odyssey 1

Magic odyssey continues, lotsa name-dropping! by MAGIC IAN I do believe that I met the right people at the right time. In previous articles I mentioned I befriended Walter Gibson, Bob Rheinhart, Jeff McBride, Lance Burton, David Kotkin (Copperfield), George Sands, but one year 1982 was one heck of a year. That year Tannens decided to carry my top ten effects in their catalog and in their Tannens Topics as well. They also featured my items on the back of Genii magazine and the Summer they did this was my the Summer I first set up at the National conventions in Evansville IBM, Los Angelos, PCAM, and the SAM in Oregon. Pete White P&A silks, Arte Severtsen (Mr. Peabody magic), and myself all traveled together on a shoestring budget, and I was sharing my booth with Arte to save some money. The LA leg was really cool, as I saw and explored more magic than I ever knew existed. We stopped off at the Owen magic Supreme in California and watched as they built Disectos by the hundreds. On display was the original Thurston Sawing a Lady illusion, a huge box that could probably hold ten assistants, and Blackstone Seniors' original buz-saw illusion. Then we headed to the convention and set up our booths. As dealers, all of the current and famous performers would head to the dealer rooms and since Tannens was featuring my effects in the magazine that arrived that week, I got a lot of attention. Normally, a magician would have to seek out the precession of stars to even gain an audience with these people, but, everyone stopped at my booth. David Copperfield, Al Goshman, Mark Wilson, the Larsens and others. I was also next to Jack Chanin who had a crowd and was a tough man to upstage .That was all at the booth, then at night all the dealers were invited to the castle where the greats of magic were still alive and some even kicking. I was buddy with Bob Little, and he introduced me to Vernon, Kuddobucks, and Bob Lawton. Vernons advice to me was "Stay out of magic, kid". One night at the dealers booth I got a fedex delivery of my first manufactured illusion the Arm Box (Slice-off hand). This was one of the effects in the ads, so I had lots of interest. One of the first to try it out was Mohamed Ali. He had arrived at the convention and loved to buy magic. Unfortunately, his masive hands couldn't fit into the box. He also commented to me that you couldn't do this with a "brotha". Ali was feeling the ravages of his disease but his mind was still sharp. The booth was elevated so I was just above eye level with Ali. I felt like Forrest Gump, traveling obliviously through life touching greatness. I remember listening to Cassius Clay beating Sonny Liston when I was 11. Now, I actually held his huge hands in mine as I showed him how to do a magic trick, facing him and guiding his hands through the motions of a performance.. An audience with the King, lasting 5 minutes and I was touching history. One of the other interesting people I met was the late Joe Berg who had National Magic on Hollywood boulevard. He stopped by the booth and invited me to his shop which was closing that month. He sold me 2 dozen spirit seance hands made of plaster of Paris, a component needed in my arm box. His were over 30 years old and were beautifully made. My box had a subtlety that used the hand and the one from my manufacturer was poorly made, so that worked out and I made a friend as well. The last convention was in Oregon, and our flight was the first flight allowed over Mount St. Helens after the eruption. The Oregon convention received me with open arms as well. I was lecturing just after Meir Yedid and just before the newcomer Michael Amaar. Michael was doing the bare handed matrix on the rugs in the hallways during that convention. Oregon had its own group of stars and one of the last people I met was Jerry Andrus who was a very interesting fellow. Magic is a great leveler, once you are lecturing and a dealer, people assume that you have absorbed all of the knowledge of the magic world. So, here I am, fresh out of svengali deck 101, having a beer with Andrus in his room and he is showing me a card move or two asking me if his pinkie center steal was visible. Who could even see the cards in his massive hands, much less the steal. He also asked what I thought of his new illusion he was working on.Zone Zero. Nothing like a private demo from the creator. Enough about conventions. Back home in New York, I used to go to Tannens to show off my latest stuff and they let me in the back rooms to checkout my inventory shelf. That back room was always wild with select buyers and dealers showing up and hanging out. I remember one on one with Frank Garcia, Bob Elliot, & Daryl. Some conversations would be one sided as Elliot showed me some unbelievable card move and would amend his performance by saying, "of course you know this move, or that move", and would proceed to show me how to do the thing. I was clueless but didn't let on. George Schindler booked me as one of his performer lecturers at his Pennsylvania magic conventions. The great thing about that was meeting the stars headlining at the hotels. While sitting at the "performers" table in the back-room of one hotel, Red Buttons was opposite me alongside of Schindler. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I feigned a cough and produced a mouth coil at the table, which made Buttons wince and Schindler want to belt me in the mouth. I was a jerk, star struck, and would do anything to get attention. Sometimes it worked. I remember Jeff Stuart and I at a public show Wagner Auditorium in Brooklyn hosted by Schindler. The NY times came in and everyone else was busy with crowds so I grabbed Stuart and we did some demos at the table for the press. We were the only ones featured with a picture in the Times. NBC news was there as well, and was shooting footage in the dealer room which had a batch of generic demos going on. I jumped over the table and started doing a fancy dancing cane in the center of the dealer room. Al Cohen and the other guys were laughing, but my cane routine opened the evening national news for NBC that night. The news crew never stayed to see the show with the stage performers Jeff McBride Schindler and Rocco. Enough name dropping. More next time. Magic Ian Aka Ian Sutz