But Shawn Preston has his way. He's the house magician at Lime in Greenwood Village. Every Thursday he tries to fool people, the way I'd put it. In his words, "He's entertaining."

Watch the faces of his audience and it's obvious he's doing much more just that.

"I love trying to figure out how people think and how they're going to react to something that I do," Preston said. "Seeing that sense of wonder come over somebody's face and that child-like astonishment when something amazing happens right under their nose, it's exhilarating for me. That's what makes my job so great."

I first met Preston while dining at Lime. His act piqued my curiosity.

He showed me his most popular trick, where he turns five ones into five $100 bills. Admittedly, I was amused. But frankly, his other trick is my favorite.

"I change $1 to $100s and people always ask about the bunnies, it never fails," Preston said.

You should see the bunny trick. Preston starts with putting one bunny in your hand and of course, a magic wand is involved, and somehow when you open your hand, a dozen or so bunnies pop out.

As I watched Preston do his magic, I started asking him about his job, wondering what he did full time. I thought, in this economy, when people with traditional professions like attorneys and reporters have a hard time being employed, a magician must have a difficult time supporting a family on tricks alone.

Preston told me he went to college and worked in graphic design for 12 years.

"My parents always told me you gotta have a career and you can use magic to fall back on," Preston said.

He's been entertaining different audiences since he was a child.

"My dad always had magic tricks and kept them in his top drawer and he'd fool me with them all the time," Preston said. "He would give me a magic trick after he'd fool me a million times. That was my prized possession. I would fool all the neighbors with it then."

Five years ago, he decided to see what else was in the cards.

"I don't want to be 60 years old looking back at my life thinking, 'Wow, there was that time where I could've made the leap and I didn't,'" he said. "I just jumped with both feet. I stopped taking on design projects and started putting all my energy into performing."

Despite his magic ability of turning $1s into $100, Preston admits that paying real bills sometimes is hard.

"Oh yeah, still scary," he said. "At the end of every job I'm unemployed until the next job. You never know. You wait. You hope to get those bookings far enough out so you're comfortable. There's definitely some scary months in there, particularly when the mortgage is due, car payments are due."

But Preston says, uncertainty aside, his gamble paid off.

"I have the best job in the world because I'm doing what I love to do and I'm making money doing it and I'm supporting my family," he said. "I really just wanted to encourage people to do that, don't be scared if you don't have a job start exploring other avenues, start seeing what's out there."

Preston works at Lime in Greenwood Village every Thursday and Maggiano's on Tuesday and Sunday.

To find out more, check out Preston's Web site at www.openthetrapdoor.com.