I first met Petrick and Mia about 20years ago or so when I was running A&B Novelties Magic and Fun Shop in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the time, they were a very young couple on one of their first lecture tours.
They were scheduled to
lecture at IBM Ring 117, and the arrangements were that they would
drive into West Palm Beach, meet me at the magic shop and I would in
turn accompany them to the motel we had booked for them, take them to
dinner and then to the lecture hall at the Moose Lodge where Ring 117
held their meetings.
All was going fine. After a couple of calls for directions they arrived at the Magic Shop close to 5:00 PM.
They were driving a van and were accompanied by two (2) beautiful,
black Afghan Hounds. After closing the shop, the beautiful Mia got into
my car and Petrick followed in the van.
We drove to downtown West Palm Beach to the old Holiday Inn, arriving in front of the Holiday Inn at about 5:15 P.M.
I told Petrick I would take Mia inside, and get them registered while
he parked the van in the lot at the back of the motel. Hopefully we
would save some time that way and have an opportunity to go to dinner
before the lecture. Petrick agreed and Mia and I went into the motel to
register, while he went to park the van.
Holiday Inn (West Palm circa 1982) Parking Below
About 10 minutes passed while I got them registered and took Mia and
the luggage up to the room. The room was located at the back of the
motel and faced the Inner Coastal Waterway on Flagler Drive. The balcony overlooked a large parking lot in the rear of the building.
While Mia changed clothes for
the lecture I stood on the balcony awaiting the arrival of Petrick.
Almost 15 minutes passed and there was still no sign of Petrick. When
Mia came out of the room I told her I was going down to the lobby to
see if perhaps Petrick was there waiting for us.
When I got to the lobby there
was no sign of Petrick and none of the staff had seen him. I thought
great "he's disappeared"! I pictured him having made a wrong turn and
"just knew" he was now aimlessly driving through the maze of "one way
streets" in downtown West Palm Beach, and hopelessly lost.
I returned to the balcony,
where Mia was waiting, but there was still no sign of Petrick. Another
15 minutes passed when suddenly Mia excitedly exclaimed, "there is
Petrick"!!. Looking down into the parking lot, sure enough, there was
Petrick, finding a place to park. It was then I noticed that there was
a gaping hole in the top of the van, where about an hour before there
was a nice "bubble top".
It seems that Petrick,
instead of driving around to the back of the lot initially, decided to
take the Van into the underground garage. Unfortunately the Van, with
the "bubble top", did not quite fit, and as Petrick drove into the
underground garage, the top of the van wedged against the ceiling and
the "bubble top" was shattered.
It took him quite some time
to back the wedged van out of the garage entrance and finally make his
way around to the back parking lot.
To make matters worse, it was
starting to rain! I went to the lobby and the staff of the motel were
kind enough to give me a number of large garbage bags and some tape.
Petrick and I spent about 15 minutes taping up the gaping hole in the
top of the van, and by now it was close to time to be at the lecture
hall.
Finally the hole was repaired
enough to heap the rain out and Petrick followed Mia and I to the Moose
Lodge, arriving at exactly 7:00 PM. So much for dinner.
While the short business
meeting was going on, Petrick and Mia set up for the lecture, and
although still hungry, they put on a tremendous lecture that night. I
truly felt that this was a couple that could overcome any adversity and
give a tremendous performance.
True professionals in every
sense of the word, and Petrick spent a lot of time answering questions
and explaining every effect in detail.
After the meeting we finally went out for a very late dinner and many of the members of Ring 117 joined us.
I really felt sorry for them
though, as it was one of their first lecture tours, and I felt the
agent booking them certainly did not seem to care about the way he
lined up the schedule. I found out they had to lecture the following
night and the drive to the next lecture was 800 miles.
I don't know if they made
that lecture on time, but even if they didn't, I realize that no matter
what time they got there, because of their obvious love of, and
devotion to magic, no matter how "late" they might be, they would
always be "great.'
The Sturgis
Journal goes front and center with a great profile on one of our
favorite magic dealers and people in the world, Rick Fisher.
It seems like it wasn't that long ago that FAB Magic began
what some considered the magic equivalent of shipping coal to Newcastle.
We didn't know what that meant so we just took it in stride.
But it sounded like, "does the world need Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan?"
How can you have too many magic stores?
FAB Magic opened its beautifully adorned magic shop just
yards from Abbott's Magic Factory. Colon is not a large
town, or even a medium-sized village.
It
boasts a population of 1,227 residents and the main road to the south
accommodates both motor vehicles and horse-drawn Amish carriages and carts.
