ABRACADABRA! Last Wednesday night, Mike Hammer and his assistant, Spike, amused and amazed a regrettably small audience of DU students in the Driscoll Ballroom.

Hammer and Spike have been working together for a little over a year. They met at a corporate event at which they were both performing. After that, Spike jokingly volunteered at one of Hammer’s show. The rest, as they say, is history.

Spike and Hammer usually perform at comedy clubs, trade shows, company events and campuses. They specialize in “infotainment,” entertaining people as well as telling them about a product they’ve been hired to promote. This was their first time performing at the University of Denver, but they would like to come back next year.

The show began with Spike showing small, close-up card tricks to the front row, as well as insulting and jeering them teasingly. By then Hammer was finished setting up. The show began, and the innuendos started flying.

Hammer pulled a volunteer from the audience and asked her to pick a card. He then pulled an entire deck of cards out of his mouth, a few cards at a time. After guessing her card a few times, he then proceeded to cover his eyes…with sanitary pads. Fully blindfolded, he again guessed her card, and surprised the audience by revealing that her card was drawn on the inside of his cloth blindfold.

Then, he pulled a pair of girls onstage and had them help with rope tricks. One of the girls was given a collapsing wand. Finally, she figured out how to get it to remain stiff. “Yeah,” Hammer quipped, “if you play with it long enough, it’ll do that.”

Spike came onstage after the rope tricks, and the two began a vaudeville-like routine. “Are you sure you want to do this onstage?” Spike asked.

The “this” turned out to be a handcuff trick. Hammer escaped from the handcuffs while hiding behind a coat (borrowed from an audience member).

Hammer’s final tricks involved razorblades. He swallowed one, and had an audience volunteer check his mouth and make sure it wasn’t there. He then spit the razorblade back out. In his final trick. Hammer swallowed seven consecutive razorblades, followed by a length of floss.

He then pulled the floss, with razorblades tied on, out of his throat. The audience went wild.

To find out more about Hammer or Spike,visit

http://www.Mikehammer.net.