By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

A comedian and magician whose performance included taking a few pokes at the audience entertained Saturday at a banquet for St. Luke Hospital Foundation members and guests.

Tyler Korso opened his performance by telling a crowd of 120 guests that they would find something to make them happy.

“If you don’t like magic, relax,” he said. “There’s going to be comedy. If you don’t like comedy, relax, there’s going to be magic. If you don’t like either, relax. There’s the door.”

He continued with a verbal poke.

“So you are Marion,” Korso said. “That’s cool. I read about you in the paper.”

Audience members chuckled.

“I know your lives,” he said. “You ladies grew up thinking you were going to marry Prince Charming, but you had to settle for a 401(k).”

Korso demonstrated magic tricks, telling the audience how they worked.

Talking about a famous magic trick in which a woman is sawed in half, he said he couldn’t really saw a woman in half.

He told audience members the trick worked by using devices that only appeared to be solid.

“We are going to try to saw my body in half with a super-dangerous rope,” Korso said.

Holding up the rope behind his back, he drew it forward until it appeared in front of him, having split in half as it “passed through” his body.

When showing a disappearing coin trick, he held a 50-cent piece in his left hand and pointed at it with a miniature magic wand three times. On the third time, the half dollar seemed to disappear — but so did the wand.

He explained that the trick was done by distraction. He tucked the miniature wand behind his ear without people noticing and grabbed the coin.

“If I do anything cool, wonderful, or awkward, clap your hands,” he said.

When the room burst into clapping, he shook his head and pretended to be insulted.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “In the last five minutes, I didn’t do anything cool or wonderful.”

The evening included dinner, a live auction, and remarks by chief executive Alex Haines and foundation member Ryan Edmundson.

The $15,800 raised at the event will be used to support expansion of the hospital’s therapy and purchasing departments.