Autobiography Chapter 2 - "Magic Moments"

AUTOBIOGRAPHY CHAPTER 2 – MAGIC MOMENTS
By Paul Pakusch

     I think the first glimmer of interest in magic appeared to me through the TV series, "Bewitched."  I remember when it first came on the air in 1964.  I was fascinated by the things Samantha and her crazy relatives could do.  To this day, it's still one of my favorite TV shows.    
     Grammar school from first through eighth grade for me was at Mother of Sorrows Catholic School in Greece.  The school building was pretty basic; it had classrooms, a library, a reception desk, an office for the Principal, a teacher’s lounge, and a nurse’s office.  There was no gym and no cafeteria.  We would go outside for gym class on nice days, or otherwise go to the church building next door and use the large church hall in the basement. 

    One day, while in third grade, we had a school assembly in the church hall where a magician did a performance.  It was the first time I had ever seen a magic show and I was spellbound!  I believed that what he was doing was really magic.  Later, when I told my mother about it, she explained that it was all done by tricks.  She picked up on my fascination with magic and bought me a set of magic tricks for my next birthday.  I got such a thrill out of it and started doing magic shows in my living room for family and friends.

     I borrowed books from the local library about magic.  I learned some of the history of magic and also how to do more magic tricks.

     I discovered that there was a Rochester-area man who called himself Dante the Magician.  He had a TV show that aired locally on WOKR Channel 13 on Saturday mornings.  He also had a small shop set up on the 4^th floor of Sibley’s Department Store, by the toy department.  I visited him there on several occasions.  He did magic shows on occasion at the Rochester Auditorium Theatre.  The shows would start with some magic tricks and illusions, followed by his escape from a strait jacket, and then he would finish with a Frankenstein or other classic horror movie.

     Dante became sort of a role model for me and I tried to imitate some of what he did.  I chose a name for myself, using pig-latin to call myself “Alpay the Magician.”  My sisters teased me and changed it to “Alpo,” the brand name of a dog food.  I set up a “stage” in my basement, complete with curtains and did magic shows there for neighborhood kids.

     My friend, Erik also got interested in magic.  We collaborated and created a magic show that we did once for our 5^th grade class.  I did one more “big” magic show with another friend, Shawn.  This one was for a large gathering of Boy Scout troops.

     I bought most of my magic tricks from two places.  One was a small store in downtown Rochester called The Cigar Box.  It was on Clinton Avenue, across from Sibley’s.  Every year my family would go to Sibley’s to have Breakfast With Santa Claus.  After the breakfast was over, I would go across the street to the Cigar Box.  They sold a lot of smoking and novelty items, plus some magic tricks and trick card decks.

     The other source was mail order from a place in Chicago called Magic Inc.  As I write this, the store is still in business.  For the years that I was interested in magic, my birthday became the day of my annual deluge of new magic tricks.  A couple weeks before my birthday, my mother would sit and help me fill out the order blank for new magic tricks from Magic Inc.  Once the shipment arrived, I could hardly wait for the day when I could open those boxes.  I was like the kid in “A Christmas Story” who could hardly sustain himself at the thought of getting his Red Ryder BB Gun.  At least I never bought any magic tricks that could shoot my eye out.

     There are several magic tricks I owned that really stand out to me.  One was the Zombie Floating Ball.  It was a silver ball that you would cover with a silk cloth.  While holding two corners of the cloth, the ball would float underneath, lifting the cloth up from the center.  I would guide the floating ball around the stage.

     Another favorite was the magic coin box.  I would ask one of my spectators for a coin.  It would be positively identified with the year stamped on it.  Someone could even put a mark on it with a marker, if they wished.  Then I would put the coin in my hand and reach behind me and grab a small white box that was wrapped in rubber bands.  I would ask someone to take off the rubber bands and open the box.  Inside, they would find another box wrapped in rubber bands and unwrap that box as well.  Finally, they would find a small cloth sack with a rubber band wrapped around the opening.  Upon opening the cloth sack, they would find their coin!  Complete with the correct denomination, date and any mark they may have put on it.

         What…are you expecting me to reveal how these tricks were done?  A magician’s creed is that he never gives away his secrets, ha ha!

     Even with all my exposure to magic in those days, I have never been good at figuring out how illusions by other magicians are done.  When I see a magic show, even today, I’m always looking in the not-so-obvious places for clues on how the illusion is done, but can never figure them out.

     Alas, the day came at around age 14 or so when the interest in magic simply vanished.

     I credit magic for getting me interested in reading biographies.  I think it was 7^th or 8^th grade when I borrowed a library book about Harry Houdini.  It was the first full-length biography I ever read and I was fascinated with his life.  It inspired me to keep reading biographies about other people.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Thursday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."