Nothing on this page is a composite or an example. Each one happened, and where there's a picture, it's the real one.
The original ad, May 1977.
May 20–21, 1977 · Dover, Delaware
Bolan Motors Ford Country
A two-day promotion at a Ford dealership, with a live radio remote on the Friday night. Close-up magic on the showroom floor for the buyers, then escapes that got harder as the weekend went on, ending upside down in a straitjacket hanging from a crane over the lot.
Juniors from three schools buckled me into the jacket. Each day belonged to one school's community, so the families came too.
I was twenty-four. I wrote the ad, walked it into the dealership finished, and they printed it as written.
Reported in 1981
The Gorill-A-Gram
Someone asked me to sing “Happy Birthday” to her boyfriend. I didn't do singing telegrams, and I'm a lousy singer. But a gorilla doesn't have to sing well. I put on a gorilla suit, and that was the Gorill-A-Gram.
United Press International picked it up and carried it across the country. National press from a singing telegram, built out of not being able to sing.
Two men from the crowd strap me into the straitjacket.
October 31, 1985 · ARCO Arena, Sacramento
Sacramento Kings halftime
Ten minutes at halftime, Kings against the Houston Rockets, in the franchise's first season in Sacramento. Doves, the duck basket, the sword basket and the straitjacket, to music, in front of a full arena.
The other quotes topped out at $500. Mine was $3,300. That booking ended my pricing myself like every other magician in the market.
1995 · Sacramento
The DMV's new corporate head
The Sacramento DMV was installing a new manager at one of its offices. I performed a guillotine illusion, took the new manager's head off, and announced that the DMV now had a new corporate head. The act was built around the event's own reason for existing.
With Marianne, drawing a crowd for S&S Displays.
2006 · EXHIBITOR
S&S Displays
Trade show work for S&S Displays at EXHIBITOR 2006, with Marianne.
August 2006 · Old Sacramento
The Delta King seminars
My book How To Make Your Next Trade Show Pay… Not Cost, and the first trade show training on the Delta King riverboat: fifteen magicians from across the country, three days, every seat filled.
