i've been a magician all my life,but living in america i was always told that this is just a hobby. that i should grow up and get a real job. that i hafta live in the real world to support a family.so i did;
so i was a car washer, service writer, a barber,car sales man,telemarketer,steel worker,off shore oil worker,construction,carpenter,corporate jobs, and the list goes on for the "real jobs" i was thinking that if i just made enough to buy a theater or buy the equipment or enough to afford to be a magician.
part time and some times full time i would do walk around, and back yard shows, pitch magic, manage magic shops and eventually owned some.
i met jamie ohara in las cruces and he helped me go full time and realize it was a real job and you could support a family with just entertaining people and you didn't have to sell them any magic. i made a good income and i felt like i was finally doing my lifes work.
but it was to late my wife said she had had enough....and listen up fellas what she said before she left;
"do you know what its like to be the #1 fan of the worlds greatest car sales man and then the #1 fan of the worlds greatest off shore man and then the #1 fan of the worlds greatest magic shop owner then magician.....why didn't you just pick one.
why?why? we know why don't we fellas.
bad advice from every angle sadly even from magicians.
she left and she wouldn't take me back......the story of course is longer and more involved their was other reasons on her part but that was the big one, i'll spare us the rest of the story.
her leaving me was the hardest thing ever happenned to me my friends came out of the wood work and saved my life.
my teacher told me it was time for me to work the streets and trained me and got me around the pros. he sent me to europe.
i went there and saw shows w/$1000 hats, i saw 1000's of buskers all over the place. i saw 3 and 4 generation buskers,i saw buskers buying nite clubs and homes w/o credit just on what they saved up, i saw doctors and lawers look at me as an equal, i saw things american magi should see.
i came back and saw very few american buskers. and they were makin middle class exsistence and some makin alotif they were pro,and i saw buskers with no trade skills or knowledge and i got mad.
why did i get mad?
venue the most important thing to us. and the hobbiests who run our industry in their spare time have misinformed us. told us that its begging that you can't make any money at it and that we should just keep buying close up packet tricks.
it was cellini who changed this he provided venue for his, when the other old school guys didn't for their students.it was cellini who provided real tricks that you can do in a show and make money[not close up card hack]
you know its bad enough when when every one around you is bad mouthing your lifes work but its pathetic when other magicians chime in....and its a lie.
