Wiz in ‘train’ ing
Brooklyn sorcerer grants wishes to subway riders
Devin Person is a self-proclaimed “wizard” who for the past six months has been granting wishes to MTA riders on the J, M, Q , F, G and L lines.
The 32-year-old Greenpoint resident dons a robe and matching hat for his trips, and people have asked himfor new jobs, love and money. Person said he’s up to about a dozen wishes a week.
Carmen Caceres, a dancer from Kensington, admits she was skeptical when she met Person on the G train in April.
“I remember seeing him and wondering if there was a Comic-Con[in town],” said Cacares, 31. When she inquired about Person’s get-up, they struck up a casual conversation and he offered to grant her a wish — on one condition.
“Here comes the part where he asks me for money,” Cacares thought.
Instead, Person told the dancer, who wished for a specific audition, to simply do a dance for herself before submitting her tryout application.
That night, Caceres sent in her paperwork, then realized she’d forgotten to spell-check it. Feeling stressed, she put on music, danced her heart out in her bedroom — then felt compelled to rewrite her application and put more emotion into it.
The next day, she landed the audition. Although she didn’t get the part, she believes Person helped her “look at the positive and think positive.”
Person, who works in customer service (wizards have to pay rent, too), admits he isn’t really granting wishes in the traditional sense. “What I’m offering is a moment to . . . think about things differently,” he said. “Maybe [the person will] take an action that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
The son of a nuclear-physicist father and a social-worker mother, Person grew up in Westford, Mass. At 18, he read a profile of comic-book writer Grant Morrison, who, according to Person, used the idea of magic as a form of “self-help psychology.”
After a decade of dabbling in mysticism and a move to New York, he decided to become a wizard — a process that involved a ritual including selfhypnosis. Soon after that, Person participated in a clinical trial for pigmented villonodular synovitis, a condition he suffers from that causes debilitating joint swelling. The medication helped but, as a side effect, turned his hair white.
“That was a signal from the universe that I was on the right path,” said Person.
When he rides the rails, Person brings along a sign saying “Talk to the Wizard” — which he posts by his side onthe train.
A sort-of life coach, he also offers meditations, hypnosis and wizarding sessions that “combine psychology-based mysticism with practical goal-setting.” The sessions are held at his home office and run about $150 per hour.
He admits that some subway wishes are impossible — such as the time a man asked to get the Knicks into the playoffs.
According to Person, “There’s a difference between a wish and a miracle.”