I pulled a nail out of a man’s nasal cavity yesterday.

And not just one of those dinky ones used for hanging frames or making birdhouses. This thing was heavy duty, like magician Michael Mirth was out to cause some pain.

He also transformed regular paper into cash. I watched as he flipped through the shreds of magazine paper, and right when I got a glimpse of a two-dimensional J. Lo in all her bronzed beauty, she turned into a green George Washington.

The crowd was slightly impressed, but I could tell they were waiting for something a little better.

They got just that when Mirth pulled out his playing cards and, with four volunteers, handed each a card – mine being the 10 of spades. The participants memorized their cards so they could prove Mirth wrong when he uttered those expected words, “Is this your card?”

Mirth shuffled the cards back into the deck and handed them back out.

Turns out, no one had the right card. Boo to the magician, right?

Wrong. Mirth manipulated the cards so that each person’s card was held in the hand of the person to his or her right.

“Get outta here!” yelled Mike Szabo, sophomore marketing major, shocked at the outcome of the trick. “You’re a demon!”

— Morgan Day