Meet the Man Who forever changed my approach to performing Magic
In November, 1965, while a Sophomore in High School in St. Louis, I took the train from St. Louis to visit a friend who had moved to Chicago. I was 15 years old and had already been performing Magic for Money for 7 years and had already been on local TV in St. Louis several times. I was engrossed with what I would deem "achieving a level of technical excellence" as a Magician. After all, when you grow up watching and hanging around guys like Gene DeVoe, John Mendoza, Harry Monti, Dan Fleshman and Bro. John Hamman every week, you are exposed to technical excellence!
To me, two important things happened while I was in Chicago during that trip: (1) I stopped by Magic, Inc. at 5082 N. Lincoln for the first time and met Jay Marshall, and, (2) I went to Schulien and Sons at 2100 W. Irving Park Rd., where, on the same night, I met Al James, Johnny Thompson and watched Matt Schulien "Do His Thing".
Matt Schulien's "Thing" was a totally non-technical, approach to ENTERTAINING his customers who were laughing so hard and having such a great time that they had tears of joy rolling down their cheeks and, to this day, I have NEVER seen a Magician establish such a rapport with "Civilians". Matt was a BIG man with a LARGER-THAN-LIFE personality, and it was his PERSONALITY that carried his show. It was a CATHARSIS to me as a Magician seeing Matt Schulien work, and it forever changed my approach to performing Magic!
And here is what I learned: FORGET THE TECHNICAL CRAP AND MAKE YOUR AUDIENCE LAUGH AND HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!