What is an Escape Artist

An escape artist is defined as an entertainer who is an expert in getting out of handcuffs, ropes, chains, trunks, or other confining devices, mainly under dangerous circumstances. There have been many escape artist through the years but none have reached the notoriety of Hudini. In modern times escape artistry has passed to being more of a stunt or dangerous feat performed by someone trying to get attention.

The Art of Escape is not just about escaping a deadly situation however. Some magicians who are escape artist are usually misunderstood, because to most audiences it doesn't make much sense to restrain the escape artist and then watch him get out of it just because.

It seems a lot like just a stunt or a call to attention. But Escape Artistry is not just about getting out of the restrain or barely missing death, there are deeper meanings...

The reason is an art is not just because of the amounts of practice the escape artist must endure or the craftsmanship of picking locks, its because there's a powerful message intertwined with the escape.

We are all looking for an escape, we want to escape from boredom, from pain, from fear, from life even. We play video games, watch movies, watch TV, read books, and spend ours on the Internet looking for an escape of our ordinary life.

We could say an escape represents or is an allegory of life. The escape artist reminds us of the struggles in life, our fears, insecurities and even our pain. Reminds us of how valuable time is, of how short life can be, and how you must fight and stand against the odds to survive and grow.

The escape artist is who we want to become, we want to escape from what troubles us. We want to become unstoppable and unrestrainable we are all seeking freedom one way or another. And when we watch an escape artist we are reminded of the human capabilities, the drive, the human potential to survive and live a richer life.

My name is Viktor Pena, I am a conjurer, a magician, an escape artist, an entertainer, and a performer and as such I feel l must use my talents to motivate, inspire, and help those around me to reach out for their dreams and to succeed in life.

The following video is an exploration of what it means to me, why I do what I do. Please do not attempt under any circumstances.  It is a very dangerous stunt.

Thank you for watching, please share, like, and subscribe if you haven't. Welcome to the Loko Magic Co.

Opportunity is all around you!

A lot of people say that if they had the opportunity to have a better life they would take it as soon as they could. Some say that we live in an unfair world where some people have opportunity to succeed and others don't. I'm here to tell you that opportunity is all around us if we look for it, and that regardless of who you are, you have the same exact opportunity the rest of the world has. You might be asking yourself what I mean, and what I want you to realize is that every day of your life you have:

"The opportunity to be better than you were the day before"

Opportunity is defined as a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. The problem with people is that they think opportunity is something that happens to those who are lucky, that opportunity is like winning the lottery, that its something coincidental, or that an opportunity comes once in a life time.

But opportunity is something you can create, its something you can look for. Those who are successful are not there because they accidentally stumbled into it. The truth is, those who are successful have worked hard in creating opportunities for themselves, they have made it their mission to look for opportunity. As always I want to remind you that you are responsible for what you have in life you are the only person who leads where your life is going.

What is it that you want in life? Whatever it is, is highly unlikely that it will come to you by chance, so you have to be willing to put in the work to make it happen. Stop waiting for the so called "RIGHT TIME" to make it happen because its very possible it will never be the right time, you have to create the right time, you have to create the right circumstances to make your dreams come true. CREATE YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITY

Every day you get 24 hours and what you do with that time is what makes the difference. If your dream is to be a entrepreneur and open up your own business do you really think you're going be able to? If you sleep for 8 hours, you work for 10 hours, spend an hour on Facebook or social media, and spend 4 hours watching TV. I wish just picked numbers at random but all those are averages of people living in America. I think I'm beginning to see why there are so many people out there talking about how they have no time in their lives, and also why so many people are missing out on life changing opportunities.

The fact is opportunities are always there. If you just take the time to actively look for them and choose to not fear the decision to take them when you do find them, you will realize your dreams are so much closer to becoming a reality.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope this gives you something to ponder about. As always go out there and work hard to make your dreams possible. "Experience the impossible"

The importance of magic

Magic has always been an interest of mine, since I can remember I was mystified by the magicians and illusionist that appeared on TV when I was a child. It brought me great joy to imagine that I too could be able to do the impossible feats they would accomplish, that if I learned what they knew I  could become a some sort of superhero that could save the world. Those dreams faded for a while but later I got my first glimpse at the art of magic. My uncle taught me 3 card tricks he learned from a friend, and I was hooked on magic, I wanted to learn more. Anytime I showed someone the card tricks I knew I asked if they knew one and if they did I would ask them to perform it so I could watch it and learn. I started picking up sleights tricks and illusions over time. When I was around 12 I got my first magic kit and I started to learn about mentalism and other effects with more props. I always liked doing magic for someone, the reactions of amazement always gave me great satisfaction. but I wasn't until many years later when I realize just how powerful magic was. I knew it was fun and entertaining but I had not grasped the value of magic till that night.

