MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Be careful around Lance Cpl. Jaden Maxwell. If he's not stealing the watch off your wrist, he might be making coins disappear or turning $1 bills into $100 bills.
The 24-year-old active-duty Marine has been learning magic since age 7 and is now a professional magician.
He'll attempt to wow Camp Pendleton service members and their families with his trickery Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Base Training Center Theater. Admission is $5 per person, $10 for families.
Maxwell, a Chattanooga, Tenn., native, is strongly influenced by his past. Before he was born, his father died and left him a pocket magic trick kit that was given to him for his seventh birthday.
And so his love of magic was born.
Maxwell practiced the trick so much, he perfected it -- and everyone became tired of seeing it. They told him to go learn some new tricks.
He did. He spent countless hours at the Chattanooga Bicentennial Library, reading all he could on magic.
His first formal performance, at age 10, was at Apison Elementary School Library. He charged $5 per person. He was good enough that another magician in the audience, Robert Jones, invited him to join the International Brotherhood of Magic, Ring 112.
He still belongs to the club -- a forum for expanding his tricky repertoire.
In his teens, he had a favorite aunt die of cancer, so he personally earned more than $137,000 at a magic show and donated it all to the American Heart and Cancer Association, he said.
As a child, he dreamed of becoming a Marine, a dream he realized on Sept. 16, 2003.
While serving his country, Maxwell continues to spin his magic. He performs -- even headlines -- at casinos, fund-raisers, and on cruise liners. He said he's performed more than 1,000 shows.
"I put a lot of passion and emotion into my shows," Maxwell said. "I like to make it a personal experience and get people involved."
Maxwell has an impressive array of tricks that he uses to arouse a sense of wonder in his audience.
He uses comedy, pickpocketing, sleight of hand, levitation, escapes, mime and even martial arts in his performance. One of his opening tricks is to make a bowling ball appear out of a pad of paper, a Kevin James personal illusion that he had to buy the rights to perform. He studied under James and looks up to him as a magician.
"Magic brings out the child in a person with a sense of awe and wonder," he said. "However, there are some people who don't approve of magic. People tell me all the time that I worship the devil or that what I do is evil. What bothers me is that they don't even know me. I'm actually a very religious person."
Most people who see him perform are blown away.
"When I saw him do his tricks, it was unbelievable," said Gunnery Sgt. Jose J. Castillo, a Substance Abuse Control Officer, with Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Base. "Words can't describe how good he is. It was amazing."
After serving his time in the Marine Corps, Maxwell plans on having at least one major television magic show. Afterward, he'd like to get into acting, with spots in commercials or movies.