It’s an ordinary Sunday afternoon, with an ordinary group of Baker students and an ordinary deck of cards.

From Walmart, to be exact.

Normally, when a person picks up a deck of cards, it’s to play a game. But when it’s placed in the hands of a man with the magic touch, like sophomore Alan Berg, ordinary gets thrown out the window.

Berg said his interest in magic began after his dad showed him a card trick when he was about 4 or 5 years old. But he didn’t seriously start studying and performing card tricks until he was about 13 or 14.

Berg said he enjoys performing coin and ring tricks the most. His favorite trick to do for people is called the “Revolver.” It involves changing the color of a deck of cards from blue to red.

While he has learned some tricks through magic kits, Berg said he gets a lot of his tricks from books, and an especially favorite book of his, “Card Tricks and Magic Tricks,” which dates all the way back to 1954.

“That’s where I get most of my stuff,” Berg said.

In addition to books and magic kits, Berg also trades tricks with other magicians.

“That’s how we all grow together,” he said.

Berg has taken the magician’s oath, which states he won’t reveal any tricks to people who are not magicians, and he cannot perform a trick until it is polished. Performing only polished tricks is very important in keeping audiences guessing as to how the tricks are done.

“People don’t go (to magic shows) to be amazed,” Berg said. “Now they go to see if they catch the trick.”

Berg started performing magic professionally around his 18th birthday. For a year and a half he performed at festivals, corporate events and birthday parties. However, for the past three years he hasn’t done any magic professionally.

But he did draw a crowd of Baker students Sunday afternoon to Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity for an impromptu magic show. He performed mostly card tricks for the students, getting both amazed and puzzled reactions from people asking the age-old question: how did he do that?

“He’s amazing,” freshman Drew Harbinson said. “He blew my mind.”

Freshman T.Y. Eison said Berg is great at performing magic.

“Hands down, the best magician I’ve ever seen,” Eison said.

Even though it has been three years since his last professional show, students could still see his professional stage presence in the performance of his tricks.

“He’s everything you could expect from a professional magician,” Harbinson said. “He’s the Houdini of his generation.”

While he has done magic professionally in the past, Berg said performing magic is more of a hobby, not a career choice.

“I don’t have any aspirations of making a living out of it,” Berg said. “It’s just something fun to do.”

Since coming to Baker two weeks ago, Berg said he hasn’t had many people ask him to perform magic, but every once in a while he gets requested to do a trick or two.

But now he may have to start carrying that ordinary deck of cards around with him all the time.