Local illusionist Jim Passe has two big tricks planned for the future. The first falls into the category of don't-believe-what-you-see. The second is one that I'll believe only when I see it.

Let me take them in order:

Two months from now, Passe -- a Raleigh patent attorney who moonlights as a professional magician -- will drive from New York to Hollywood while wearing a blindfold. He'll be behind the wheel of a car, eyes covered and hood pulled over his head, for 3,000 miles. He expects that the trip will take less than a week, which means Passe won't exactly be poking along. By the time you factor in time for meals, bathroom breaks, refueling and a good night's sleep, Passe will have to average at least 50 mph to drive across the continent in the expected six days.

Awfully fast for somebody who's blindfolded, don't you think?

Relax. Fact is, not even God's greatest fool would consider driving across the country at high speed while sightless. Passe the lawyer knows that driving blind would create all kinds of legal liability problems for him if an accident occurred. And Passe the parent would never endanger anyone else's child, just as he wouldn't want his own child threatened by a willfully reckless driver. Ipso facto -- he won't actually be sightless.

I don't know how he'll see, but he will. Remember, he's an illusionist. He doesn't really saw women in half, either. It just looks as if he does.

That's trick No. 1, which Passe says is one of the most ambitious of its kind in magician circles. Trick No. 2 doesn't qualify as an illusion, but it's going to be much harder to pull off -- Passe says he's going to get out of his wheelchair and walk again someday.

Passe's legs have been paralyzed since March 1995, when he was injured in a freak accident. He'd had a huge, tablelike device custom-built for his magic act, and as the device was being being unloaded it slid off the back of the delivery truck. The crate hit Passe, who was standing next to the truck. He remembers hearing the snapping of his spine when it happened, and remembers a moment of intense pain -- and then nothing.

The accident didn't end Passe's career in magic, but it relegated him to a unwelcome niche: handicapped illusionist. Still, within a couple of years he was fully back in the game, participating in the International Brotherhood of Magicians stage competition and appearing on the NBC television show, "World's Greatest Magic." (By the way, Passe has a great line about his dual careers in magic and law: "In one of them you practice sleight of hand, the other you practice sleight of mouth.")

Passe has also become a fund-raiser -- which is where trick No. 1 ties into trick No. 2.

The cross-country, blindfolded drive is more than a stunt. It's also a fund-raiser. (See www.blindfoldeddrive.com for details.) Passe hopes to raise $1 million, which will go to The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Researchers at the Miami Project are just a few years away from putting some paralyzed people back on their feet, Passe says, and the more money they get the faster they'll go.

He also says he wants to be one of the first to walk away from his wheelchair. In fact, he's determined to do so.

With no illusions involved.

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