Now You See Him…
Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo
Kelvin Chun remembers the first time he ever experienced something magical. He was 11 years old and was shown the classic sponge ball trick at Jimmy Yoshida’s Magic & Novelty Center on Alakea Street. There, he witnessed a ball in hand suddenly vanish — then inexplicably reappear not as one, but as three sponge balls.
And just like that, Chun was hooked on magic.
In the years that followed, the young sleight-of-hand hopeful would visit Magic & Novelty Center and Zuke’s Magic & Jokes by James Zukemura on Auld Lane to practice his developing craft.
“Other ways I’d learn magic was through books from the library,” Chun says. “They had a section, 793.8, and that’s the Dewey Decimal (System) for magic.”
After joining the Society of American Magicians and International Brotherhood of Magicians in the 1990s, Chun began to test his burgeoning skills against other magicians at national competitions, including the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians in 2000 and, three years later, the Texas Association of Magicians Convention, which he won.
“You have to be original and creative when you enter a contest,” Chun says. “It’s not something you can just buy from the magic shop.”
Best known for a spellbinding skill set that involves ropes, cards, coins, silk and birds, Chun (and several other magicians) will be performing these types of tricks and more at the 11th annual Hawai‘i Magic Festival on Dec. 27. (See story on page 13.)
“The magical journey has been to share the joys of magic to all — young to elderly, birthday parties to festivals, classroom students to educators, rural villages in remote areas to magic competitions at international conventions, numerous care homes to charities, countries around the world, and learning small close up magic to a big auditorium stage,” he says.
Beyond his accomplishments as a magician, though, Chun says his greatest honor is “making people happy.”
“When I went to Nepal, I went to the Everest base camp, I did magic, and they’ve never seen magic before,” Chun recalls. “I showed this old lady magic, you could see the smile on her face when I showed her magic. All the Nepalese kids, I’m going on the trail up the mountain and I’m showing them magic, they get so surprised and everything.
“You can show magic any place.”
One of those places used to be in Chun’s classroom, where the now-retired teacher once emphasized magic in his science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, lessons.
“There’s this guy Franz Harary … he (did) big illusions for Michael Jackson,” Chun explains. “You need to be like an engineer to design these illusions, to make the body disappear or get cut in half. It’s just an illusion, but it’s still incorporating STEM concepts.”
Among the STEM activities he’d incorporate into his curriculum was a “magic milk” experiment, inflating a balloon without air and turning an egg into a bouncy ball.
Chun actually obtained his bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Hawai‘i, but decided to take a different path and become an educator. He says he wanted to make “a real contribution to society.”
“Teachers inspired me to become a teacher,” Chun shares. “My mission in preparing for success was to stimulate learning by teaching core values, general learner objectives, curriculum, and integrating mathematics, technology, hobbies such as magic, balloon artistry … and traveling.”
He started as a student math teacher at McKinley High School, and later moved on to his alma mater, Moanalua High School, then began teaching math and computer science at a number of other schools. When he retired in 2014, he was a technology resource teacher and librarian/media specialist at Nu‘uanu Elementary School.
“You have teachers who just teach 30-40 years at the same school,” says Chun. “I wanted the different demographics of Hawai‘i.”
In 1999, he received the Honolulu District Teacher of the Year and was a Disney’s American Teacher Award honoree as an elementary specialist in technology. The following year, Chun joined other top educators in USA Today’s All-USA Teacher Team. Chun says he took pride in teaching lifelong learning and problem-solving skills, and enjoyed watching the successful achievements of his students and fellow educators.
“I still keep in touch with (my students) on Facebook and see them doing so well,” he says. “Just seeing your students well makes me happy. It’s like doing this community service and helping people.”
Magic isn’t the only talent Chun has up his sleeve. While he was teaching, he’d often incorporate kite-making into his lessons.
“STEM curriculum for making kites can be built around designing, building and flying kites to teach concepts in science, technology, engineering and math, as well as art,” says Chun.
Chun taught his students about aerodynamics by testing different shapes and tail lengths, used math to create frame with proper proportions, and applied engineering principles by problem-solving to ensure their kite could withstand wind.
His fascination with kites started as a child growing up in ‘Aiea. He used to play with the 10-cent diamond kite Hi-Flier that he bought from Value Drug in ‘Aiea Shopping Center. In 1989, Chun received a grant from the Hawai‘i State Cultural Arts Foundation to study as an apprentice under master kite maker, Patricio Gongob, who was known for his Filipino sarangola kites. Drawing inspiration from Gongob’s creations, along with adapting designs of the Hawaiian lupe and Chinese winged kites, Chun created an innovative Hawaiian kite. His contemporary design, which featured modern materials like mylar and fiberglass, focused on lupe hīhīmanu or lupe hāhālua (manta ray-style kite). Chun won the award of excellence in 2024 and 2025 at the Weifang International Kite Festival, known as the “Olympics of Kite Festivals,” in Weifang, China.
On Nov. 9 at Kapolei Public Library, Chun will showcase his innovative Hawaiian kite, explaining the science, engineering, and arts and cultural traditions behind it, and his experience creating it.
When asked what his advice would be to those pursuing a passion or dream, Chun shares the philosophy of ikigai.
“It’s like finding a purpose in life. It’s like you have a reason for being a person and make life worthwhile. When you wake up in the morning, you want something to do. It’s something that makes you happy,” he says. “You gather your life goals. You gather what you enjoy. You gather all that information and then you think of the possible paths that you could go.”
And as for the explanation behind his magic tricks? Well, a good magician never reveals his secrets.
