David goes to Hollywood
(Or, three Bucket List items in as many days)
MONDAY – Welcome to the jungle.1
LAX was a four hour and forty-five minute flight from Pearson on Monday April eighth and only a few times did I worry about how safe it was to fly during a solar eclipse. Would the pilots be wearing special glasses? I’m glad when I boarded that I didn’t see a shoebox with pinholes.
My friend Dan Trommater2 had warned me that the LA airport would be a nightmare and he was right. Apparently it’s been under construction for three years; only ten more to go to beat Toronto’s record for construction of the Eglinton LRT.
At the GTAA, you can walk right out and access taxis or Ubers, but here you had to take a shuttle to a special area and position yourself accordingly for a pickup. I jumped on a shuttle and after a minute started worrying that I had missed my chance to ring the bell to get off at the taxi stands and that now the bus was taking me to some random spot in downtown Los Angeles where nasty things were going to happen to me. Turns out I was fine.
I summoned an Uber and waited at A23 for it to arrive. After a few minutes, a silver Toyota Camry showed up and Andrew, the driver, opened the trunk. That was much easier than I thought it would be. During the forty-five minute ride, I kept forgetting about the solar eclipse and the radio announced it was over Idaho at that moment.
We were headed to a hotel near The Magic Castle, appropriately named, The Magic Castle Hotel and there was a bit of confusion as to exactly where it was. Andrew parked outside a yellow building and told me to run in and check. I ran up the yellow steps that encircled a fountain and asked the front desk person. This was the place. Had I not been in such a hurry I would have noticed the large black and white picture of the mansion circa 1910, decades before it would become The Castle.
While checking in, I was shown a list of twenty-five complimentary snacks that were available 24/7. Then I was told to look to my left and a person appeared holding a circular tray with an old fashioned champagne glass filled with the bubbly liquid. I was told about the famous (I’d never heard about it until that moment) popsicle hotline which was a red phone beside the pool that one could use to order a popsicle poolside at their whim. My eyes must have lit up when they mentioned the freestyle pop machine and soft serve ice cream machine because the Concierge cracked up. This was a lot of delicious information coming at me in under two minutes.
With suitcase in one hand and what would be the first of many bags of peanut M&Ms in the other, I headed to room 212.3
What’s this? There’s a Blackstone poster above the bed? The one with three images of Harry Blackstone Sr.; one of which is floating a camel. Very nice. And the towels in the bathroom are folded like bunny ears? Very cute.
Having only eaten a bag of almonds in the last nine hours, I searched for the closest In-N-Out Burger. Google maps told me there was one a fourteen-minute walk away; I got there in five. It was around four in the afternoon and it was packed.
After scarfing down the Number Two Combo: cheeseburger, wavy fries and cherry coke in less time than it took me to walk there, I sat and enjoyed the Pulp Fiction-y vibe of the place and made a mental note to come here every day. On the walk back to the hotel, I spotted Houdini’s star at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive and within a minute found stars belonging to Penn & Teller and David Copperfield.
Walking up Orange Drive afforded a nice view of The Castle, so I took a few pictures.
Directly across the street from The Castle is The Nirvana, which is apparently where the band was staying when they decided on their name. (Sounds plausible.) Facing south, I could see the back of the Roosevelt Hotel.
I stopped by the soft serve machine to make myself a vanilla/chocolate swirl cone on the way to my room. Disappointing.
Pool time! Aside from nearly getting hit in the head by a volleyball while floating in the water, (stupid kids), the pool was great. Because the kids were abusing the patience of the popsicle phone-delivery person, I decided to try the hotline another day.
I went back to the room and changed since it was approaching five o’clock which is when The Castle opens.
The December 1985 issue of Genii Magazine was the first one I ever read – it had Louis St. Pierre, Jr. on the cover - and Genii has kept me up to date with Castle news for decades. However, it always felt out of reach since you need to be invited by a member.
Dan was performing at The Castle this week and since he’s a super nice guy, he put me on his guest list.
