American Heart Association

I was invited to participate in a fund raiser for the American Heart Association held at the Theater of Dreams in Castle Rock. My long time magician friend, Joe Givan and his wife Carol, operate one of the hidden gems in the Colorado magic scene, a theater devoted to the performance of magic.

I first met Joe when he worked behind the counter at Zeezo’s Magic Castle in the now defunct Cinderella City shopping mall (I, meanwhile, worked at the rival Top Hat Magic Shop). Later, Joe would go on to open the Magic Works in Denver, a bar that hosted a bevy of Colorado’s top magicians, and which induced me to head downtown every weekend to get my magic fix. And once, I even participated in one of Joe’s scary Cthulu-themed midnight magic performances, held in an abandoned warehouse in LoDo (back when LoDo was a place you would NEVER go to after dark), but that’s a whole other story…

So I was excited to be working with Joe for his “Magic Mania Variety Show,” alongside with nine other magicians (including Dave Elstun, Marty Wayne, Cliff Tiffany, Shawn Preston, Mark Strivings, Eddie Goldstein, and Gene Gordon). Each of us were given a 10-minute slot to do what we do best, so I chose to perform the Cups & Balls, one of the oldest pieces of magic on record, and the piece I use to close my corporate show. The fact that this piece of magic is over 2,000 years old is a testament to its effectiveness.

And it was fun to perform for my fellow magicians. Because work keeps us all busy, we seldom get to attend each others performances. So it was a rare opportunity to see what they do and to show off, in turn, what I can do. But of course, the real reason we were all there was to raise money for the American Heart Association, and I believe we sold out at least one of our two shows.

Performances were on Friday and Saturday night, however, I had to duck out early from Saturday night’s performance (and skip the curtain call) because I had a second performance up North, back in Lafayette.

A couple were celebrating their anniversary and wanted to do something special for their guests, so I provided “mix & mingle” magic for their friends and family (about 60 people all together). So in a matter of hours, I went from Lafayette, down to Castle Rock, and back up to Lafayette, before heading home for a good night’s sleep. Good thing I keep a couple PowerBars in my glove box, because some days there’s no time to take a break.