Not long after I graduated high school I took a job as a busboy at a Mexican restaurant in the town I live in. Even though I was there for a very short time I started studding the times where the restaurant was very busy and when the restaurant had very few people. So I asked management if I could perform magic to the guests when the place was not busy. I told them how it would improve costumer satisfaction and that I wouldn't be charging anything at all, of course they said yes.

One of those nights I approached a family, there was a mom, a dad, and 3 children, the mom and the dad looked absolutely drained from a busy day. You could tell the dad and the mom had been at work all day and they decided on going to a restaurant in order to not worry about cooking and cleaning up, the kids where a bit loud and it seemed like the parents could hardly stand them at the moment. Not because they were bad parents, they were just exhausted, as I can imagine many people reading this  can relate after a hard day at work.

I approached the table, introduced myself, and right before dad could turn me down I added that it was absolutely free and that it was entertainment for the kids. He said sure a bit hesitant, so I began doing magic, I cant even remember exactly what effects I performed but when I left that table I realized how powerful magic was.

When I left that table the dad, the mom and all 3 kids were smiling, they where all talking to each other about what they had seen, there was actual eye contact between the family, an actual connection between them that I had created. Soon after I left their table could hear the parents asking how their kids day had been at school and I could hear the kids excitedly tell them about their day.

Till this day, that performance is one the most important, because I realized that what I do "matters" so much more than what people tend to realize. Its not a silly trick, illusion, or manipulation, what I'm doing,  it is the joy and happiness it that I am leaving behind in the lives of those who I perform for.

To some people magic is about entertaining others, for some is making people laugh, to others is figuring out a trick or what the magician is doing, to some magic is for fame, to others is a means to make money, to some is a way spend time, and to some even a way to scam. To me... Magic is about that lasting impression it leaves on the soul... the connection it creates between human beings, the inspiration to believe in the impossible, the realization that your dreams are not unreachable, the motivation to become better person every day because you understand that when you experience the impossible, you become an unstoppable force that knows no limits, that you will reach whatever goals you place in front of you because you create your own reality.

A new kind of magic show

For quite some time The Loko Magic Co. has been planning to build a different kind of magic show on You Tube. We started with a couple of videos outlining what the core foundation of what we want to do. Which is to inspire and motivate people while entertaining them using magic. I feel like the show that we created "The Loko Magic Show" is not were we want it to be and has not meet with the reaction we had hoped. Therefore we are going to be making some changes to adjust to our goals
as the saying goes:

                               "If the plan doesn't work change the plan but never the goal"
At The Loko Magic Co. we are looking to entertain people but at the same time we want to talk to you about self improvement and motivation. We truly care about helping others reach their dreams.
We want you the spectator to experience the impossible for yourself. When I started doing magic I truly felt this sense of purpose when I would perform, so I would like to help people seek their passions, help them figure out what really makes them happy.

What we have planed for ''The Loko Magic Show" first is to split the magic from the motivational speech that it might contain. This means that we are going to have in essence two different shows, which will  make the videos shorter and more enjoyable to be watched. So if would just like to see some magic you could do that without having to watch the motivational part and vise versa. We still want to do both things but splitting it will be more efficient to produce and to be watched.

Another change we are looking to make is to give the power to the spectators. At the beginning magic on TV and video in general was a lot about the magician, then at some point the cameras turned towards the reaction of  the spectators and that became of more importance because the viewer could relate better to what was going on. Unfortunately many TV magicians have broken the trust of the viewers by using actors to react to their magic and using methods used by movies which at that point we could argue is no longer magic. Even though they might say there is no actors and that there are no camera cuts, most people can see thru this and realize that these so called magicians are not really performing magic for everyday normal people like you. its just an elaborate show pretending to pass as reality.

