Older magicians were tearing their hair out, and the younger ones were getting hooked, Arch said.

Besides, Cole said, magic is best learned from books, not television or, heaven forbid, the internet.

Thats how he learned as a kid in St. Louis, checking out books from the school and public libraries.

He has been a professional magician for 21 years, performing at parties, classrooms and restaurants such as the Upstream Brewing Co. and The Good Life. In schools, he visits libraries beforehand, assesses magic book collections and then promotes those titles in his presentations.

I tell them, This next trick is on page 785. If you want to learn this trick, youll have to read it, he said.

A member of the Omaha Magical Society, Cole has a fair collection of books himself.

When I pass away it will all be at UNO, I guess, he said with a laugh.

Magician Pete Petrashek shows off some of his props, in 1990.

Arch said the future of magic looks bright. The society has about 60 members; the oldest is magician Pete Petrashek, who turns 95 next week. He worked well into his 80s, performing for thousands of Omahans over the years. And as a cameraman for what now is WOWT-TV, he worked with a another young guy who dabbled in magic and was about to become famous as a talk-show host. That guy, of course, was Johnny Carson.

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New 1,200-book collection magically appears at the UNO library - Omaha World-Herald