There are a few established ways to gain admission to the Magic Castle, a clubhouse and restaurant in Los Angeles: being a magician member, knowing one or staying at the neighboring hotel. But those eager to see what lies inside have found another way in the door: donating blood.
Such was the path for Justice Buckly, a 22-year-old student from Santa Clarita, Calif., who wanted to secure a reservation for a surprise dinner for his friends, and stumbled upon the tip on Reddit. “I would not have been giving blood otherwise,” he said.
Mr. Buckly was one of the 84 people who showed up to a Red Cross blood drive at the castle last month. As a gesture of gratitude, participants receive a guest pass to the club. (The Magic Castle doesn’t advertise its blood drives as a way to gain entry to the club. But on social media, some users have popularized them as a way to score an otherwise hard-to-get visitor’s pass.)
“It solves their bucket-list item, but it also saves three lives,” said Paul Green, a magician who has been performing at the Magic Castle for the past five decades and is a champion of the blood drives. He and other magicians volunteer to entertain guests before and after their donations, with card tricks and other deceptions.
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