Colon, Michigan is a beautiful and historic
location. However, could it support two
magic shops?
It appears Newcastle
needed more coal because both Abbott's and FAB Magic are still open for
business and have expanded their plans for the upcoming Magic Week.
Whilst Abbott's charges registration for participation in
the iconic Get-Together, Mr. Fisher offers most of his events, lectures,
activities and shows free.
"Tuesday through Saturday is pretty much going to be non-sleep,"
owner Rick Fisher told The Sturgis
Journal.
The shop will be open from 9:00 am through 10:00 pm during
Magic Week.
We presume we're supposed to go back to the campgrounds
behind the high school and sleep while the store is closed.
Mr. Fisher signed up a bunch and a half of corporate
sponsors, to present all but the Friday
and Saturday evening shows for free.
Special for this year's edition, Mr. Fisher will be offering
two DVDs: one of Percy Abbott performing and the other is a collection of shows
by Jerry Conklin. We viewed an advance
copy of the Percy Abbott DVD and were so impressed. This is a keepsake worth keeping.
Marilyn Abbott will be on hand to sign DVD's on Saturday and
Mr. Conklin will stop by to sign his DVDs on Friday.
Mr. Fisher has worked hard to make FAB Magic a real magic
store; a brick and mortar location that has a high-speed avenue to the
internet.
We've purchased much from FAB Magic and have yet to be
disappointed in the quality, service, or price.
Artisans (some formerly of Abbott's) are not apparently driven to meet
quotas or crank out merchandise but to design and manufacture tricks they would
be proud to use in a show.
We purchased our Suitcase Table and Close-Up Table from FAB
and have not seen such high-quality since we attended an antique magic
auction. The FAB version of the Torn and
Mr. Fisher once said he wanted a magic shop attractive to
both the beginners and seasoned pros. He
has produced that in FAB Magic. The
floorboards creak as you walk into the historic storefront, the long counter
with demo pads and tricks in various stages of preparation invites you to join
other magic-lovers for swapping and showing magic, discussing the "best of"
any particular magic category, and the type of fellowship you don't see outside
of the traditional magic store.
Visit Mr. Fisher's FAB Magic in person during Magic Week
(we'll see you there) or virtually on the web at http://www.fabmagic.com.
The Sturgis
Journal goes front and center with a great profile on one of our
favorite magic dealers and people in the world, Rick Fisher.
It seems like it wasn't that long ago that FAB Magic began
what some considered the magic equivalent of shipping coal to Newcastle.
We didn't know what that meant so we just took it in stride.
But it sounded like, "does the world need Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan?"
How can you have too many magic stores?
FAB Magic opened its beautifully adorned magic shop just
yards from Abbott's Magic Factory. Colon is not a large
town, or even a medium-sized village.
It
boasts a population of 1,227 residents and the main road to the south
accommodates both motor vehicles and horse-drawn Amish carriages and carts.
Colon, Michigan is a beautiful and historic
location. However, could it support two
magic shops?
It appears Newcastle
needed more coal because both Abbott's and FAB Magic are still open for
business and have expanded their plans for the upcoming Magic Week.
Whilst Abbott's charges registration for participation in
the iconic Get-Together, Mr. Fisher offers most of his events, lectures,
activities and shows free.
"Tuesday through Saturday is pretty much going to be non-sleep,"
owner Rick Fisher told The Sturgis
Journal.
The shop will be open from 9:00 am through 10:00 pm during
Magic Week.
We presume we're supposed to go back to the campgrounds
behind the high school and sleep while the store is closed.
Mr. Fisher signed up a bunch and a half of corporate
sponsors, to present all but the Friday
and Saturday evening shows for free.
Special for this year's edition, Mr. Fisher will be offering
two DVDs: one of Percy Abbott performing and the other is a collection of shows
by Jerry Conklin. We viewed an advance
copy of the Percy Abbott DVD and were so impressed. This is a keepsake worth keeping.
Marilyn Abbott will be on hand to sign DVD's on Saturday and
Mr. Conklin will stop by to sign his DVDs on Friday.
Mr. Fisher has worked hard to make FAB Magic a real magic
store; a brick and mortar location that has a high-speed avenue to the
internet.
We've purchased much from FAB Magic and have yet to be
disappointed in the quality, service, or price.
Artisans (some formerly of Abbott's) are not apparently driven to meet
quotas or crank out merchandise but to design and manufacture tricks they would
be proud to use in a show.
