Fredy Wicki, not only a master cheesemaker

There will be many a Zug businessman who would like to be able to produce real CHF 50 franc notes out of old paper. Fredy Wicki can, and performs this trick on frequent occasions before an audience when working as a magician. As to his day job, he is a master cheesemaker.
 
Readers in Cham may have noticed Wicki serving behind the counter at his Chäsland cheese dairy in the Neudorf Centre in the municipality, as he has done for 18 years; prior to this he made cheese in Niederwil. Come weekends, days off and evenings, however, he exchanges his white overall for a red tailcoat and performs in front of guests at parties or company functions.
 
As the 59-year-old himself explained, performing magic tricks is an enjoyable contrast to his day job. “When I perform, it is a form of recuperation. I love it when people are amazed by what I do and applaud,” he said. Not that one should just call this a hobby. Wicki takes performing very seriously, having been accepted into the Swiss Magic Circle as long ago as 1996. He meets up regularly with some of the other 300 active members, not least to learn some new tricks. “As a magician, you cannot just stand still,” he said.
 
He first became interested after a performance by a magician at his own wedding reception following his marriage to wife, Alice, 31 years ago. “He made a ring disappear,” he said. “I realised how he did it straight away, which made me want to become a magician, too.”
 
He went on to say that it was very much practice which made perfect in this role. “You can only really perform a magic trick in public when you know it 100%,” he said. Indeed, he performs initially in front of his wife. If she can spot how it is done, then it is back to practising, and more practising. “I am used to performing in public now but I still get nervous in front of members of the cantonal government or other celebrities,” he said, as he added how important using the right language is, too, perhaps bringing in a local element to the act.
 
Hence, when not busy in his shop, he is off with his rings, cloths, ropes, playing cards and old newspapers, performing all over central Switzerland, to places such as Solothurn, the Rhine Valley and upper Argovia. He is also rightly proud of the fact that does not have to advertise; news about his talent is spread by word of mouth.
And does he ever mix up his two roles as magician and managing director of a business? “Well, I have the odd joke with customers in the shops, such as when I make the change disappear,” he confessed. And he also organises Magic Fondue evenings, providing not only the cheese, but the entertainment, too.
 
And how does one know when one has made it as a successful magician? “When the audience is dumfounded as to how the trick was performed,” he said, as was the case when he ripped up a copy of the Zuger Zeitung to shreds in front of journalists at their newspaper offices and then miraculously produced it whole again.