The Maro Adventure Completed

I finally returned from my trip to Michigan to perform and lecture. The performances were at the W.T. Best Theatre, also known as The Old Art Building in Leland Michigan. The lecture I presented was on the Life and Magic of Walter Truman Best, better known as MARO Prince of Magic.

Why, you might ask did I present a lecture on some obscure magician? Well, it turns out, Maro lived in the town of Leland in the early 1900s. His home still stands there to this day. In fact, his home is for sale for a whopping $4.5. million dollars! The Historical Society and the Leelanau Community Cultural Center were aware of Maro's connection to the area and I was contacted to come and lecture and share some magic.

The shows were great fun. The stage is not very large, nor is the theatre, but given that the building is close to 100 years old, it had a very unique feeling to it. Like stepping back in time to be truthful. I presented mostly modern routines during my two afternoon shows. Interestingly, even though I was 800 miles from home, I met two people from my area who were in attendance at the earlier shows. Small world!
I also have an odd feeling that the place may just be haunted. Why do I say that? Well, my second show had two mishaps. One during a routine that NEVER EVER EVER has given me trouble. Somehow a string from who knows where got twisted into a prop and made it impossible to function. Later in the show something else went south on me. Again, stuff that never ever happens and it happened twice in the same show.  It made me somewhat apprehensive about the evening lecture.

The evening lecture is something I had been working on for months. It began with tons of research into this fellow Maro, who I had only known of because of his posters. I dug up a lot of information from quite a few sources. After compiling all the historical facts, I had to put it together so that a lay audience could understand and appreciate it. Let's face it, magicians who are into magic history would eat this stuff up. But lay people, that's another story.

I decided to include a number of Maro's routines in the lecture. First up was Maro's Slate Trick which I found in an old issue of The Sphinx. I combined it with the Spirit Dial, an effect popular among Victorian Era Magicians. I actually combined the Maro Slates with the Spirit Dial into an effect that was quite entertaining and mysterious.

The big effect I had planned for the lecture did not come to be. I had wanted to present The Flags of All Nations, a staple of Maro's show. However, the Flags I obtained began to disintegrate as I worked with them. Perhaps sometime down the road I can get them remade/restored but it didn't happen this time around. Instead the big feature was my Hand Shadow Act. It lasted just over a minute long, probably much shorter than Maro's actual routine. I think my version gave the 21st Century audience who was watching enough entertainment and got the point across as to the various things that can be done with hand shadows without going too long with it. Maro's ghost did not show up during the lecture at all.  I had the distinct feeling that he was sitting in the back watching and smiling. The audience of non-magicians thouroughly enjoyed the lecture, magic and power point presentation. Many came up to me after and shared their connection to Maro, Maro's home, or some of the magicians who performed in Leland after Maro died in 1908.


I will be doing a more complete write-up of my trip and of Maro for a magic magazine. Once that article is finished, I'll let you know where to check it out. Oh, and I took some video footage that I will edit soon for an upcoming episode of The Magic Detective Youtube Show. Yes, it's coming back!

Historical Display created by Kim Kelderhouse of the Leelanau Historical Society

A True Magical House for Sale

In the past I shared pictures of a number of famous magicians homes. But there is one that I was not aware of until recently. The house was built for Edward Maro, The GREAT MARO and is located in Leland Michigan. It's sits on the shores of North Lake Leelanau and it's breathtaking to say the least.

With any luck, I'll get to see the house in a few weeks as I'm traveling to Michigan to perform in a theatre named after Maro. In fact, I'll be presenting a lecture on Maro while I'm in town as well as doing two shows.

Once the lecture is done, I'll do a nice bio piece on Maro for the blog and hopefully will have a new episode of The Magic Detective Youtube Show to debut.

By the way, the house, dubbed Maronook, after the Great Maro, is for sale. The listing is here,
https://www.coldwellbanker.com/property/320-E-Hywood-Lane-Leland-MI-49654-MLS-1804279

Norman Bigelow has passed.

It's tough when we loose people in magic and it's tougher when they're friends. Yesterday, the magic and escape worlds lost Norman Bigelow. Norm was born August 12th 1944. His real name was Henry Hebert and he later changed it after being adopted. Norm was an apprentice to Frank Renaud who performed professionally as The Great Reno.

Norm was a big fan of Houdini and studied his career inside and out. He had many theories about Houdini's life, some of which were thought to be controversial, but Norm always stood by his opinions. I believe he broke new ground in a number of areas on Houdini and we all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Besides being a student of Houdini and Reno, Norm was an accomplished escape artist. He was also very creative in his field. He gave rise to the 'full view picking' technique which today seems to be the standard used by many escapists.

Norman Bigelow passed away at home on Sunday August 16th 2015 after a long battle with illness. As his wife Janet said, "he was home where he wanted to be."

Norman and I shared many emails and ideas and stories together. He was always an exceptionally creative individual. I was honored when he would email me about history questions, though I'm sure Norm has forgotten more than I will ever know. He was one of a kind, a superb individual and an escape artist of the highest order.

Here is the link to the obituary from the funeral home. http://www.rickerfh.com/sitemaker/sites/Ricker1/obit.cgi?user=37805811_NBigelowSr

The Great Lee Grabel Has Passed

Lee Grabel, one of the magicians in the Royal Dynasty of Magic has died. He passed away July 27th, 2015 at his home. Lee Grabel was to receive the Mantle of Magic from Dante, but Dante died suddenly before an officially ceremony could take place. Because, he was the only one Dante was considering, the Mantle still went to Grabel. Lee passed the Mantle of Magic on to Lance Burton in 1994.

His life story was covered in the wonderful book, The Magic and Illusions of Lee Grabel by Ormond McGill. One thing I would like to mention, Lee Grabel retired from magic in 1959. Having seen him in his later years and still a commanding presence, I personally wish he had continued on all those many years as his magic was wonderful.

I'll have a longer biographer at a later time. For now if you'd like to read more about Lee, please visit his website http://www.leegrabelmagic.com/index.html

A Cool Houdini Connection and The Official Houdini Seance 2015

Imagine going through life and hearing from relatives that you're related to Houdini or someone close to Houdini. That was the situation Robert Strong was in. He had heard from relatives that there was some family connection to Houdini, but no one was quite sure what the connection was. Robert thought he might be related to Jacob Hyman and Joe Hayman. So the search was on earlier this year to discover that branch of his family tree.

He was surprised to find out that it was not the Haymans but rather Sidney Radner who he was related

to! The man who owned the bulk of Houdini props for so many years having purchased and/or acquired them from Houdini's brother Hardeen. Too bad Robert didn't know this before Sid auctioned everything off.

I should mention that Robert Strong is a very busy full time professional magician from Maryland. He currently lives in San Francisco, but travels all over the country presenting his unique brand of comedy magic.

Once Robert found out he was related to the Radners he contacted Sidney's son and a new door opened. Robert is helping out with the Official Houdini Seance this year. Plans are in place for the event to take place in San Francisco at the Brava Theater. There are new websites set up for this event, one of them being a Kickstarter Campaign, though that page is not yet live.

You'll want to be sure to LIKE the Facebook page by going here https://www.facebook.com/houdiniseance

Check out the official webpage for the event here http://www.houdini-seance.com/   (The site is still under construction, so you'll want to check it out from time to time to see the progress)

Finally, the Kickstarter page is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/radicalphysics/236293987?token=744b6390

AND to learn more about Robert Strong, http://strongentertainment.com/