The door was held open for me and I entered a small vestibule with a large bookshelf at one end. I immediately spotted the owl tucked between the books and slowly walked up to it…
“Open sesame.”
The bookshelf slid open and I stepped inside.
The very first person I met was The Castle President, Jack Goldfinger, We sat on the benches in the Vernon area and chatted for a few minutes, a painting of Dai performing the cups and balls hanging on the wall next to us. Nearby was a bronze bust of Blackstone Sr. Following our conversation, I lined up to watch Dan’s show in the Close-Up Gallery.
The walls of the path leading to the Close-Up Gallery display caricature after caricature of all the people I used to watch perform on The Magic Palace when I was a kid: The Great Tomsoni & Co., Daryl, Mike Caveney, Danny Rouzer, Ron Wilson, Pat Quayle, Martin A. Nash, Marvyn & Carol Roy, Chuck Jones…and it was nice to see caricatures of the next generation of stars: Asi Wind, Lucy Darling, Shoot Ogawa and Dani DaOrtiz. Next to these were photos of other greats: Juan Tamariz, Rene Levand, Michael Skinner, Jay Ose, Eugene Burger, Albert Goshman and one of a young Larry Jennings, pre-beard, holding a deck of cards and a cigarette.
Inside the Close-Up Gallery, flanked by a picture of Dai Vernon on his right and Charlie Miller on his left, Dan performed an ultra-smooth twenty minutes of magic including 3 Fly, Bill in Lime, Coins and Glass, which was a very clever piece taught to him by Dean Dill wherein four coins vanish one-by-one from under a glass and travelled to his left hand while a spectator watched from inches away. The conclusion was the broken and restored thread and the entire act was tied together with the message of questioning our assumptions. This was powerful magic that received a great reaction from the audience.
Exiting the Gallery, I asked someone how to get to the Palace of Mystery. I ran up the stairs, through the dining area, then along a hallway (aka The Hall of Fame), down some more stairs and ended up in the showroom. Right on time.
The house lights dimmed and exciting music played as the lights came up on the blue curtains. The first performer entered and it was Shoot Ogawa! The song “Take On Me” began to play and Shoot performed a wonderful act with a red wand that kept appearing and disappearing and he then did a routine with thimbles which appeared, disappeared, changed colour and multiplied. This was the type of routine that was so well done it made me want to revisit these items in Tarbell. Who knew they could look this good?
Shoot stepped forward, addressed the audience and explained that all of tonight’s performers were from Japan and that the show we were about to see had originally been scheduled for April 2020, but alas…The good news was that we could see them all now.
Next up was Taiga. The stage was dark and to the opening strains of the theme from The White Lotus, candles in paper lanterns on the ground lit up one at a time. Taiga entered holding a piece of white cloth that suddenly transformed into a lantern with a lit candle inside. A branch of cherry blossoms was then produced and a moment later all of the blossoms fell off. Blank cards were then produced in expert fashion, followed by the production of a large parasol and a large branch of cherry blossoms to end. My bare description does not begin to capture the beautiful, poetic nature of Taiga’s act which featured themes of death and rebirth throughout.
Shoot returned to the stage and invited an audience member to assist in a very funny routine where they would inspect his jacket and yet he would end up producing four dinner rolls from within. Then all fifty-one cards to traveled to his pockets with the spectator’s signed card remaining in his hand.
Following Shoot was Yosuke Ikeda who, while not performing magic, did a silent act to music which was a vignette in which Yosuke begins with a lack of confidence and belief in himself and as the act progresses eventually has faith in himself. The final few minutes were to The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye” and Yosuke produced the lyrics of the song in various comical and creative ways in perfect time to the music.
