Shortly after I moved to Pittsburgh in 1998, I was picked up by an entertainment agent who booked the majority of my shows. In the fall that year, I was asked to do a show for a birthday party for the daugher of John Smiley, a former MLB pitcher, All-Star, and Pirate. He had just completed his final season with the Indians, but still lived with his family in Pittsburgh.
As we spoke on the phone, he said his father-in-law HATED magicians and asked if there was a way I could really fool him. So about a week before the show, I sent him an Ace of Spades from an extra card deck and told him to find a way to sneak it into his father-in-law's wallet.
When I arrived at the show, John confirmed that he was able to secretly place the card in the wallet. John's daughter at the time was only turning 6, so the show I was doing was more of a "fun comedy" show rather than serious magic. So after I set up for the show, I asked the adults if I could share a new trick with them. The father-in-law declined to come over (after all, he HATED magicians), so we moved over to where he was sitting. I forced an Ace of Spades (meaning I "made" that person choose that particular card using slight-of-hand) on one of the adults. They mixed it back in the deck and I stated I could make it re-appear anywhere in the room that I wanted. For the first time, I stated, I would attempt to have it appear in someone's wallet.
I couldn't ask for anything better when the father-in-law responded, "You set someone up to go in with you on this trick". All I had to do was say, "OK, I'll use you then, because we haven't set anything up, right?" He responded, "If that card ends up in my wallet, you can have all the money that is in there!"
Well, John and I were the only two people in on the secret, so all the adults were floored when he opened the wallet and there was the Ace of Spades! The father-in-law insisted I take the $50 he had in the wallet as he had promised. I've received many tips around and above that amount, but I called this post "The Big Tip" because on my way out after the show, John Smiley wrote a check for the price of the show plus an extra $500 as a tip for getting his father-in-law!
The best part of the day --- when the show eventually started, the father-in-law turned into a kid again and became just as excited and drawn into the show as the children.
1 comment:
your Uncle Mikey laughed so hard that he couldn't finish reading the story about the father-in-law who hated magic. He loves the Ace of Spades trick. Keep up the good work.
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