Local Teen Magicians 'Make Believe' at the Laemmle

It was a group of socially awkward teen magicians that gave rise to producer Steven Klein's award-winning documentary, Make Believe: The Battle to Become The World’s Best Teen Magician. 

The film follows the journey of six teen magicians from the Magic Castle’s Junior Society in Hollywood as they compete for the title of The World’s Best Teen Magician, and is screening at West Hollywood's  this week. 

“All of a sudden these three quiet, awkward boys picked up a deck of cards and went behind the counter and became these showman," said director J. Clay Tweel of Klein's experience. He had stumbled upon a group of socially awkward teen magicians at Tannen’s Music Shop in New York. "Steven was very fascinated with the transformation."

Klein returned home with the idea to focus the documentary on the lives of teenage magicians.

“All we knew is we wanted to make a documentary in the world of teenage magicians and it wasn’t until we went to the [Magic] Castle and met these teens that are involved in their youth program that we started to get an idea of what the characters within this world are like,” Tweel said.

The Magic Castle opened up its private back rooms for filming. Several of the board members from the famed Hollywood institution, including former teen magician Neal Patrick Harris, were interview subjects for the project.

The film won in the best documentary category at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, as well as the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival. But the most rewarding part of Make Believe, Tweel said, was to film the teenagers learning a life lesson, which he feels fortunate to capture on film.

“Somebody that was shy learns all of a sudden to get a little more confidence or somebody that was trying to fit in finds a connection with somebody else and exchanges a friendship," he said. "We’ve caught some real kinds of life moments on screen and I think that was the most interesting thing to watch unfold.”

Make Believe, soon to be released on DVD, is screening at the  in West Hollywood on Wednesday and Thursday at 1 p.m., 3:10 p.m., 5:20 p.m.,  7:40 p.m. and  10:10 p.m. According to Klein, the run may be extended if ticket sales are steady.