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 <strong>no</strong>te 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 <strong>Magic</strong> 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 <strong>Magic</strong> 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 u<strong>no</strong>btainable 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 <strong>Magazine</strong> www.<strong>Vanish</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>.com
VANISH MAGAZINE www.<strong>Vanish</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>.com 31
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