(SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY SUN)         Talk unveils smoke tricks         llusionist lifts veil to let students see duplicity of tobacco advertising.           By MUHAMMED EL-HASAN           Staff Writer YUCAIPA— When magician James Warren lets a student tie his hands and knees together only to escape effortlessly, he's trying to make a point. When he appears to light up a $20 bill, only to pull the money out of a cigar, there's a message behind the fun. The professional magician, who performs regularly at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and at schools around the Southland, dazzled students Monday at Park View Middle School with sleight-of-hand tricks to explain how tobacco advertisers dupe people into smoking. "There are people in the world who are magicians, but they don't admit it," Warren told nearly 300 middle school students in the campus auditorium. "These are the types of tricks I'm going to expose." Cigarette advertisers depend on magicians' tricks to misdirect people's attention to sell their product, he said. He showed the students an advertisement featuring the Marlboro Man holding a cigarette in this hand. Warren pointed out that the cowboy has a tough expression on his face and is alone. "We could get the idea that this guy doesn't need anybody else. He can take care of himself," Warren said. "He doesn't have to worry about parents and teachers." Tobacco advertisers hope people will believe that they can become as tough and independent as the Marlboro Man if they also smoke, he said. "But it's a lie," Warren said. "This man is not strong. He's weak. He's an addict. . . . He can't stop smoking to save his life." "What you're looking at on the screen is a magic trick. It's an illusion. The purpose of this magic trick is not to entertain you, but to rip you off." The original Marlboro Man died of lung cancer caused by his years of smoking, Warren said. As greater numbers of adults quit the habit each year, tobacco firms are intensifying efforts to get youths hooked, he said. He added that 3,000 to 4,000 young people start smoking each day. "They hope to make money off of you for the rest of your life because they know if you start, it's really hard to quit," he said. Karen Hanley, a sixth-grade teacher with anti-drug posters on the outside of her classroom door, said the magic show's message got through to her students. "He used examples that the children really do understand, and it was not made childish," Hanley said. "It wasn't like a put-down." One of Hanley's students, Niki Figueroa, said she enjoyed the show and appreciated how the anti-smoking message was expressed. "It was interesting the way he made a connection between magic and advertising," Niki said. "They way they (advertisers) trick people. They talk you into believing stuff by making other people look . . . . cool."