Closing the show was 23-year old Hannah who danced onto the stage and performed an expert Dancing Cane routine, followed by the production of multiple Aces of Spades from hands that were clearly empty moments before. Fans of red cards, green cards, yellow cards and then handfuls of confetti were produced and the whole act finished with a DOUBLE Dancing Cane routine that concluded with paper hearts flying out into the audience. Although the room was only half full, the performers received enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Following this, I met up with Dan by the Main Bar near the Vernon area. Dan introduced me to his friend Sean and Sean’s son Hudson. We chatted until it was time for me to catch the next Close-Up Gallery performer, Abby Segal. She is also 23, performs regularly at the Chicago Magic Lounge and is a protégé of Eugene Burger.
Abby opened with a mysterious object beneath a black cloth and we had to guess what it was. The shape and sound suggested that the mysterious object was a stapler. Abby whisked the cloth away to reveal only a rubber band. She then proceeded to make a section of the band invisible several times and then made it penetrate a straw. Then she broke and restored the band. Mentioning the idea of “Easter eggs” sometimes hidden in films, Abby had a card selected and she said it was the face down card printed on the Bicycle card box. Abby then magically removed the card from the picture on the box and it turned out to match the selection. It was then put back into the picture with the card now showing. A different card was signed and vanished and then a small, plastic egg appeared on the table. Inside was the folded, signed card. A brief Ambitious Card routine was performed and a final card selected which turned out to be the Ace of Diamonds. As music played, Abby proceeded to cut and shuffle the deck as she found all the rest of the diamonds in order and concluded by separating the deck into the four suits. Abby had a very deliberate, measured pacing which increased the effectiveness of her performance.
I went up to the Parlour of Prestidigitation and was informed by a Castle staff member that there were not enough people in line to see the next scheduled show. I should mention that from what I saw, the Castle staff were vigilant and courteous and kept things running smoothly each night. Since there was no show currently at the Parlour, I went down to the Hat & Hare Pub in the basement where I ran into Sean and Hudson and we sat and enjoyed bar magic performed by Nick Dopuch.
Nick’s performance was excellent from start to finish and I would have trouble remembering everything he did. I do know that he managed to sneak selected cards under his glass multiple times to everyone’s great surprise. Random cards on the bar changed into a four of a kind named by an audience member. Nick finished with the Chop Cup producing a bunch of apples and oranges at the finish.
The only disconcerting thing about the Hat & Hare is that that they close a gate and lock you into the bar area until the show’s over.
Around The Castle, tables are set up so that members can test out material via impromptu performances for patrons as long as they keep their shows twenty minutes or less. Unfortunately I didn’t catch any of these performances, but from the ovations they garnered, I imagine they were pretty good.
Sean, Hudson and I then headed back to the Palace of Mystery since I told them it had been a great show. Shoot, Taiga, Yosuke and Hannah gave another solid performance and garnered considerably more applause than the previous show, since the room was almost full.
Afterwards, there were enough people for the show in the Parlour so we lined up. Inside the Parlour the walls are lined with posters from the It’s Magic shows which Bill & Milt Larsen used to run every year.
After a lengthy comedic introduction, music began and Patrick Livingstone entered. His first trick was pouring SmartWater into a glass and having it visibly transform into wine. Then the SmartWater bottle turned into a wine bottle! Next, Patrick did a comical prediction of what an onstage volunteer would look like, followed by a psychic touch routine where he would tap a picture and the volunteer would feel the taps. A brass bowl was shown and the audience was asked what they would like to have appear within. Someone said a margarita and Patrick proceeded to produce a lime, a bottle of tequila and finally an entire margarita from the bowl. He closed his act with a story of how he had wanted to go to space as a youngster culminating in him levitating several feet off the floor!
A short time later, Riccardo Berdini performed in the Parlour. He started with predicting what number an audience member would roll on a die and his closing piece involved the random addition of figures called out by audience members. By the time he totalled all the numbers, the sum gave us the date and specific time; in this case April, 8 2024, 11:32pm. This revelation instantaneously brought the audience to their feet.
The Castle wouldn’t close for another hour or so, but with the adrenaline and sugar wearing off and the fact that it was now 3am EST, I walked back to the hotel, asked for some peanut M&Ms and went to bed.
That was Day One.
