A Glance into Glancey

Two wizards and a magician walk into a bar. the first wizard say's, "watch this" and he waves his wand and three drinks appear in front of them. He points his wand to the next wizard and states, "your turn."
The second wizard responds "Ok, watch this." He waves his wand and the three drinks disappear. Both wizards then point their wands at the magician, who suddenly turns into a duck. The duck looks up at them and says, "You bastards just stuck me with the bill again, didn't you."

If you sat down next to a wizard you might realize it, but the magician somehow blends into the scenery. At least in Key West, where such characters abound, they do. Here are three men sitting at a bar and one of them is the magician. The others are wizards in their own right, but I doubt they can turn the magician into a duck.

His name is Tim Glancey, he is the one in the hat, not the top hat, but the one in the loud shirt, who looks as though he's hiding a coin or something in his right hand. Tim has had an amazing magic life and I have had a true opportunity to have crossed his path with mine.

I met Glancey while I was attending Boise State University, studying theater. He got me my first restaurant job at the Grizzly Bear Pizza parlor, doing table to table magic. He introduced me to other magicians and many, many sleights and tricks. I ran into him years later in Las Vegas at a magician's convention and he'd been doing magic all over the country, at the time he was living and working in Orlando, Florida.

Tim, was the original magician for the Orlando magic, which considering the position was a miracle in and of itself. When the Orlando Magic first announced that their name was to be "the magic," a thousand magicians quickly shot them a proposal and resume. Tim told me he was different. He camped at their doorstep. When he finally got a chance to meet with them and introduced himself as a magician, they said, "We aren't that kind of magic." And he off the top of his head replied, "Well I'm not that kind of magician."

"Well, what kind of magician are you then?"

"I do team sports magic." 

And at that moment the concept of "Team Sports Magic" was born. He told me that he was just shooting from the hip. He envisioned and eventually created someone pulling a basketball from a briefcase. From then on Tim developed the sports team magic program which created an intimate relationship with a sports arena audience to get them involved. He told me that the principle was to bring the person in the back of the crowd into the show as he would a person watching him do a close-up trick. How does one do that? You might ask. How can you personally connect with an enormous crowd.

If you've ever been to a game where someone shoots a tee-shirt into the audience with and air cannon, then you can thank this magician. While creating this concept of team sports magic, he came up with that idea and invented the way to get a tee shirt, Nerf ball, etc, into the hands of a person yelling and screaming from twenty rows up.

I had the pleasure once again of watching Tim perform some of his close-up magic that night. I was absolutely dumbfounded by a simple little illusion. He pulled a match from a pack of matches, lit it, held it in his hand and it changed into a silver dollar. I don't mean it looked like it changed. It was a match one moment and a dollar the next instant, with smoke still rising from it's edge. Tim later shared with me that simple magic is always the best.

Tim has lived a life of a magician, from time to time it's hard like most lives can be. But he told me that he has never filled out a job application in his life and knows that security for him is an illusion. But his security has been that he could walk into a restaurant if he needed and would tell the manager, let me perform tonight and see if it works for both of us. Within 30 minutes the manager would be asking, "how much do you charge to do this." He has managed to work, travel and live life as a magician, relying on his skills and abilities to make others happy.

I sat with Tim and talked about life and the magic moments he has had throughout his. He calls them "click" moments. The time he closed up his magic shop and headed for Orlando, the door went "click." I like to call them "defining moments." Those moments that change the direction of your life, they define your life. The moment that Tim said the words "I do team sports magic" for example was a defining moment a "click" in Tim's life. 

When I asked him what the most amazing thin he has ever done, he didn't tell me about making a dragon appear in a box hanging a hundred feet in the air, or sawing a woman in two. No, he told me about a time he surprised his girlfriend by getting some of her relatives to come make a surprise visit. It made him relive that magic moment and he teared up with tears of joy. We talked about so many things, magical things, amazing things. I know that this old friend of mine, this magic mentor, who has taught so many and helped so many others get their lives on track, does know the difference between real magic, and those things a magician does with cards.

Live the magic, my magician brother!