You Never Know
I was 7 years old, and painfully shy, in 1971 when my father took me to an Exchange Club Christmas party that changed my life.
Normally, this is when Santa Claus would make his annual appearance to entertain and delight the kids. But Ol’ Saint Nick had called in sick and was replaced by …a magician! I only remember two things about that show — some colorful rabbit cutouts called the “Hippity Hop Rabbits” (which I would find out much later), and the feeling of being completely mesmerized by a magic show — thinking, “Wow! If only I could do that…”
After that, I was insufferable. Like many 8-year-olds, I got a magic set for my birthday, but unlike most, I never gave it up.
I watched Doug Henning on TV, found a magic shop nearby, and started doing tricks for my hapless friends and family. I read every magic book in the library and saved up my allowance to buy The Mark Wilson Course in Magic, the Multiplying Billiard Balls, Color Monte, and numerous other wonders. Eventually, I joined the local magic club, won my high school talent contest, and learned how to juggle. The local paper even did a nice feature story, and I became known throughout my high school as “The Magic Man.”
You never know when your passion will change the life of another person. That stand-in magician in 1971 was just doing a gig. He had no idea.
In 1983, now a freshman in college, I was about to embark on my first (and only) full-time entertainment job. I had met up with two other jugglers, practiced incessantly, and we passed the audition to become the Juggling Trio at Kings Dominion amusement park near Richmond, VA. We stayed with a wonderful family, the Morris’, for two weeks until we found an apartment. To show our gratitude, we performed at their son’s birthday party.
By then, I had also performed at festivals all over the state, for politicians and celebrities, been on TV, and even started dating a girl I met while juggling. She was a fellow student completing a photography class assignment on “Students with Interesting Hobbies.”
Fast forward to April 6, 2013. I married the girl, and we had two great boys, now in college. I had majored in Public Relations, continued on for my MBA, and built a fascinating and rewarding career as a management and technology consultant. Actually, much of what I learned as a performer enhanced my consulting work and brought me out of my shell.
Sure, I had thought about becoming a professional magician. My colleague in the juggling trio went on to have a successful stint at Walt Disney World after getting his honors degree. The other one started an Internet company while continuing to juggle.
And me? I remained an amateur — a French word that comes from the Latin “amator”, or lover. For over forty years, I had loved magic, juggling and performance. I had collected some amazing stories, dumbfounded family, friends and clients, and most importantly, never lost that joy of making people smile, laugh and wonder.
You never know. You have no idea who is watching; thinking “Wow! If only I could do that…”
It’s 9:28 p.m. on a Saturday, and I’m on Facebook. Like most people my age, I had joined it a few years ago to spy on my kids, but it gradually had become just another way to keep in touch with friends and family (and see what the pets of my long-lost high school acquaintances were up to). Also, with the kids out of the house, I was getting re-engaged with the magic club and had “friended” several people in the magic and juggling community.
An unfamiliar name pops up on my Message window:
Jonathan Austin: I believe you are the magician I saw 30 years ago this summer in Richmond, Va. … You were the first person I saw do the Three Card Monte where at the end it says “you owe me $14”
Me: Wow! Yes, I am that Gary. I STILL do Color Monte — it’s a great trick! …
Jonathan: You were the first magician I saw and I met you at the Morris’s backyard party in 1983. …I have been doing my show since 1984 and full time since 1990, but this is all I have ever done for a buck and do about 500 shows a year… Thank you for the lifelong impression … you never know how you will affect people.
When I saw that, all the years of my life collapsed into a single moment, and I had only a dumbfounded reaction that, if it could be expressed in words, would be something like…
Indeed.
Gary Patterson is Past President of The International Brotherhood of Magicians, Ring 105 in Columbia, SC. Jonathan Austin is a professional juggler, magician and comic and “one of Richmond’s most recognizable figures” according to the Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch.