TUESDAY
When I woke up, it was a few minutes before seven so decided to avail myself of the complimentary breakfast. I started with a bowl of Apple Jacks, moved on to a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, then a peach yogurt followed by toast with butter and jam. I was surprised to see that there was a squeeze-bottle of Vegemite. I’d never tried Vegemite, so I squirted a small dollop on my plate and sat at a table by the pool.
Once I’d finished the yogurt, I ripped off a piece of the toast and dipped it into the Vegemite and popped it in my mouth. The instant it hit my tongue I said, “Oh my god, that’s fucking awful!” and spit it into my yogurt cup. I had a sip of the cappuccino but the intense taste of the Vegemite was still present, so I had a bite of the buttered toast. Nope. My mouth still tasted like Vegemite. I resorted to eating one of the jam packets which helped, but marginally. Disgusting!
A few hours later, I checked Instagram and noticed a message from Mikey V.4 He suggested I visit a nearby magic shop called The Magic Apple. On the way there, the Tesla Model 3 Uber did some autonomous driving which was fine if not a little disconcerting. At least the traffic was better than Toronto’s; granted it was only 11am.
We passed the Hollywood Bowl with a sign out front advertising “Seth Rogan Smokes the Bowl” and a Jimmy Buffett Tribute Night that Friday.
Brent was a nice guy who let me hang out and browse around the shop. He mentioned that he owned a second shop in Seattle in Pike Place which will be a familiar name to Starbucks devotees. The shop’s walls were covered with pictures of past lecturers and I saw a picture of Brent with Ben Train and another with David Ben. The previous week, Harrison Greenbaum had lectured there and the following week there would be a lecture by Nick Diffatte.
The shop had three sections. In the large room was a small stage with some illusions: the Milk Can escape, a Sawing in Half and a Zig Zag. Brent mentioned that the large box at the back had been used on TV to produce Gordon Ramsay, that Jimmy Kimmel had rented all of these props to dress his set for one of his shows, and that Teller had borrowed and practiced with the Milk Can a few weeks earlier. I asked him to take a picture of me beside the illusions and he said I could get in the Zig Zag! It took me about a minute to squeeze myself inside and I couldn’t imagine having to do this to music cues. Once he took the picture I exited the prop immediately and now have even more respect for magician’s assistants.
With a copy of You Are All Terrible in my hand, I said goodbye to Brent and walked down the stairs and out of the plaza to wait for my ride. I briefly stepped inside a store called Jokes Up Ice Kream but quickly discovered that there was zero ice cream there.
Cabo Cantina was another Mikey V recommendation so that was where I headed for lunch and, since it was Tuesday, I got the all-you-can-eat tacos. And it turns out that number was four and a half washed down with a Modelo Especial.
Following Hollywood Boulevard back to Orange Drive, I tried to find the Milt & Bill Larsen star on the sidewalk, but no luck.
With a couple of hours to relax by the pool, I decided to avail myself of the soft serve ice cream machine once again. Right next to it was a Coke Freestyle machine with a million flavour combinations. It didn’t take long before my glass of orange Fanta ended up half-filled with vanilla soft serve several times in rapid succession over the course of five minutes until I had a stomach ache. I am five years old. It was now time to go lay down, then have a shower, get dressed and line up at The Castle for 5pm.
Again, I took in Dan’s second performance of the evening and afterwards met Dan at the bar with his friend Davy. Davy was only there a short time so I suggested he see Abby’s performance and Shoot, Taiga, Yosuke and Hannah at the Palace. Great performances by all once again this night!
Afterwards I had dinner at the Main Bar with Dan and his wife Katy and his friend Nat. The week prior, Mark Wicken had suggested I try the Owl Burger and truffle fries so I did and they were both delicious.
After dinner I managed to catch the last half of Nick’s final show of the night at the Hat & Hare and saw Patrick’s act again in the Parlour. Finally, I made a note that the late show at the Close-Up Gallery, which I had missed the previous night, would start at 10pm so I explored the rest of The Castle.
