Voila! Award isn’t illusion for magician

The boy took a magic class, and year after year he would return to marvel at VanBurch’s illusions. Eventually, VanBurch began to recognize the boy and his passion.

"That’s when he realized it was more than just a hobbyist interest and just a phase or a cool thing,” Calonkey said.

Or, rather, Lake said. Actually, Lake is the magician that Calonkey became. A good one.

Lake, as he’s now known, recently was honored by the International Magicians Society with a Merlin Award as the International Stage Magician of 2008. For a magician, said Lake, 25, the Merlin is "the gold medal of the Olympics, the Oscar, the Tony, the Emmy.”

As a boy, Robert Calonkey was into swimming and track, said his father, Steve Calonkey, who owns Mr. Robert, a furniture store his father started in downtown Norman. Along with his younger sister, Katelynn, Robert "enjoyed entertaining,” putting on plays with neighborhood children, Steve Calonkey said.

"They were always doing something.” For magic tricks, Katelynn would serve as Robert’s assistant.

After VanBurch realized how serious Robert Calonkey was about magic, the magician would spend hours coaching the boy in his magic shop.

"He’d give me homework,” Lake said. "He’d say, ‘Before you come back next year, I want you to read these things and do these things.’”

Through the year, the magician and his protege would write each other.

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