Lung Power
Anti-smoking magician hopes to fill 700 balloons

By Kathy Lauer-Williams | Of the Morning Call

It takes a lot of lung power to blow up 700 balloons, and few people know that better than Montgomery County magician John Cassidy, who holds the "Guinness Book" world record for inflating and sculpting 654 balloons in an hour.

On Wednesday, he hopes to send a message about the importance of keeping lungs smoke-free, as he attempts to break his record at Bucks County Community College.

Cassidy of Mont Clare will test his lung power as he tries to inflate and twist 700 balloons in an hour to kick off this year's American Cancer Society's Great American Smoke Out on Thursday, when smokers are urged to give up their cigarettes for 24 hours.

Cassidy, who has been making balloon sculptures since he was in high school, has a vested interest in spreading the message to quit smoking -- both his parents died of lung cancer.

"We all use our lungs everyday", he says, "I'd like to see as many people quit as possible".

Cassidy says he smoked four a couple of months after his father died 13 yeears ago.

"I did it and I'm not proud of it," he says. "I started because the smell reminded me of my father. The hardest thing I ever did was to quit."

Smoking is responsible for nearly one in five deaths and accounts for ar least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths, according to the Cancer Society.

According to the Centers for Diseease Control and Prevention, the number of adult smokers in the United States has remained constant since 2004. In 2006, 20.8 percent of adults smoked.

Dismayed by the continued prevalence of smoking by college students, Cassidy has been doing demonstrations on lung power to raise awareness about smoking. In performances, Cassidy says he invites a student who smokes to blow up a balloon.

"They can't do it, and it makes them think," says Cassidy. Everyone knows smoking is bad, but they do it anyway. Kids think they'are invincible."

While growing up in Abbington, Cassidy learned to do magic tricks and sculpt balloons as a teenager and started performing ar birthday parties while he was in school to earn extra money.

While in high school, he made a list of 10 things he wanted to do before he died. One of the things on the list was to get into the "Guinness Book of World Records."

"Everybody should make a list," says Cassidy, whose list also includes having a child and swimming with dolphins.

After attending college part-time for six years without earning a degree, Cassidy decided to concentrate on magic and went to Las Vegas, where he studied with other magicians.

The experience encouraged him to expand his repertoire beyond birthday parties. He was invited to perform at the prestigious Magic Castle, a famous club in Hollywood where some of the greatest magicians in the world have worked.

He ultimately developed a show he calls "Comedy, Magic and Weird Things with Balloons," which showcases his quirky humor and love of startling his audience. His current show, which he says has a subtext about how silly the whole world is, involves gags with lawn darts and an operation game with a car battery.

"Ive had brief moments of success," says Cassidy. "Being able to do magic for a living is my reward. I really love doing this."

Cassidy first broke the world record foro sculpting balloons in 1999, when he twisted 296 balloons, Two years laterm Cassidy's record was broken by Salvatore Sabbatino, a clown from Germany, and Cassidy responded by breaking Sabbatino's mark in 2001.

"Its been going back and forth between me and this German clown for a couple of years ." Cassidy says.

In 2005, Cassidy claimed his current record of 654 balloons, as well as set the record for most balloon sculptures in one minute --13. Now, he hopes to up the ante for Sabbatino.

Cassidy says all his balloons are blown up by mouth, and according to the rules, he has to make 30 different sculptures, without repeating the same designs twice in a row. To beat his record, Cassidy will have to twist a sculpture every five seconds.

He says he plans to do an assortment of simple sculptures such as swords, bears and dogs.

"They're not pretty," he says. "It's about speed."

His wife and manager, Jennifer Cassidy, says the record is a "physically intense record to break."

But Cassidy is confident and says once he starts twisting balloons he gets into a rhythm and "its easier for me to do it for longer periods of time."