I listened to Invisible Irma play any song requested. I think it’s still as great of a mystery today as when she started playing in the Sixties! Of course, there is no mystery; it’s the Castle Ghost. I ventured downstairs and happened upon a posthumous 93rd birthday party for Milt Larsen. Sadly, Milt passed away in May of 2023. There was cake and grab bags to which I did not help myself. Instead, I stood at the side of the packed room and watched the slideshow of pictures of Milt through the years. I didn’t expect to recognize as many people in the photos as I did, but I guess after being interested in magic for forty-five years and reading Genii for forty, it makes sense that I would.
It was almost 10 o’clock. On my way to the Close-Up Gallery I passed Christopher Hart5 talking to comedian Larry Wilmore, then stopped and congratulated Simon Coronel for fooling Penn & Teller and for winning the FISM Grand Prix in 2022.
I lined up to see the 10pm Jason Flores show. This is what he did:
He removed four random cards from a deck. A card was chosen and the four random cards were now shown to be the selection. Then they went back to being random cards and following this the four cards transformed into the selection itself.
Aces placed under a helper’s hand changed places with the Ace that was under Jason’s hand. Then a single Ace vanished from under a helper’s hand and appeared under Jason’s hand.
The Aces were lost in the deck then reappeared via the Jenning’s Revelation. I had never seen this done live. Beautiful. After this came the production of four coins in rapid succession as he flipped a card over. The last time I saw this performed was when Jean-Pierre Vallarino did it himself on the World’s Greatest Magic III in 1996.
Then it was time for Matrix, a Matrix reversal, and Homer Liwag’s Flash Rice wherein four coins were placed into a perfect square whereupon they instantly congregated in one corner. Again, I had never seen this done live either.
He closed with an incredible Oil & Water routine including a phase where the deck was shown clearly separated into reds and blacks, the deck was shaken and now the colours were mixed throughout the deck. A card was then chosen, and Jason asked if the card was red or black. (Let’s say it was red for this explanation.) The deck then visibly shrunk until there was only half a deck in his hands. The cards were spread and shown to be only black cards and the one selected red card.
I went back and saw his 10:45pm, 11:30pm and 12:30pm performances.
While we were in the hallway outside waiting for the 12:30pm show, audience members learned I was a magician and wanted me to show them something. I fended them off until it was time to enter the Gallery. When we exited Jason’s show, one guy grabbed my shoulder and said, “Now you show us something!” I said, “I can’t follow that!”
I scurried off to the hotel, grabbed another bag of peanut M&Ms and went to bed.
WEDNESDAY – I can’t believe this actually happened.
John Gaughan said to call him before coming over.
I’m in disbelief just typing that sentence.
On a whim, a couple of weeks earlier, I had e-mailed John and asked if it would be possible to stop by and see his workshop and magic collection. It had been a couple of days and I hadn’t received a reply. Oh well, I figured, it was worth a shot. I didn’t really expect it was going to happen anyway. I had also e-mailed Mike Caveney, but I wasn’t sure if I had the right e-mail address. Luckily, Dan was able to text Mike and Mike said that he was currently on tour but that he would be in touch when he returned.
I should explain that I have a Magic Bucket List which included seeing the following places:
The Magic Castle
Mike Caveney’s Egyptian Hall collection
John Gaughan’s workshop and collection
I am a Luddite when it comes to technology, but thankfully I had the notion to check my Junk Mail folder. That’s where I discovered that John had e-mailed me back the same day I had e-mailed him, told me I was welcome to visit and to just call him before coming over. Needless to say, John’s e-mail was promptly removed from said folder and I immediately replied, letting him know that we would love to come by the week of April eighth.
Wednesday April tenth was the day and I still can’t believe it happened. Dan, Nat and I took an Uber to Gaughan & Associates which was about twenty-five minutes from The Castle.
The first thing I saw after getting out of the car was Jim Steinmeyer’s Interlude illusion6 under construction. I shook hands with John and he welcomed us to his shop.