So what we want to do with "The Loko Magic Show'' is create a show in which the spectator  controls the camera, it will be POV magic. You will not see what the magician or some director wants you to see, but you will see in essence  thru the eyes of a spectator who is experiencing the magic first hand. It will immerse the viewer to see exactly what he or she would see if they were there. We want to bring a much more pure brand of magic. Selling magic on TV and video is hard because many people manipulate the video to seem so much more impossible and it just kills the fact that the reason magic is so amazing is that it happens right in front of you without the use of camera tricks. We don't really know where this different way of looking at magic will take us, but we are willing to work hard to make enjoyable entertainment for you.

Thank you for reading, if you haven't watched any of The Loko Magic Show episodes, here is the first one:

Tell us on the comment section what you would like to see in The Loko Magic Show.

Failure is not the opposite of success!

A lot of people have the concept of failure as the opposite of success, but I disagree as many successful people have learned. Failure is what gets you to success, its part of the journey to success.
As Michael Jordan once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” because its those failure what makes you stronger every time. Every time you fail you  learn something new, every time you fail you get closer and closer to your goal, every time you fail you're one step closer to success.

You can look at countless success stories, every one of them had challenges to face, there is no such thing as overnight success every single successful person in this world had to go thru failure to get to their success. every single one had to work hard to get were they wanted to get. Its important that you understand that whatever failures you have had in life, that they are only steps on the ladder of success.

You cannot let failure paralyze you, learn from your mistakes, get up an try again. Remember that you're the only one that stands between yourself and achieving whatever it is you want.
Don't stop trying when you fail, get up and try again, remember that is not over until you decide is over. So fight with all your might and if you do fall, get up and try again and again. Remember to always look up, get up and don’t ever give up!


If you really want to know what is the opposite, the opposite of success is not trying.

So go out and try whatever you heart desires, learn to dance, try out for a sport, join a choir, learn to play an instrument, stop fearing failure, all it is, is a stepping stone towards achieving your goals.As always thank you for reading, tell us on the comments section what it is you would like to try out in your life, I challenge you to go for it! If you do tell us how it went.

Im gonna show you how great you are

The great Muhamad Ali once said "I'm gonna show you how great I am" I too aspire to be great, perhaps the best magician that has ever lived. Is that possible? of course it is, if I put in the time the dedication, the sweat, and all my heart. But I'm here for something else, not only do I want to be great, I want to make every human being I come into contact great. I want to make it my mission to "Show you how great you are."

I don't know what dreams and aspirations you have but I want to inspire you and motivate you to follow them thru. I want to help you become the best version of yourself thru my passion,which is magic. You see the only thing stopping you is yourself, I want to use my magic to shatter the reality you live in. I want you to question your mind, to expand it, to believe that what seems impossible can be made possible. My dream is to change the world and make it a better place. It might sound unreachable but if I don't try to make it happen I would fail by default. I want you to realize that you will not make your dreams come true unless you're actively working on making them a reality.

I want to help you to accept your dreams and to do something about them. We at some point start keeping our dreams to ourselves because we are afraid others will disapprove of them or because they seem so unreachable that we don't even try to do something about it. I want to remind you that you're powerful, more powerful than you can imagine. I want to represent the idea that what seems impossible today can become your reality tomorrow. You just have to believe and work hard to obtain whatever it is that you wish to accomplish. Remember that everything is impossible until its done.

It was once impossible to believe that by the push of a switch we could be able to create light, that we could communicate with another human being half way across the globe, or that one day humans would reach the moon. Yet human ingenuity has harnessed  the power of electricity, created lightbulbs, made cellphones, and created rockets. Our minds are the only thing stopping us, if we just learn to expand our mind we can turn an impossible idea into a reality. It all begins by believing in yourself, and working hard to get whatever it is you desire. The moment you don't believe you can do something, the moment you decide something is impossible you have created a barrier which you will never be able to surpass, you will limit yourself. But the moment you decide to become unstoppable, that moment you start believing in yourself, that moment were you decide that nothing is impossible. You will realize that you're more powerful that you ever imagined. and you will be able to make the impossible, something possible.

"I'm gonna show you how great you are" I simply need you to believe in yourself and to give it your all! I need you to stop fearing failure, and to try new things, more importantly those things you dream of doing. Don't be afraid of what other might think, follow your dreams! They re yours and no one else's, start pursuing your own happiness instead of what others tell you that will make you happy.
Become unstoppable! Become the greatest version of yourself!