We purchased our Suitcase Table and Close-Up Table from FAB
and have not seen such high-quality since we attended an antique magic
auction. The FAB version of the Torn and
Mr. Fisher once said he wanted a magic shop attractive to
both the beginners and seasoned pros. He
has produced that in FAB Magic. The
floorboards creak as you walk into the historic storefront, the long counter
with demo pads and tricks in various stages of preparation invites you to join
other magic-lovers for swapping and showing magic, discussing the "best of"
any particular magic category, and the type of fellowship you don't see outside
of the traditional magic store.
Visit Mr. Fisher's FAB Magic in person during Magic Week
(we'll see you there) or virtually on the web at http://www.fabmagic.com.
We love magic.There
we said it.Sue us.We'll pretty much see anything with magic in
it; or even in its title.We bought a
gross of Magic Markers just because of the name.
(We also learned that while the fumes from one Magic Marker
may not be hazardous to your mental or physical health – the wafting aroma of
magic solvent from 144 uncapped Magic Markers will mess you up something
fierce.
We still have flash-backs and
disturbed dreams – we can't stop our paranoid delusions the story book
character, Harold of Harold and the Purple Crayon is stalking us.He hopes to draw the silhouette at the crime
scene of our cringing, lifeless body.
Plus, he doesn't really wear proper clothes and that scares us in and of
itself – we feared non-conforming clothes long before our experimental and
unintentional abuse of Magic Markers).
Whoa.Where did all
that come from.We were writing about
how much we loved magic and all things magic when, "Wham!" we're in
the midst of an Ibsen soliloquy of angst, regret, and fumes.Sorry.
Magic is what we love.
Right.Let's get on
with the story, then.
We had no intention of seeing Woody Allen's new film Scoop. We knew nothing about the story line or plot.In fact we assumed it involved a newspaper
person or perhaps someone who diligently cleans up after her animal during dog
walks.
We were half right.
Scoop does involve a newspaper woman, Scarlett Johanson, but
just barely.
That is apparently the point of the movie.The stunning Ms. Johanson is a young
journalism student who is often barely clothed.
But there is magic involved.
She gets her biggest scoop (like Great Dane-sized) when she volunteers for a magician's
trick.
During the effect, she is visited by a gossiping spirit who
tells her the identity of Britian's "Tarot Card Killer."
She works with the magician played by Mr. Allen on the hunt
for the murderer.
Well, one thing leads to another, comedy ensues, the bad guy
keeps killing women, more laughs, jealousy is evidenced, some more gags, and
then it ends.
Not a lot of magic in the film.It is analogous to the amount of magic one
would find in Magic Markers.While Magic
Markers' fumes may intoxicate, it is the upper-torso of Ms. Johanson that does
the trick in this film.
Offered one cynical critic, Alex Sandell: “If you threw together Manhattan Murder
Mystery and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and gave each film's leading lady
humungous boobs, you'd pretty much have Scoop.”
That's hardly high praise.
We searched the internet(s) for Mr. Sandell's critique of
Magic Markers or that little obsessive-compulsive, ugly-clothes-wearing,
stalking, graffiti-drawing, ambiguously-aged, linear-thinking, freak Harold or
his purple crayon of doom.So far no
luck.It could be Mr. Sandell hasn't
found time to review Harold and the Purple Crayon or maybe he too has been
threatened or intimidated by the spooky little deviant.
Snowmass is synonymous magic. Bob
Sheets, Doc Eason, Eric Meade are not only stars of our business, they also
worked Snowmass.
The festivities kick off Friday
with street performers and activities, plus an outdoor showing of “ET” on the
big Fanny Hill screen at dusk.
(Bring a blanket and popcorn.)
On Saturday and
Sunday, families can check out the continuous assortment of magic and puppet
shows, street entertainers, puppet-making, juggling and magic workshops going
on in the vicinity of the Snowmass Mall.
Connie Elstun will perform her kid’s show and provide a
Magic Workshop “in the shade near Paradise Bakery.”
Later Saturday evening, there will be a “Magical
dine-around” in several area restaurants followed by the Magic Cabaret with Doc
Eason, Eric Mead and a host other magicians in a nightclub performance at The
Blue Door, next to the Silvertree Hotel.
For all the times, performers, and history, check out the Official Snowmass Village web
site – it’s outstanding. Doc Eason is
the organizer for the fest so you know it is going to be more than great, it’s
going to be fun.
By the way, make sure you check out Doc Eason's newly revamped web site. We've always loved his humor (he's as twisted as we like) and he shares his jokes, show schedule, and news.
Mr. Eason has often put up the cash to keep this festival alive and thriving.
We love magic.
Recent Comments