Belgian magician’s paper dance casts a spell

A crumpled ball of paper that takes on a life of its own and leads the apparently perplexed magician on a playful dance, it's a simple but poetic and engaging scene.

Belgian magician Laurent Piron's twirling "Paper Ball" is not a spectacular showstopper, but last month it won the former street performer the title "World Magic Champion."

Now this champion has returned from the Quebec contest to his home outside Liege in eastern Belgium, ready to pull a list of global bookings out of his sleeve.

The World Championship of Magic is held once every three years, but Piron had already spent several years refining Paper Ball to recapture the story-telling skills of an earlier era.

"Many older magicians came up to me after my act to say that they had been taken back into their childhood and had forgotten the techniques," Piron told AFP.

"That's what we wanted to do with this paper ball. We don't care about the trickery, the goal is to create magical emotion."

It's a different approach to that of a magical showman like David Copperfield, the American best known for appearing to walk through the Great Wall of China and making the Statue of Liberty vanish.

But the legendary magician was also touched by Piron's smaller-scale illusion, and when the Belgian got home there was a voicemail from Copperfield congratulating him.

"He loved it. Even though he does big shows, he is a true lover of magic. He's still the undisputed master, he knows all the tricks," the 35-year-old said.

"But we mystified him with this act."

The son of a sound engineer, Piron grew up as a do-it-yourself hobbyist and started doing magic tricks at 18, learning basic techniques with a friend.

At 22, he left for Vancouver, Canada, and...