A young Cape Flats teen is reaching inside his bag of tricks in the hopes of pulling out a white rabbit that will allow him to become a world famous magician.
The only thing standing between Jaydan Correira, 17, and his dreams is a tuition fee of R6000 to enrol at the College of Magic, in Lansdowne Road, Claremont.
The shy teen’s love for illusions started when he was just six years old when his late father, Jerome, taught him the Four Queens trick.
“At that time we were living in Bishop Lavis and my father saw that I used to watch Dynamo (the magician) all the time. I even figured out one of his illusions,” says Jaydan.
“My father taught me the Four Queens trick and I got it right the first time.
“Two years after that he suffered a brain haemorrhage and just died. I was devastated.”
The boy was sent to live with his grandparents in Eerste River and while other teens would smoke drugs in a nearby park, Jaydan sat in his ouma’s lounge figuring out new magic tricks.
After failing two grades and struggling to concentrate, he dropped out of Belhar High School earlier this year when children started teasing him for being a special needs child.
BIG DREAMS: The teen wants to enrol at College of Magic. Picture: Supplied
“When I was three I fell in the pool and drowned. I was in a coma for 18 hours and came back to life, but I don’t know if that affected my learning,” he says.
“I failed a few times and they often just put me over in the grades but then the principal told me he thinks I should be in a special needs school.
“I sukkeled at school and I just left because they teased me.”
Since then Jaydan has been researching the College of Magic, but his grandparents cannot afford the tuition fees.
Ouma Veronica Mitchell, 67, says: “I just want him to make something with his life and he is very good with his cards.
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“I am so bang he gets influenced by those laaities(smoking drugs) that I buy the whole week’s bread in just one day so he doesn’t have to walk to the shop.
“I would really like to help him, but I am a pensioner and his oupa, Neville, 57, does odd jobs.”