No sooner has the fourth-generation magician, who performs at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre next week, shaken your hand than he will launch into a seamless stream of funny quips, quotations and anecdotes—all while getting you to pick a card or stick your finger into a tiny guillotine.

Every question put to the professional prestidigitator, who calls Maple Ridge home, is met with well-rehearsed schtick:

Do you still get nervous before shows?

“Every time,” he says, “but it’s alright to have butterflies as long as you teach them to fly in formation.”

How long have you been doing magic?

“My mom says when I was born the doctor slapped me and I said, ‘Pick a card.’”

His father filled journals with similar bits of banter, he said.

It’s all part of the "subterfuge that’s used to create the miracle.”

As a kid, Farquhar Jr. learned the other skills behind that subterfuge too, like how to “palm” or make a coin travel from one hand to the other without being seen or how to show two hands empty while actually still hiding something.

“My father didn’t teach me magic first. My father taught me the techniques,” says Farquhar.

But the magic would come.

At age six, he vanished his first banana for friends in his backyard.

At age 50, he is the reigning International Federation of Magic Societies Grand Prix World Champion for close up magic.

The award, which he won in Beijing in 2009, may be the most prestigious, but it is by no means the only accolade Farquhar has earned in his more than two decades in the business.

He’s also been awarded the Grand Prix D’Honneur by the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians and twice named Magician of the Year by the Canadian Association of Magicians.

The International Brotherhood of Magicians has also awarded him both Stage Magician and Sleight of Hand Magician of the Year.

Farquhar has performed on numerous TV shows, including the X-Files, Ellen and Penn and Teller: Fool Us, and he speaks at magic conventions around the world.

The show he brings to Chilliwack, Secrets, showcases his rare mastery of both stage and close-up magic.

Magicians, he said, often focus on either sleight-of-hand tricks that involve small objects like cards and coins or illusion, which involves things like sawing people in half on stage, but he combines the two in his show, with the close-up magic projected onto a big screen.

Farquhar's favourite effect, which will close the first half of the show next week, is an elaborate close-up piece called Shape of My Heart that features a series of sleight-of-hand card tricks choreographed artfully to a Sting song by the same name.

“It’s like an anthem for me,” he said.

The show will end with a trick he wouldn’t say anything about.

“I don’t have enough hours in the day to work on the ideas that I have,” he said.

The illusions and effects that end up on stage usually start with just a general idea Farquhar finds himself mulling over, like recently when he became interested in heads.

What came out of that was a trick he will premiere in Chilliwack—a large-scale variation of the old three-shell game where a ball is hidden under one of three shells or cups.

The ball in this case is, of course, a human head.

And as usual, Farquhar’s wife of 22 years, Lori, the woman he calls the secret of his success, will provide the necessary body part.

“She does everything,” said Farquhar. “She’s the girl that’s gotten into the boxes and stabbed with swords, sawed in half, floated in the air.”

The magical couple’s 11-year-old daughter Hannah will also be in the Chilliwack show, premiering a new piece on her own.

Will her veteran magician dad be nervous?

“I’m terrified,” he said, “but I’ve watched her, and I feel very confident that she will do our family proud.”

Fortunately, Farquhar has been training his butterflies to fly in formation for more than 30 years.

Secrets hits the Chilliwack Cultural Centre stage Saturday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets by calling the centre box office at 604-391-SHOW(7469) or visit Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are also available online at www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca.