How a WVU grad is dazzling audiences throughout the country.
Brielle will appear at the Pepperoni Roll Festival in Ona, West Virginia, on June 22, 2024—admission is free!
On a chilly April night in the windy city of Chicago, a WVU alumna found herself at a magic show that would change her life. In the front row of the late show, Jessica Kawalek, who goes by Brielle, fell in love—but rather than with her date on that cloudy Saturday, Brielle fell in love with magic.
Brielle originally hails from Bunker Hill, West Virginia, near Martinsburg. Growing up, she watched magicians like Penn & Teller, but she fulfilled her need to perform through high school theater. She followed a passion for psychology to WVU, gaining bachelor’s degrees in psychology and German before moving to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. She taught there and earned her master’s in psychology.
Five years later, Brielle’s path again crossed with magic. She and Michael T. Myers were both substitute teaching back home. The late Michael T. was known for magic and his love for children, and, admiring his classroom management, Brielle learned his secret: magic tricks. “He was so supportive,” she reflects. “I’m convinced he saw something in me I didn’t see at the time.” Practicing magic privately, she came back to WVU for a master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. After two years teaching through a pandemic, she moved to Chicago to work for her textbooks’ publisher.
At that late night magic show the following April, the magician produced a Brussels sprout from thin air, and Brielle’s mind was officially blown. “I remember having the best night of my life,” she says. “I looked around, and no one was thinking about what they had to do in the morning. Everyone was just experiencing this beautiful, childlike wonderment.” She knew this was what she was meant to do.
After connecting with the show’s magician, she started performing for friends and quickly gained traction in the magic scene, performing as a guest and house magician at venues across Chicago. She’s been performing full-time since January and appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us in March. Although she experiences stage fright, performing for the duo she had grown up watching was a magical experience. “I was just so scared, and Penn waved at me,” she says. “Before we started, Teller leaned over to me and said, ‘Give us hell, kid—you got this.’”
Magic has combined the loves of Brielle’s life. “It’s something that feels like it’s been part of me for longer,” she says. “If you haven’t been practicing tricks for 30 years, I think you get written off a little bit, but I think magic is so much more than practicing tricks. It’s about connecting with people, and I’ve been doing that since I started theater—since I started psychology.”
Brielle has a June tour in the works that she plans to bring to Morgantown and her home of Bunker Hill. She also hopes to perform at WVU’s Up All Night. Stay informed as tour dates are set by watching her website, magicbybrielle.com.
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