Magic Life in Boise

Sara the bartender at Humpin' Hanna's

Boise, Idaho is a wickedly, wonderful, and wondrous city. It is one of my favorite magical places, I find it and Austin, Texas surprisingly similar. Both are state capitols and have the political fixtures which go along with being such. Both have a river running through them and a well enjoyed green belt along the river. They both also have a major university (of which I attended, both) and if you think about it, one is the Broncos, whose mascot is a horse, and University of Texas has a longhorn as their mascot, so in other words, one is full of bull and the other is just B.S. (Boise State). I really had to reach for that one folks. But really, besides reaching for the obvious jokes, I love both schools and follow both football teams with a passion.

They both have a love for country music, and both seem to have more than their fair share of beer drinking cowboys. But my favorite similarity is the many beautiful, blonde, cowgirls. Most of those girls seem to share something in common too. They all seem to share the same shortage of cloth in their skirts and buttons on their blouses. I've never seen so many mini skirts in one place as I did when I sat down to dinner in downtown Boise and that includes Vegas, but we're not going there again.

I spent a few days staying with relatives there in Boise. I have an older brother and his wife, Kirk and Pam,  my niece Melissa and her husband Shawn, and their little boy Coop and my nephew, Colin.( I won't even mention my cousin Ron and his wife, Carla and their son, Bryon and his wife Melissa, cause he never reads this, he just always wants to see some magic.) The first evening they shared with me, a surprising statistic. According to Shawn, Boise has a "butt-load" of MILFS. (I don't even know that that means.) We'll discuss that in more detail later when I tell you about my night out on the town.

My nephew, Coop is such an amazing little guy. I think he should have his own show. And that show should be called "Cooper Love's His Uncle Ace Who Took Him To See The Trains Best ." But I since I haven't asked permission to show his picture, here is one of me at the Boise train station. And I wore this shirt to solidify the now well known fact that I am indeed the megalomaniacal narcissist you believe me to be. Someone recently gave me the definition of "narcissist" for my own enlightenment on Facebook. Of well if the shoe fits...

Wow! I don't remember looking that dorky.

Boise was where I really started my own career in magic. When I attended Boise State University to get my degree in theater back in the... well a while back, I worked at my first magic shop, a place called "Tricks and Trash," or something like that. I got my first regular magician's job as what we call a "table hopper" in the business, a guy who does magic in a restaurant. For me it was the Grizzly Bear Pizza parlor. And I hooked up with another theater student, a girl named Wendy, to perform corporate gigs and some school shows as "The Wiz and Wendy." We'd do a standard magic show with a few doves, linking rings and such. Wendy was my girlfriend, which you may have figured is a standard among magician's and their assistants. If they don't start with a romantic involvement, they eventually have one. (think about that one Linda..hehehe, someday it could happen.)  

I was also elected president of our own magician's group, the Idaho Magic Guild. I remember running meetings in a pizza parlor of about 14 or 15 magicians who would meet once a month, share tricks, compete against one another for trophies all the while drinking beer. Several lifetime professional magicians sprang from this group.

While I there in Boise, I was sitting in Starbucks, looking at my Facebook page and suddenly a notice appeared on my wall, I don't know why, maybe because I was saying the word "magic" so much in my postings. I don't really know how those things work, but there was a notice that there was a meeting of a Treasure Valley Magician's Group, there in a pizza parlor, on a night which I would be in Boise. So I knew that I just had to go and see what the state of magician's meetings had become in Boise years after my own stint as a magician's group leader.

Work-a-day Magician, Kipp Sherry in Boise

I discovered a very small, but still enthusiastic group of about half-dozen semi-pro and amateur magicians. There was only one young boy in the group, who was there to learn magic the old fashioned way (from actual magicians.) If this was a typical meeting, which I have no reason to believe otherwise, I'd say that magic may be in the decline in Boise, Idaho. Not because of the attendees lack of enthusiasm, but because of the lack of attendees. I do think that the old style, learning from other magician's is indeed dying, at least in Boise.

The meetings were in fact being run by their President, a magician whom I came to Boise to interview. His name is Kipp Sherry. Kipp is Boise's main working magician whom I've known for a few years. He is what I call a work-a-day magician, a pro who makes his living doing mostly birthday parties and corporate dinners. He advertises his business on his pick up truck and works hard to make a living at magic. There are a few magicians in Boise and a city of that size can only support a couple pros at most, and making a living at magic can only be achieved with hard work. To quote one of my faves, Ted Turner of CNN fame, "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise." Kipp is one of those magicians who makes a living at it because he "works like hell and advertises."

I talked with Kipp about a lot of things in his life and about the current state of magic. He is one of the magicians who believes that magic is undergoing and change, and "people don't like change."

