CROMWELL - The magician hands me a Joker to examine.

       “Just check it out. Make sure there’s nothing special about it.”

       I do. He places it at the bottom of the deck, and shows it to me.

       “Just imagine you’re looking through this card, to anyone of these 52 cards,” he instructs me. “Do you know which one you want?”

       I tell him the four of clubs.

       He tells me to hold out my hand, so he can place the deck �" bottom down �" in the palm.

       “Imagine it changing into the four of clubs.”

       The moment of truth arrives, and he reveals the bottom card.

       Four of clubs, and this skeptic’s jaw is on the floor.

       The magician is Blaise Serra, a 22-year-old Cromwell native doing extra duty on a local film production for produce David Gere, who brought him out for for a series of scenes shot at Holy Apostles Chapel.

       But let’s be honest; Gere knew Serra would probably get roped into doing some magic between takes, and that was the point.

       And while the deck of stars is stacked with the likes of Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon, Serra is an on-set draw in his own right.

       Watching this unfold is Eric Weinstock, a screenwriter with a few movies under his belt. He says he wants to ditch the laptop and go to magic school �" almost.

       But Serra offers lessons.

       “I can talk about magic all day �" I just love everything about it, whether it’s the creative aspect or the performance,” Serra tells me. “So, when I’m not performing, I’m creating.”

       They say a magician never reveals the secret behind their tricks, but Serra is making a name for himself doing just that.

       Viewers flock to his YouTube channel to watch him perform the one he showed me, and so many more.

       His blaiseserra.com website features his tricks, in smooth, cinematic live action clips.

       He did an October 14 show at Mohegan Sun.

       It was his first time on the big stage in over a year - the pandemic sidelined his west coast tour last spring, bringing him back home to Connecticut, but Serra never stopped working.

       “I craft performances for people based on their personality. What powers or abilities do they have?”

       He finds there’s liberation within limits.

       “If a character is Superman, that’s not very compelling,” Serra says. “But if you have limited abilities, you can have them working within that to overcome the obstacle.”

       Serra seems to apply that to his own act.

       Outside church, a small crowd has gathered to watch him wow fellow extras, and even Cromwell Mayoral candidate Allan Spotts.

       “I’m looking right at it, and I can’t figure out how he does it,” exclaims one test subject.

       Being a guitarist helps Serra’s dexterity.

       Acting helps with the persona �" Serra was performing in a CHS musical his sophomore year when Gere was filming “Blue Line” at the school.

       So Serra let himself into the room where the actors and extras were hanging out, and dazzled Saving Private Ryan’s Tom Sizemore with some sleight of hand.

       “I just said, ‘wanna see a magic trick?’,” Serra recalls.

       Gere and him have been close ever since.

       “I’ve been performing my whole life,” Serra says. “I’m more comfortable on stage than anywhere else. In life, there are no rehearsed entrances.”

       It shows - while his lines about the Joker are familiar to those that have seen this trick, they never sound robotic or rehearsed.

       His delivery is soft-spoken, but personable. His presence humble but commanding �" exuding charisma without trying.

       But Serra is trying, and he is training. And if magic is a movie, it’s one with several alternate endings.

       “They’re called ‘outs’,” Serra tells the group. “Let’s say someone just randomly shuffles the deck when I just told them to hold it. I have to plan for that.”

       But he couldn’t plan for the pandemic, which suspended a 3-year run doing shows in Los Angeles �" he heads back there in February.

       Till then, he’ll be polishing his act to perfection. Because in the end, no matter what happens, the trick better work.

       “If you fail at magic, the whole mystique is lost.”