Junior Trigg Burrage performs part of a magic trick during Open Mic Night in the Hughes-Trigg M Lounge on Oct. 28 (MEREDITH SHAMBURGER/The Daily Campus)

Junior Trigg Burrage can be described in a number of ways: tall, red-haired, President’s Scholar, magician, TREAT president, “The Unicycle Guy.”

The unicycle is probably what he’s most known for among SMU students. Burrage has no qualms about speeding along the sidewalk or jumping down stairs on his 29-inch wheel.

“One of my favorite things to do: I’ll hold up my cell phone to my ear, pretending I’m talking on the phone, and then go down the stairs,” Burrage said. “I won’t turn around, but I’ll just hear their reactions behind me. I just have fun with it sometimes.”

Burrage said that reactions range from “various expletives” to no reaction at all.

“My favorite time is the first week of school because there are freshmen on campus who – you know everyone else on campus is like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s just Trigg on the unicycle’ like it’s just normal,” he said. “But the first-years often, you know, act differently, and I kind of freak them out.”

What many students do not realize is that Burrage is also an accomplished magician, having earned numerous awards for his performances.

He first became interested in magic when he was four years old, when he went to a friend’s birthday party.

“Her older brother just happened to do magic, so he put on a little show for her birthday party,” Burrage said. “He took a mint and he made it disappear and reappear like under a cup or something, and I went home and got a mint and put it in my hand, waved my hand and said whatever magic words made sense to me at the time, and it didn’t disappear.”

Burrage’s interest was so sparked that his mother took him to the local library to get books on magic.

“I couldn’t read at that point, so I’d have her read how to do the tricks, and we’d try to figure it out together,” he said.

He also developed an interest in the circus, which is how he learned how to ride a unicycle.

“I was a clown, and I learned how to juggle. I learned how to ride the unicycle and make balloon animals,” Burrage said. “When I was little, I would actually dress up as a clown and put out a hat at the local open air market where I grew up in Australia, and I called myself Tricky Trigg the Magic Clown, I’m dismayed to say. I’d do tricks and stuff and get coins thrown in the hat.”

Burrage holds dual citizenship in Australia and the United States. Burrage grew up in Townsville, Australia, and moved to Louisiana in 2001 at the age of 11.

“When I moved to the States… magic became more of a focus,” he said. His performances range from corporate events to Open Mic Night in the Hughes-Trigg M Lounge. Burrage said he would “love to perform professionally” for the rest of his life, although he isn’t sure if he will concentrate on magic full time.

“I’m really like: I know I really want to put focus on that in terms of developing new material, and I want to have time professionally to devote to growing as an artist and improving my show,” he said. Magic, he said, “is a way that really satisfies all my different interests in terms of managing the business as well as a creative outlet.”

Burrage’s favorite part of magic is right after he performs a trick and just before the audience begins to applaud. It’s “right when something impossible has occurred,” he said.

“There’s that moment between the magic happening and the applause in which… the audience’s brain hasn’t kicked in yet,” he said. “They haven’t started logically using their adult brain to try and figure out ‘Ok, how did he do that?”

“It’s just that moment that brings people back to kind of like a child witnessing something for the first time,” Burrage said.