Kipp says that the new breed of magicians are learning from each other still, but are using chat rooms and Skype to actually teach each other the moves. However anyone who has ever been in an online chat room will tell you that people behind an avatar often become brazen because of their anonymity. Thus things can get a little "weird" as he told me. And he is concerned that magicians of today aren't learning how to "entertain" they are learning the moves, but not the concepts which make it entertaining. "Anybody can go out and get a packet trick and learn a packet trick." A packet trick is another term us magicians use for a few cards which usually are sold in an envelope, along with instructions, and do one trick, as apposed to a deck of cards. Because packet tricks usually come with a "patter" (the spoken routine) when most young magician's do a packet trick they all use the exact same wording along with it. Thus, if a packet trick becomes popular, you'll see ten magician's in the same town doing the same trick, saying exactly the same thing. Many magicians do packet tricks and do them well. I have nothing against these tricks, as I, for one, made a reputation for myself performing a simple packet trick. One that I and only and handful of magicians in the world new at the time. I'll share it for you here:

See a packet of cards can be presented in a way in which it is sleightly entertaining, (a play on words,) however you can tell that the patter to this trick can't really be varied much. Of course I added my own start and corny lines to it which I always do to a routine.

Kipp believes that you should be able to create your own magic as a magician. And so do I. Many magicians who actually work for a living scourer places like Home Depot or Michael's Hobby Shops to see if we can find something which can be made into an illusion. Kipp demonstrated something he created with a couple things he found at the lumber yard. A simple chain and a ring come together for a great little illusion. He performed it for me and told me a couple different patters which he uses.

But the real magic in Boise is found downtown on a Friday night. I told you I'd share what happened that night when I was out. Well I went to a place called Hannas in downtown Boise. There I met the cutest little bartender, Sara. When a magician meets a cute bartender who likes magic, it can only mean one thing to them... future assistant... no, it means do a trick which will end in them giving you a kiss. I just happened to have such a trick which of course I performed for the attractive Sara. In the end of the trick I usually bet two things of equal value, a kiss on the cheek from them, against my car or house. Of course they believe they will win because it's an obvious bet, but magic prevails and they are humiliated into a "kiss on the cheek." And of course when I do receive my "kiss on the cheek" I quickly turn and give them a peck on the lips.. It's all in good fun, and it makes for a little humor along the way and even sometimes it leads to a new assistant.

However when I went to get the kiss on the cheek from Sara, she just plants one right on my mouth and completely ruins the entire routine. Can you believe that? Must have been that Axe body wash I used or something. But the night was still young. I asked her what time she got off. At which time she decided to inform me that her boyfriend was picking her up at 2:30.

Sara had made my drinks a little stiff.. yes I said "drinks." And since she wasn't open for breakfast, I asked if there were a late night restaurant where I could go have some breakfast and sober up before driving home. She smiled and sent me on to a place called "Solid" just a stone's throw away, telling me it was where all the late night people would gather for a "last chance." It sounded like fun.

So I wandered over to  this late night happening and, much to my chagrin, there weren't but a few people hanging around inside, but I was there just to have something to eat anyway. So I was sitting alone at the bar eating their version of eggs Benedict, when out of no where, this cute little blond wearing a mini skirt and two few buttons on her blouse leans onto my shoulders from behind me. First I'm startled, but then I see how cute she is and I'm pleasantly surprised.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt your meal," she says coquettishly, "do you know where the bathroom is?"

She is a little tipsy, I can tell, and I have no idea where the bathroom is, but I put my arm around her, since hers is now around me, and say to her, "honey, I'll help you find it."

I find a waiter and ask him for directions. He gives me some convoluted instructions and I realize that the bathroom isn't really that easy to find, but I would be able to get her there. So I walk this girl through a labyrinth, to the ladies room door. She turns, wraps her arms around my neck, and plants a very sensual kiss on me. "Thank you so much," she says, pulling me towards the door. And I don't even know her name.. again, is it the Axe Body Wash or what?

Rather than a trip to the ladies room, I tell her, "you're welcome." And I leave her and go back to my eggs like a good boy. Well, a few chews and swallows later, she's back.

"Sorry to interrupt you again, but how am I going to get in touch with you . I have no idea how to contact you," she says.

"Well I can give you my cell," I said, "I just need to get something to write it on."

She say's to the bartender, "do you have a pen and paper?"

He hands her a pen and dinner ticket to write on. She doesn't hand it to me, instead she writes her name, and phone number on it and says, "Call me tomorrow, I've got to go, my boyfriend is in the other room waiting, and he is probably wondering where I am."

Women... they are the magic, the mystery...and what is a MILF anyway? ;-0