Hocus-Pocus At

The Senior Center

Card tricks, rope tricks, scarf tricks — Miro the Magician (alias Miro Cervinek of Newtown) knows them all and was at the Newtown Senior Center Wednesday, October 26, at 1 pm, to perform his feats of wonder at the annual Halloween party.

Garbed in costume, the audience scrutinized Miro’s tricks to see if they could figure out his secrets. “How did you do that?” was the surprised cry to each trick he performed, though.

Try as they might, no one could discern Miro’s sleight of hand as he turned a rose from yellow to red to white and back to red again. Money problems? Miro made them disappear with his clever coin tricks.

Cutting the deck took on new meaning when Miro sawed a giant deck (“I have jumbo cards so everyone can see it”) into two parts and proceeded to wow the audience with more feats of illusion. But the piece de resistance was when Miro sawed through volunteer Chieko Brolet — successfully, to her relief.

Senior center members came dressed as pumpkins, jesters, witches, wizards, clowns, and even the Statue of Liberty. Martha Brennan, assistant to the director of the center, stood out in her prison attire and center director Marilyn Place certainly scared a few of her associates with the red-haired witch costume she hid behind. All of the center members know that Lois Pratt is a doll, so they weren’t surprised to see her appear as Raggedy Anne.

For the minimalists, Mexican sombreros, derbies decorated with pumpkins, and pointy witch hats were the costumes du jour.  Shaggy, scraggly, multicolored wigs were also popular for topping off a costume. 

The afternoon finished up with harvest snacks of apples and cider, cinnamon doughnuts, and that Halloween favorite, candy corn.