Max Hapner, who was a magician from the time he was a pre-teenager, died May 10 in Colorado Springs. He was 80.
Hapner gave his first magic performance when he was 12, enthralled with magic after seeing a magician perform.
Hapner exhibited “a certain grandness” in some of his illusion performances, said a longtime friend, John Bryan of Colorado Springs.
“He was tall, slender, had a uniquely drawn face and a voice that commanded attention,” Bryan said.
He recalled Hapner, who always worked with his wife, Salli, doing an illusion in which a huge clear, empty bubble was on the stage. After some buildup, Hapner fired a pistol and opened an unseen door on the back and out came his wife. “It was pretty impressive,” Bryan said.
Hapner also performed the illusion of his wife being suspended in midair above the stage.
Hapner invented many of his tricks, and others he learned the same way other magicians do: from books, magazines, lectures, mentors and other magicians, said a friend, Frank Klein.
“He had a tremendous passion for the knowledge and history of magic,” Bryan said.
“He was good because he was thorough and detailed,” said Lindsay Smith, who wrote about Hapner.
The Hapners performed about 1,000 times a year, often 12 shows a day, Salli Hapner said. Their long-running engagements were at Santa’s Workshop outside Colorado Springs, and Buckskin Joe’s at the Royal Gorge. But the Hapners did hundreds of appearances at high school assemblies, fundraisers and civic clubs in several states.
Some shows, such as the “Magicadabra,” which was 90 minutes long, and 12-minute shows, including “Bubbles, Bangles and Beads,” became audience favorites.
Hapner loved being a magician, his wife said, and before a show started at a school, he would go on stage, kneel down and chat with the children.
“He always related to and enjoyed the audience,” she said.
Max Hapner was born in Caldwell, Kan., on Aug. 4, 1930. He worked his way through Friends University in Wichita with magic shows. He married Salli Hayes on June 8, 1957. The Hapners “traveled 48 states and in England and Canada,” Smith said.
At Hapner’s funeral, magician friends performed the “broken wand ceremony,” during which the foot-long wand Hapner used was broken and given to the family.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
