, such as a Styrofoam cup, a lime and a deck of cards.
Amazing the small audience that sat in his living room, Blayk made a dollar bill with a name scrawled across the front disappear. With the delivery of a seasoned performer, he cut open a fresh lime and revealed the same dollar bill embedded in the middle of the fruit meat.
“When he was young, he was very shy around people,” Rick said.
But Blayk’s shyness magically disappears when he performs.
“I can do stuff no one else can do,” he said with a smile.
Melisa Gardner, executive director of the Heber Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, enjoys having Blayk visit her home.
“Blayk is a friend of my boys’, and he is delightful to have at the house,” she said. “He constantly entertains with card tricks — not the tricks everyone can do, but really very good ones. And yes, there’s the whole juggling routine, but really, he’s just a great kid with a unique talent.”
Rick Gardner, Heber Springs Music in the Park coordinator, added, “One evening the boys had several of their friends over at the house. There were probably eight to 10 teenagers running around, and they decided to play tennis on our court in the backyard. There are no lights, so they pulled three or four vehicles into the yard and shined the headlights on the court. I was working on the computer, took a break and went into the kitchen. Flashing lights caught my eye, and I looked out the kitchen window in time to see Blayk juggling his torches beside the court. I turned and calmly went back into the computer room.”
In addition to performing for friends and family, Blayk has performed at parties and at Spring Park in Heber Springs.
“Blayk is a very talented, polite young man, and he takes his magic and his juggling very seriously. [He is] very business-like, very thorough,” Rick Gardner said. “I booked him for our Music in the Park concert series, and he asked specific questions about his part of the show, showed up early, did a quick rehearsal and nailed it when it was time to perform.”
With aspirations of becoming a math and science teacher, Blayk plans to teach during the school year and perform during the summer months.
To see videos of Blayk performing and to learn more, visit facebook.com/PuckettMagic and www.youtube.com/pebkaskeemo. To book him for a party, call (501) 270-0964.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 115 on 07/22/2012