I was on high alert, taking in as much as I could. From a quick glance around the workshop I saw the Robert Houdin Brass Conjuror that appeared during the closing credits of Copperfield’s 15 Years of Magic special in 1994; a couple of Houdin Blooming Orange Trees that John had built himself; the cinema’s first robot, a giant automaton named Q, which appeared along with Houdini in The Master Mystery (1919); two 10 foot hearts which we learned were being built for a Vegas illusionist; a small photo booth; posters from various art exhibits that had featured items from John’s collection; and magic wands with accompanying presentation boxes being crafted for the upcoming AMA awards – all beautifully handmade by John.
John led us into an adjacent room and I was overwhelmed with emotion upon entering as I recognized everything in this room from the opening shots of the documentary Our Magic by R. Paul Wilson. Shelves and shelves and display case after display case of precious items and things that I’d only read about: Houdin’s crystal casket used for the Aerial Treasury; The Turk automaton; the Psycho automaton; the bronze figure from the cover of The Illustrated History of Magic. John carefully opened the cabinet and showed us that this was in fact a holder for an ink well and nibs.
There were cabinets filled with Conradi props and beautifully crafted Thayer props, including Thayer’s Sensational Growing Billiard Ball which I remember seeing Ricky Jay perform on The Story of Magic in 1997. There was John’s favourite automaton, Antonio Diavolo, The Trapeze Vaulter, who does impressive acrobatic feats. In fact, Antonio has been called Robert-Houdin’s Greatest Automaton. The original chess-playing Turk was destroyed by fire, but John patiently and expertly recreated this automaton. It was quite a feeling to stand in front of it and make eye contact. Next to a recreation of Houdini’s Water Torture Cell, was a recreation of Houdini’s office, complete with a working mannequin of Houdini sitting at a desk holding a pen and, when asked, it was able to recreate Houdini’s signature!
John then sat down with us as though we were old friends and patiently answered all of our questions. Both Dan and Nat are skilled woodworkers and John showed us the intricacies of the handmade, wooden crafted Ball Vases, Egg Vases, Coin vases and many other delicately carved items; some of which had been made by John himself. In another part of the shop, John showed us a handmade Grandfather clock that he had constructed completely (excluding some weights) out of rare Brazilian wood.
Sitting on the table was a mock-up of an appearance illusion that John had suggested for Doug Henning. Doug liked it. John built it. And it was the opening illusion of Doug’s sixth TV special.
Remember the photo booth I mentioned earlier? One at a time, we were each allowed inside the tiny enclosure to sit at a table with some cards on it while John’s associate, Jeff, took our picture which, upon viewing, looked like we were sitting at a card table with four doppelgangers.
Following The Incredible Two-Hours-That-Seemed-Like-Five-Minutes, Mike Caveney arrived at John’s shop. (I’m in disbelief writing that also.) He had a brought a prop for John to fix. We thanked John for this wonderful experience and Mike kindly drove us to his house but first we stopped for lunch at the Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena which is next to the Rose Bowl. Because it had almost been a full twenty-four hours since I had eaten a burger, I ordered the 1924 Cheeseburger, which thankfully was not a cheeseburger that had been made in that year. During lunch, Mike told us some very interesting stories including the origin story of the giant Taschen magic book.
Mike and Tina’s beautiful home was a short drive from the Golf Club. The house is filled from top to bottom with the most important items that belonged to the most important magicians of the last two centuries.
I love perusing magic libraries since I feel a connection when I notice people have the same books as me lining their shelves. Mike’s library was no exception and what a library it was! Above the shelves were photographs that were personally autographed to Mike and Tina from Dai Vernon, Mark Wilson, Orson Welles and other greats.
The next stop was Mike’s office. I happened to look up and notice something. Mike asked me what I was looking at and I said, “Servais LeRoy’s invention”. Mike told us that this particular item had been made specifically for Moi-Yo Miller.
We then walked through a door with a small wooden plaque above it which read “Egyptian Hall”.