Why do people hate magic?

Believe it or not there are people out there who hate magic. A very sad truth for someone who loves magic as much as I do. But why do people hate it so much? First lets talk about what magic is. Magic is like art is a very hard thing to define and it means different things to different people. But technically speaking magic is a performance in which supernatural feats are made to appear real by means of illusion, suggestion, scientific principles, sleight of hand, etc.

So why do people hate this type of performance which intends to be so interesting, mystifying and amazing? well there are many reasons, one of which is that some people really want to believe is real. So when they realize that a magician uses some sort of trickery they feel lied to, or like they are being fooled, which I mean they are but not in a bad sense. So that's one reason a lot of people don't want to be made a fool. But that's not what magic is about, you see they miss the point that is a performance, a type of entertainment. I sometimes wonder if this type of people hate theater or movies, after all the actors are only playing a role and making you feel part of the story which is all just pretend to feel as real as possible, which is what magic intends to do.

Another reason why people hate magic is because, well.... magicians. Some magicians act very arrogantly or act as if they were smarter or even better than everyone else around them. No one likes a performer or even a person who thinks they are better than them. Not all magicians act like this but is a very easy role to fall into, after all the magician is sort of an actor playing the part of a human being with powers beyond the laws of nature. Having or at least acting like you have these immense amounts of power can easily make you act as if you were better than the rest.

Sometimes is because of bad magicians, and I don't mean bad people, but I mean inadequate preparation. Some magicians just buy a trick from a magic store and just go out and perform in kids parties or events without adequately practicing  and preparing themselves to selling the trick to their audience, they just think because a trick is easy to do that it is easy to perform.

Lastly some magicians are into humiliating or embarrassing volunteers. For the most part its not purposely but its common. When performing is easy for some magicians to embarrass their volunteers to get laughs from their audience. But this character is a very delicate one, only certain people can pull a character like this, otherwise you just end up being a jerk on stage. As I mentioned no one likes being fooled and its just worse when you're purposely making someone a fool for others to laugh at.

So these are some reasons I've noticed that make some people not like magic, Do you like magic?
If not why not? Let us know by commenting below. As always thank you for reading, I hope you found this topic interesting.

Fear

Fear is a poison that kills many dreams and aspirations. I want to remind you that fear is only an illusion. Don't get me wrong danger is a very real thing, but fear is not, fear is a choice that you make. I want you to think of what is it that you're afraid of, and I'm not talking about spiders, snakes, or enclosed spaces I'm talking about those irrational fears that are stopping you from doing what you like and what you love. I don't know exactly how you life is but I know deep inside there are things you truly would like to do but you're not doing because you're scared. And you may say scared of what? I'm not scared. But you are! you're afraid of so many things:

• you fear you will fail
• that you're not good enough
• that you don't measure up
• that you wont be able to handle it
• that there are people who are better than you
• that you're not perfect
• that your dreams are impossible to reach

I'm here to tell you that is okay to be afraid, what is not okay is that you let your fear to take over your life and let it stop you from reaching your full potential. Don't ever be afraid of failure, failure is not the opposite of success, failure is what you must go thru to get to success. You must not let fear paralyze you from achieving what you want or you will never push yourself harder, to be the best you can be. You not only have to face your fear but you have to stand up to it and fight thru whatever obstacle comes your way to become better and to grow.

Every year for the past couple of years I've dreamt of making a horror themed magic show, yet every year I come up with excuses why that year I didn't make it happen, honestly every time I'm afraid of all the things that could happen, perhaps Ill loose all my money on a show no one will pay to see, or maybe it will be horrible and nobody will like it, perhaps something goes wrong and I end up injuring myself or someone else, or maybe just maybe is an amazing success and I just cannot handle it because I wasn't prepared. 

Last year an opportunity that would practically risk my job came about. I meet someone in my town that makes this haunted attraction here in downtown Fayetteville, NC. called "Lafayette Insane Asylum" I talked to him about my ideas to make an attraction myself and at that moment I asked him if it was possible if I could perform magic for the people that were in line waiting to go in at no charge. He said yes of course that would be awesome in fact he said ill build you a stage. This was it an opportunity to do what I've been wanting to do, of course I wasn't getting paid and of course I wasn't at all completely ready but here it was a chance to do what I love. 

