Vanish Magic Magazine no. 39

During my sophomore year of college I became aware of
theatrical illusion. I had the opportunity to see my first real
illusion show. I was intrigued by the illusions from the point of
theatrical design. From that moment on the margins of my note
books were filled with sketches of illusions and the possible
inner workings. This led to the discovery of magic in libraries
and eventually magic shops. I dove in with both feet, becoming
friends with like minded individuals, learning and growing in the
craft.
There was a lot of magic my junior year of college. In December
I went to see Richardi and the World Festival of Magic and the
Occult at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden in New York
… an amazing experience. Richardi was incredible and seeing
the black art magic of Omar Pasha was a real learning experience.
That spring, Doug Henning open on Broadway with the Magic
Show. I was hooked.
Over the summer I began working part time at a magic shop
which afforded me the opportunity to see it all. The books on
illusion and past shows were the most interesting to me. That
summer I bought my first illusion, a sword suspension from Chu’s
magic of Hong Kong. This was also my favorite illusion from
Henning's show.
In the fall of my senior year, two years after seeing my first
illusion show, I decided to create one as a fundraiser for my
theatre fraternity. I was armed with a copy of Will Aylings “Art of
Illusion” and a cast assembled from fellow students in the theatre
department.
I had my 3 swords, a head chest and small guillotine from
Supreme magic, I built the rest from wood scraps gathered up
from the ruins of stage sets. I made a subtrunk and zig-zag.
The zig-zag was pure speculation, the Harbin book was as
unobtainable as the Holy Grail, however, with my mechanical
drawing skills, and keeping my ears open when magicians I knew
spoke about it in hushed tones, I nearly nailed it … I was off by
only two inches in depth.
So Halloween night, 1974, I had my baptism by fire into the world
of producing an illusion show.
After College I worked briefly as an art director creating
packaging for mail order magic tricks. I then became manager
of a NJ magic shop. Shortly thereafter I became acquainted with
Bill Schmeelk of Wellington Enterprises and I slowly began to
develop an illusion show … for real. I worked as an art designer
for Wellington, painted presentation renderings and helped with
decorating design and sculpture projects. I worked on props for
Henning, Blackstone and many of the big names of the day. The
sun burst design on the Blaney sword box, that was me.
On my own, I developed a spook show for the college market,
and themed holiday event shows for shopping centers. Shopping
centers seemed to have a constant need for entertainment in
the late 70’s into the 80s. I found if I could offer a show for special
holiday events, I’d secure a place to do it, marketing Christmas
shows with Santa arrivals, Halloween shows, Easter shows,
President's Day shows, Fourth of July shows, back to school, you
name it.
By 1981 I was on my own, devoting 80% of my shows to
shopping centers. By 1989 I had multiple units of theme shows
working half way across the US.
In the 1990s the malls were changing their marketing plans and
I needed to move on. I entered the arena of amusement park
productions, dominated by Mark Wilson and Paul Osborne. But
hay, they couldn’t book everything.
30 VANISH Magazine www.VanishMagazine.com