I will mention a few of the items I saw that afternoon, but please note that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I recommend purchasing Mike Caveney’s Vanishing Inc. MasterClass from March 2021 if you would like to get a virtual tour of Egyptian Hall from Mike himself.
First of all there are the posters. Think of a magician. Do it now. Got one? Mike has that magician’s poster on file, if not on display, in his house. A significant portion of the posters in the Taschen book are from Mike’s collection.
As you walk through the door and turn to your left, there is a poster of Herrmann which is the only one known to exist in the world and behind this are shelves of many interesting objects including:
What might be the very first Okito box. This was actually Okito’s pill box
Carter’s membership card to the S.A.M. signed by Houdini
John Ramsay’s thimbles
A matchstick carved into the shape of a magician holding a magic wand
Rene Levand’s bread crumbs
The Gretzky-signed Honus Wagner baseball card from TMODC XV
Bells from Carter’s and Dante’s spirit cabinets.
Behind a Barnum & Bailey poster is what Mike calls the inner sanctum. This houses scrapbooks from Maskelyne & Cooke’s Egyptian Hall in London, Dante’s scrapbooks and notebooks and, in fact, Mike has compiled multiple major scrapbooks for magicians ranging from Herrmann to Grabel and more.
There was a holder of about forty different magic wands that belonged to magicians throughout the ages. Some ornately crafted from the finest materials and others, like Willard’s, which looks like it used to be the spoke of a wheel with bullet casings added for tips. For me, the gem of this particular collection was a wand created from a piece of the Ford’s Theatre stage in Baltimore where Kellar played his final show and ceremoniously passed it on to Thurston. When one end of this Shadow Wand is held to the light, it projects the silhouette of Kellar’s profile; the other end Thurston’s.
Looking around the room, Thurston’s “Oh!” chair sits next to T. Nelson Downs’s coin ladder which stands beside Jarrett’s Bangkok Bungalow (which he built for Thurston’s show - it was never used) and this illusion is across the room from a door with a poster of Okito wearing a green robe. On the other side of that door is the actual robe. This is adjacent to a display case with everything on it from Doug Henning’s tennis shoes, T. Nelson’s Downs’s linking rings to Thurston’s throwing cards and much more.
Mike then showed us a first edition of The Discoverie of Witchcraft from 1584, Johnny Carson’s P&L change bag and P&L billiard balls and a mug that used to sit on Johnny’s desk.
I noticed a silver ball suspended above our heads. It turns out that was Carter’s floating ball.
Mike asked if there was anything else we wanted to see and I asked to see Carter’s Spirit Cabinet. Since this is a large prop it is kept in the basement and along the staircase leading downstairs were original posters including ones for The Magic Show and The Magic Man.
The cabinet was gigantic and I moved a bucket out of the way so that I could stand in front. It turns out that was Dante’s bucket which he used to perform Where Do the Ducks Go?
Everything is something here.
We thanked Mike and Tina for the incredible tour as we stood in the foyer beside the Hieronymus Bosch painting depicting a Cups & Balls performer and the pickpocket in their audience. As it happened, there was a meeting at The Castle in a little while, so Mike drove us back. On the way, I asked Mike a million questions all of which he graciously answered.
Oh yeah, as we drove through Pasadena on our way to The Castle we passed the historic Gamble House which was Doc Brown’s house in Back to the Future.
In front of The Castle we all shook hands and Dan headed to the Close-Up Gallery to get ready; Mike headed to his meeting and Nat and I headed to our respective hotels. I dropped off the Genii magazines that I had asked Mike, Tina and John to sign and figured since I’m in Hollywood I should take a few more pictures. Mike told me how to get a decent shot of the Hollywood sign from near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Ave. Click. On the way back I passed Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Click. And at last, I found the star for Milt & Bill Larsen. Click.
Then a quick dip in the pool, another two glasses of orange Fanta and vanilla ice cream and then I got ready for my third night at The Castle.