I meet him on a Saturday and thought about all the things I could perform and all the things I would need, but time was ticking, if I truly was going to do it, I had to get ready fast because the haunted trail opened on that Thursday. As I was putting together a machine at my workplace on Tuesday I pondered of all the things that could go wrong, and all the money I would have to put on this show that would only last three nights and would bring me nothing in return, as all these fears of failure went across my mind, it hit me. A sense of peace and courage came over me reminding me of my dreams. If it wasn't now, then when? when was I going to start doing what I loved, and what I liked, so that very day I talked to my boss about how I had to leave at that very instant. And so I did, I left the job that I had for 4 or 5 years risking losing what I had worked for, for three nights...

And so I left that  job and I worked hard all day on my show and then the next day and then that night, reminding myself that things would work out because it was up to me to make them work out. I decided I couldn't be afraid of what could happen because I was in charge of my life. And so I performed, hammering nails in my nose, escaping strait jackets, conjuring spirits of dead kids, playing Russian roulette with a razor blade and playing five finger fillet, it was great I would end the day exhausted but with a satisfaction that cant be compared.

The show went great, people really enjoyed it, even though the first night the way it was set up some people would stand in front of the entrance and couldn't really see the stage. I would get off the stage and bring the show to them. I learned so much from those shows, my family and friends saw amounts of confidence that they had not seen before. I ended up out of the job I had, but the experience I gained I wouldn't change it for the world.

Here is a short clip from the show that I featured on The Loko Magic Show in which I was attacked by none other than Freddy Krueger:

Thank you for reading, no go out and be fearless! Don't let anything stop you from reaching your dreams!

Is Time to be Uncomfortable

Its strange advice, but unfortunately I have to say its necessary for your development. A couple months back I looked around me and I noticed things around me were moving yet it seemed I was in the same place, stuck in time doing the same thing over and over. Ironically as I digged around, I realized people that seemed to be moving along, seemed to be having those same feelings.  Don't get me wrong I was not unhappy with my life but the feeling of being stuck was something I couldn't shake off, I knew I could do something else with my life but something seemed to be stopping me. I tried to see what I was missing or what was wrong with my life, but there was nothing that was seriously upsetting my life, at that point I realized I was comfortable. And that in itself was the problem, you see when we become comfortable we stop growing, we stop wanting things, we stop trying to better ourselves, because when we are comfortable we decide that perhaps we don't need anything else other than what we have, we perhaps fall into believing we don't deserve anything more.

When I say its time to be uncomfortable, I mean is time to shake things up in your life. Even without knowing you personally I know there are things in your life that you want to do and try but for some odd reason you don't even try. This odd reason is being uncomfortable, you see as human beings we tend to give up or stop because we are scared that perhaps we are going to fail, or that maybe what we are not good enough, or that what we want to do will not be accepted by others.

I have been doing magic since I was ten, and I have learned countless magic tricks over the years but of all these tricks and illusions I have only shown very few to very few people. Usually when I would learn something new I would go to my mom and I would do these amazing effects, and every time my mom asked me to go show it to someone else who happened to be home, either family or guest, and every time I came up with excuses.
-I'm not ready
-Its not good enough
-I have to practice more
-I'm not good enough
-They probably wont like it
-I don't really know them
And many many more, you see I felt uncomfortable with the idea of performing either for strangers or of not being perfect. I missed the fact that performing was my practice, its what was going to make me better, being uncomfortable causes change.

I ask you to look into your life and find things you would like to try, perhaps you want to play an instrument, maybe you want to dance, or join a team in whatever sport you like, maybe you would like to sing, find what it is that you love. Go out and try it, yes you're probably not going the be the best when you're starting off, and yes there is a chance you will fail but guess what? If you don't try it,  if you don't decide to feel a little uncomfortable, you fail by default.

I hope this gives you something to think about, I hope it makes you try something you like, I hope you start living life in your own terms, and stop being comfortable and stop conforming with what you have, because conformity is the most common road to mediocrity. And I know that you were made for much more, so go out and get what you're worth. Be uncomfortable, and grow into the best version of yourself.

Thanks for reading.



This is just one of the episodes of The Loko Magic Show in which I attempt to read your mind check it out.