Icon May Go Up in a Puff of Smoke

Barry Taylor does a "burning book" trick at his shop in Wheaton. Wife Susan Kang and store mascot Frankie often perform for visitors as well. (Photos By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

Since 1974, Barry's has been one of the few magic stores in the region and a pranksters' paradise. Pamphlets titled "The Very Modern Mind Reader" fill the racks, rubber chickens hang from the ceiling and tarot cards are piled on the counter. There are hand buzzers, spring-loaded snakes in cans, whoopee cushions. A standing store rule is that a clown making an emergency balloon stop on the way to a gig can cut the line. Even the store's mascot, a border collie named Frankie the Wonder Dog, performs by catching balls that customers kick to him.

For seasoned magicians, the store is something of a locker room, a place to hang out and swap stories and tricks. For Taylor and his wife, Susan Kang, who performs with him, it's a stage on which to dazzle customers with dollar bills that stretch a few feet long and books that burst into flames when opened. It's about eliciting smiles, but it's also about something deeper: extending the boundaries of reality.

Magic is not in making the coin disappear, Taylor knows. It's doing it in a way that makes people think, if just for a moment, that maybe the coin really has vanished. "You can take people to a different world where you're doing things they know are not possible, but yet they stop and wonder," he said.

Taylor started performing as a child, learning many of his tricks by hanging out in Al's Magic Shop in the District. He performed while attending Northwood High School in Silver Spring, where he met Kang, and then while attending the University of Maryland.

After college, he decided he wanted to make a living by selling tricks, and Kang, who was working as a nurse, said she'd help him open Barry's Magic Shop. Since then, Taylor has become one of the region's best-known magicians, performing at parties and corporate functions. He once performed at a dinner attended by Sophia Loren, he said.

"The whole nature of the business is you're buying secrets," said Al Cohen, whose store closed two years ago. Cohen sometimes hangs out at Barry's with other magicians.

"Sure, if Barry's closes, everyone will keep on living," said George Woo, a magician who is one of Taylor's regulars. "What will be gone is the tradition of magicians learning from other magicians."

Although Montgomery officials said the last thing they want is to put Taylor out of business, they emphasized that the walkway is needed to improve movement between the shops on Georgia Avenue and the parking lot behind them.

"There's a real problem of accessibility of the Georgia Avenue shops to parking," said Joseph Davis, the director of the Wheaton redevelopment program. "In effect, you have to walk all the way around the block. So this will help address that issue. It makes the businesses much more successful."

Taylor has submitted a plan to open up the alley that runs along the side of his shop, saying that could serve as the walkway and allow him to keep his store. County officials have said they'll consider it, but Taylor has been told he needs to prepare to vacate the building by the end of the year.

"Right now we're looking to see if there is an alternative to demolishing the building," Davis said.

Meanwhile, Taylor waits. He sells his tricks and wows customers, who beg him to divulge his secrets.