Again I started by watching Dan totally amaze yet another Gallery audience with his smooth sleight of hand skills. I had yet to sit at the Owl Bar so I headed there after Dan’s performance. It’s at the top of the main staircase and there are stools for about eight people total. Milt Larsen was good friends with John Shrum the Art Director of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson so when Carson went off the air in 1992, Milt was able to nab Johnny’s iconic backdrop depicting downtown Burbank which is now on display behind the glass of the Owl Bar. A painting of Johnny is to your left and there is a photo of Milt with Mr. Shrum taken in the Eighties.
Dan had made dinner reservations for us and a few of his friends so we headed to the dining area at 8pm. My Beef Wellington was sublime and it was cool to look up and see a black and white poster of Harry Blackstone Sr. staring right at me.
I took another bite and managed to free a piece of the roasted garlic. Blackstone was now in profile. Wasn’t he facing me a second ago?
As I was pondering this Blackstone turned his head, looked at me and winked.
I love this place.
After dinner, I would see The Palace of Mystery show a final time; this time to a packed theatre, with a high-energy crowd and once again top notch performances by Shoot, Taiga, Yosuke and Hannah. As an added bonus, Shoot performed the spoon act that had been featured a few weeks earlier on Penn & Teller’s Fool Us.
Afterwards, I ventured downstairs. Lining the hallway leading to the Library Bar were items from Mark Wilson’s illustrious career and props that had been featured on The Magic Land of AllaKazam and Magic Circus. Past The Peller Theatre,7 were more displays filled with props from Laurel and Hardy movies such as A-Haunting We Will Go (1942) and photos of the comedy duo with Jack Gwynne; plus there were items that had been featured in the acts of Marvyn & Carol Roy, Orson Welles and Johnny Carson.
I had not seen the library yet. I poked my head in and Bill Goodwin said it was okay for me to step inside. This was a treat in a day that had been filled with treats from start to finish. In the Castle Library there is a wall dedicated to Billy McComb featuring pictures and listing his many McCombical quips.
Just outside the library is a large display devoted to Cardini showing everything from black and white TV clips, his props and iconic tuxedo.
I spoke briefly with that evening’s Library Bar performer, Lauro Castillo, who told me that the bar was made from the set pieces from Hello Dolly (1969). (Having never seen the movie I’ll take his word for it.) The Library Bar is beautiful though. To me it felt as though this entire level of The Castle was of out of a 1920’s movie, complete with Art Deco features and diamond-shaped table lamps.
Once more, I went and watched Jason Flores in the Close-Up Gallery.
After, I slowly wandered the entirety of the place for a final time, taking it all in. I had wanted to visit The Magic Castle since I first read about it in Genii. At Abbott’s in 1985 I had actually met Bill Larsen who handed me his business card and told my Dad and I to come visit. I’m glad I finally did.
I walked down the curved driveway and back to the hotel. Since this day had been extra special I decided to finish it off with two bags of peanut M&Ms.
Thursday – Say Goodbye to Hollywood
And I did.
I said goodbye to The Castle and The Castle Hotel and boarded my final Uber to LAX.
That trip was pretty, pretty, pretty good!!!
I realize that heading straight from the airport via Uber to The Magic Castle Hotel doesn’t qualify as putting myself in the heart of this confusing, overwhelming city and everything that that would entail. Regardless, it’s too good of a title to exclude since this is about my very first trip to LA.
Who is not your ordinary miracle worker, go to www.dantrommater.com
Easy to remember since it’s a NYC area code and I’m in NYC at least once a decade.
@eyedoomagk on Instagram
If you’ve seen The Addams Family movies, Christopher’s hand is Thing.
You can watch Copperfield perform his version, Soul Passage, on The Magic of David Copperfield XIV: Flying: Live the Dream. It’s right after the opening Elevator illusion (aka Heaven on the Seventh Floor (another Steinmeyer creation)).
Who Lauro would tell me was named after Albert Peller a former Castle member.
To see video of the trip go to: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/EvcrrQbM92
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