ANDERSON – Illusionist Bill Blagg III did it!

The illusionist managed Saturday to keep about $15,000 – $100 per audience member – when he correctly predicted the front page content of the Halloween edition of The Herald Bulletin weeks in advance.

“You can tell them, ‘Bill Blagg got it right and he got to keep the money,” Blagg told the executive director of the Paramount Theatre during Saturday’s magic and illusion show, “A Night of Magic.”

Blagg said a month ago that he’d recorded the headlines for The Herald Bulletin’s Oct. 31 edition. He then shipped his predictions off to the Paramount Theatre, where it had been on display with all the original shipping labels in the front window.

During Saturday night’s performance, Paramount Theatre executive director Gayle Jones Burris opened the package on stage and played the casette tape. Correctly, Blagg’s voice says the newspaper’s front page would tell of a barbershop closing, have kids in costumes and that the Indiana State Police would investigate a councilman. While two headlines could be coincidence, the ISP investigation wasn’t known by even newspaper staff until Friday.

Tim Cooksy, Blagg’s manager, said the trick hadn’t been done in the past few performances.

Newspapers across the nation have tried to switch their headlines at the last minute to try to trick the illusionist. It’s never worked, and The Herald Bulletin didn’t even try.

If his predictions were wrong, Blagg had promised to give $100 to every audience member. But some predicted correctly that they wouldn’t.

“I don’t think we’re getting $100,” said Kim Gruesbeck of Muncie. “It ought to be impressive though.”

Nine-year-old Kerrigan Huffman might have taken lessons from Blagg, as her parents said she asked before the show if she’d be levitated. Dressed as a black cat for Halloween, Huffman got her wish when Blagg called her up to the stage and levitated her.

“It was cool,” she said. “All the magic tricks are really cool.”

Mark Clements of Spiceland, said Blagg’s audience involvement and joking nature made the show more enjoyable.

“Some of the magic tricks are kind of corny, but his presentation is nice,” he said.

During the two-hour show, Blagg also sliced a woman in half, managed to grab dry sand out of water and made a woman appear in a see-through box. For the 83rd anniversary of the death of master illusionist Harry Houdini, Blagg performed Houdini’s famous Metamorphosis trick. He was handcuffed, put in a bag and locked in a wooden crate. His assistant stood on the box. Suddenly, Blagg was standing on the crate, and it was revealed that his assistant had taken his place inside.

“It’s an honor to perform that,” he said.