On an overcast afternoon, just hours after having a crown put on at the dentist, retired Navy captain JR Russell was all smiles, performing an impromptu magic show in his Oak Harbor backyard.

He had made the innocent mistake of stepping out front holding a white bunny puppet stuffed in a black top hat. He’s found that people of all ages are drawn to his bunny Kevin whenever he breaks him out in public to practice his act.

This day was no exception as a neighborhood kid walked over to inquire. Soon another showed up and Russell figured it was time to put on a little show.

Sitting in original Wrigley Field seats on Russell’s back porch, two wide-eyed kids oohed and awed and giggled as they watched Russell make a coin disappear, transform a playing card on an iPhone and levitate a table.

All the while, it was hard to tell whose smiles were larger — Russell’s or his audience.

“The people who know me know I’m probably really 10-years-old,” said Russell, who’s 56. “I haven’t cracked adolescence. I know it’s got to be 10 because if I was 8, I wouldn’t have liked girls. That’s why I say I’m 10.

“Even when I was in a squadron and flying, there was humor and magic in everything.”

During his time in the Navy, JR Russell flew planes and commanded a squadron.

Yet, since his college days when he served as social chairman in his college fraternity at Villanova University, Russell has never been one to shy away from the spotlight and has enjoyed entertaining others with a quick wit or card and coin tricks he learned as a kid.

Unsure what was next in his life after the Navy, Russell was urged by his wife of 29 years, Sarah Russell, to chase a new dream.

He went to Las Vegas to learn the finer points of stage magic at McBride’s Magic & Mystery School, and was taught by well-known magicians Jeff McBride and Eugene Burger.

Since 2011, Russell has been performing magic acts at various Whidbey Island outlets from schools to social clubs to senior centers to private residences for children’s birthday parties.

“I found out it’s a lot more than doing card tricks,” he said. “You have to start putting together a show and be able to entertain.”

Russell, even as commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron 133 at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, was never one to lack in that area.

“He kind of knows when humor can be used to his advantage,” said Bob McNaught, who served with Russell early on in their military careers and remains a friend. “He tends to turn awkward, stressful moments that come with all walks of life into humor.

“He’s an extrovert. He loves talking to people. He likes to draw a crowd. He’s very comfortable around people.”

Russell has created a character he calls “Father Martini,” which he’s broken out in front of adult audiences at the Whidbey Playhouse and more recently at a show in Vancouver, B.C.

He caters his act to his audience, mixing his humor and tricks, whether’s he’s performing at a child’s birthday party or as an opening act at the playhouse.

He’s started to feel more like an entertainer who has a show rather than a magician who does a few tricks.

“I don’t know how the tricks are done and I don’t want to know,” said his wife, Sarah, a music teacher. “I like the magic too.”

JR Russell can also feel the magic.

He remembers how at one of his first performances at a senior center, he watched an 85-year-old resident get up and sing. Russell created a magical setting with bubbles blowing and had been pulling out long strands of silk, about 50 feet of it, when the woman got up and started dancing, then left.

“The director came up and said, ‘What did you do? She’s been here two months and hasn’t said a single word and now she’s upstairs singing.’

“Magic. At one of my first performances at a retirement home, I saw the power of magic.”

Russell knew then he’d made the right decision to go after another dream.

He recalled a conversation he had with Vice Admiral William Sullivan at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, five years ago as retirement approached. Russell was Sullivan’s chief of staff at that time.

Russell told Sullivan he was planning to be a magician after the Navy.

“He laughed,” Russell said, “and then he said, ‘I wish I had the courage to chase a passion like that,’ and he wished me luck.”

To learn more about JR Russell, the magician, go to www.jrrussellmagic.com