No in-between with this showman

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Fourteen-year-old magician J.T. Wetherington was performing in front of by far the largest crowd of his young career Wednesday, but you couldn’t tell it from his demeanor onstage.

“You’re either going to love my show or you’re going to love my show,” Wetherington said to the crowd of about 300 at the Grand Island Independent’s annual Senior Expo. “There’s no in-between with me.”

Wetherington’s confident style clearly won over the crowd at the Platt-Duetsche, as numerous requests afterward for contact information and bookings quickly drained him of business cards.

But it wasn’t a surprise that the showman in Wetherington took over, even with a malfunctioning sound system and an ear-mounted microphone bought just an hour before the show.

The Aurora High School freshman has spent almost his entire life as a showman, trying to make people laugh, smile or gasp.

“I just want to perform for everyone,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what I do.”

He’s picking up an ever-expanding repertoire of tricks to keep up with daily requests from his classmates at Aurora.

“I’ve pretty much been sucked dry of everything I know,” Wetherington said. “People ask me so many things at school, and I feel like I have to be constantly on my toes.”

He said he has been working on his jokes and his stage presence along with his new tricks, and he doesn’t want to stop anytime soon.

He’d like to do magic as a career, with a dream of ending up in Las Vegas or Branson, Mo. Whatever he does, he’s sure performing will be a part of it.

“I really like watching people smile,” Wetherington said. “At some point during my show, I want at least one thing I do to make everyone in the crowd go, ‘Wow.’”