On Friday night, immediately following the taping of The Tonight Show, Jimmy and I headed over to the Magic Castle, where we met up with my longtime friend Rick Greene, Jimmy’s parents, Dave, and Bob. This was my second time at the Castle, my first being during my visit in the Fall of ’05. Rick is a member – so both times we came as his guest. The place is outstanding. Good food, interesting ambiance, and spectacular magic.
We started the evening off with a great dinner, where I enjoyed their famous Cobb salad an a glass of Pinot Grigio. Bob was twenty minutes late, and he claims that I told him the wrong time – so we started the evening off in our traditional fashion, with me as the kiss of death on anything he touches. Hee hee. Touring the palace is quite an experience, with my favorite room being the one devoted to Dante the Magician. Rick knows the ropes quite well – so we followed the identical pattern we did during my first visit to the Castle.
Me and Rick outside the Castle (no photos allowed inside)
Following dinner, we immediately lined up for the main show in the Palace of Mystery. Since it didn’t begin until 8:30, we had about an hour to wait – but it works out great because we were the first in line (meaning we got to sit on the comfy chairs while in line) and were first into the theater. The act was a triple header with Steve Darci as the emcee providing both comedy and magic. My favorite illusion was when he pulled a bowling ball and a basketball out of a small briefcase.
The second act was Mystina, a scantily clad dancer and magician who put on a more traditional act. Her performance was good and she had an illuminating smile. Unfortunately, midway during the show she accidentally knocked her front (false) teeth out of her mouth. This was even more mesmerizing than the magic itself. I felt bad that most people in the room would probably remember the teeth incident more than the magic itself, but somehow I couldn’t look away. After that, she only grinned.
The final performance was by Skilldini, a very off-kilter comedic magician, who at one point took a break during the performance, sat down, and ate some crackers. Overall, the performances were very good, but not quite as good as the main show starring the Pendragons the last time I was there.
We moved from the Palace of Mystery immediately into the Parlour of Prestidigitation for the 9:30 show. These are usually the least dynamic acts, mostly involving some sort of mind-reading (as the name of the room indicates). On this night the featured performer was Barrie Richardson, a laid-back performer with a homespun style. He passed out pages from a TIME Magazine (one that I had actually read on the plane earlier that day), each page with number written on it. Anyone who called out the number of the magazine would receive from Barrie a description of every detail on the page – down to the credit card number in an American Express ad!
After this performance, Rick left (as he did last time – but he left me a batch of great new CD’s that he burned for me), and we all lined up for the close-up magic performance at 11:30. Although the wait was long, it is always worth it to get up front in this 19-seat theater. While we waited, I watched another close-up magic performer through a window next to where I was standing in line. He was doing card tricks for two ladies at a table and I’ve never been so amazed in my life by any performer. Although I couldn’t hear him, this was the most incredible show I saw all night. Dave and I also wandered away from the line to visit with Irma the piano without a player. Irma plays nearly any song that you request. She successfully belted out a rendition of Come Sail Away and Hello Dolly at my request, although she faltered on Grim Grinning Ghosts.
The close-up performer of the evening was Joe Monti and he was highly skilled at close-up magic – especially his rendition of three-card monte…with giant cards. There seemed to be no excuse for not being able to follow the cards…and yet I could not.
After the show, we all gathered in the lobby for the photo above. Although we were exhausted, I think we all looked quite dapper. We browsed the gift shop and then 
I took off with Bob. The drive back to his place was about an hour and a half and I struggled to keep awake. At about 12:30 am, I hit my 24-hours-of-being-awake mark and snapped the now-traditional photo at left.
Now for the gate story…When we got back to Bob’s he asked me to open the security gate in front of his driveway, giving me the combination and telling me to just push on it. I figured out later he had meant to push on the lock. Because when I pushed on the gate, I was met with some resistance from the driveway, but still perservered in swinging the gate wide open. When the screeching sounds, sparks, and flying gravel abated, I heard the shouts from the car “No! No!” It was then that Bob informed me that the gate was supposed to be slid open, remarking “I didn’t even know the gate would move that way!”
We went out with a flashlight to survey the damage and found the mangled metal remains of the gate wheels to which I remarked “Well, I guess there’s nothing else I can do.” I apologized, but Bob said that it was his fault that he didn’t just get his ass out of the car and do it himself, to which I coyly replied: “That’s right. Any time you want something done right, always do it yourself.”
Next: the Hoover Dam…
Leave a Reply