Brad Lowe performing a magic routine at the Laughing Derby, formerly the Comedy Caravan, in Louisville, where he performs a few times a year. (Photo courtesy of Brad Lowe)

GLASGOW — When not working with computers at The Medical Center at Caverna, Brad Lowe can sometimes be found making things disappear, reappear and show up in unexpected places.

Lowe practices his hobby, performance magic, as a side job.

Lowe, 42, became interested in magic as a child growing up in Glasgow. He remembers taking trips to Guntown Mountain as a child and being enthralled by a regular magic show hosted at the theme park.

Though he can’t remember his name, the magician there was an important influence for Lowe, instilling in him a desire to perform similar tricks. Seeing famed illusionists Doug Henning and David Copperfield on TV strengthened Lowe’s determination.

Sports were never seen as a priority in his family, nor was Lowe particularly good at them, so he decided to pursue magic, he said.

“I’ve always been into the arts and acting, so magic was an outlet,” he said.

The mystique of performance magic in an area where most people rarely think about it was appealing as well, Lowe said.

“It was a very unique thing,” he said. “Obviously, there’s not a lot of people who are into magic.”

At the age of 7 or 8, Lowe got his first magic set, an array of tricks that fit into a suitcase. Though his family was always supportive, Lowe speculates he probably wore them out with his insistence on showing them the same tricks over and over again.

Before the internet, any trick he couldn’t read about in a book was extremely difficult to figure out, he said.

“I remember taping specials on TV and playing them over and over again, trying to figure out how a trick was done in slow motion,” he said.

Lowe specializes in what he calls parlor magic, which often involves a fairly small crowd of up to 100 people and a lack of large, elaborate set pieces.

“It’s going to be things on a more intimate scale,” he said.

The sorts of illusions he does often involve cards but he has numerous other tricks, including one where he rolls several separate lengths of dental floss into a ball and unrolls the ball to reveal a single, longer stretch of floss.

He also has a few mentalist tricks, such as pulling items out of a bag and knowing which spectators put them in, as well as one in which a spectator writes down multiple-digit numbers and another adds them up, matching a prediction that was on full display for the rest of the crowd the whole time.

Now employed as an information systems director at The Medical Center at Caverna, Lowe still pursues his passion as a magician-for-hire on the side. A few times a month, he’ll perform for a crowd, usually at birthday parties, though he’s had plenty of shows at schools, libraries and company outings.

Juggling his performances and his main job is difficult, Lowe said, adding that he sometimes has to turn gigs down because he can’t find the time to get to the event.

“If I have more than two in a week, that’s a busy week,” he said.

In addition to performing shows, Lowe has also partnered with after-school programs in the area. At North Jackson Elementary School, for instance, he’s taught students how to perform their own magic tricks.

Learning magic has plenty of benefits, including heightened manual dexterity, verbal skills, confidence and self-discipline, according to the website for Lowe’s company, Traveling Magic.

“It’s not just teaching them a trick,” he said. “The idea and the concept is to teach them to create. They’re learning to be creative.”

Because of all the props and tools it requires, magic is an expensive hobby, Lowe said, adding that most of the money he earns from his side business goes back into the company.

Magic may soon become the Lowe family business. Lowe’s 14-year-old daughter Grace started following in her father’s footsteps around the age of 5 and has been blazing her own trail for almost as long.

Unlike her father, Grace specializes in escape magic.

She started off as an assistant in her father’s shows, she said.

“When I was about 5, I would go to parties with him and help him with stuff,” she said.

Within a few years, Grace, after seeing a performance from Jennifer Gowen, better known as Adrienne Phoenix, the only female professional escape artist, fire eater and magician in Kentucky, decided she wanted to pursue escape magic.

Phoenix said she was honored to have been so influential in Grace’s life.

“It was probably the single greatest moment of my life when Brad came up to me and said ‘Grace wants to be just like you,’ ” she said. “It was so wonderful to know that I inspired at least one person.”

When she was 8 or 9, Grace got a straitjacket for Christmas that, according to Brad, had to be custom-made because nobody manufactures straitjackets for children that young.

Through the years, Phoenix has given Grace pointers on how to refine her act and seen her grow into a capable young magician, she said.

Shy when she first started performing, Grace has become more confident over time and developed her own stage presence, Phoenix said.

“She has this dry sense of humor and it’s great to see her use it onstage. She’s really coming into her own,” Phoenix said.

Able to escape from straitjackets, Grace also has a trick where someone places her in handcuffs and drapes a bag over her hands. When the bag is removed, the spectators find that the manacles are gone as well.

Another favorite illusion involves her being locked in a crate. “Then they raise up a curtain and drop it down and I’m standing on top of the crate,” she said.

Phoenix said she’s especially thrilled that Grace is starting to make a name for herself in a male-dominated field.

“It’s really important to help young girls in magic because there are so few of them,” she said.

At magic conventions, where most of the attendees are men, there’s often an assumption that any woman there is an assistant, she said.

Grace has noticed similar attitudes at magic conventions, saying that most people she meets don’t expect her to be a magician. “A lot of people are caught off guard, thinking ‘Oh, she’s probably here with her dad,’ ” she said, adding that she likes surprising them with her status as a practicing magician.

Grace is looking to continue growing as a magician and is hoping to design tricks no one else has ever performed, she said.

“I’d really like to produce my own illusions and make my own tricks,” she said, adding that she hopes to some day turn her hobby into her career.

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.