- 1 -

On the way to a corporate gig one Sunday I got a
call on my cell phone from a panicked sounding
woman wondering if I was on the way to her child's
birthday show. Then, shortly thereafter, my beeper
when off alerting me that I'd received a voicemail
at my home office. It was a second woman wondering
what time I was going to arrive for the party as
it was getting late. I had inadvertently
triple-booked -- three gigs at the same time on the
same day! I was embarrassed, horrified and concerned.
I did the only thing a reasonable person could do.
I lied. I told both women I had just been involved
in a traffic accident. They both rescheduled. As I
was hanging up with the second woman, having just put
her solidly in pen on the calendar, I kid you not,
I ran right into the car in front of me! The light
had turned red and I hadn't even noticed. That's
karma for you, because then I had to cancel on the
corporate gig for the actual reason I had cancelled
on the other two!

-2-

I don't recall the context of the trick I was doing,
but I asked a boy of about 7 years if his mother
was here today. He sheepishly said, "No she's dead."
The tension in the room made it abundantly clear
that she had apparently just recently died. After
which, I immediately replied, "So, the answer is
'No, she's not here. Correct?"

-3-

Traveling deep into the bowels of one of the more
seedy neighborhoods South Central's has to offer,
I became somewhat concerned thinking that perhaps
MapQuest had led my little magic road show astray.
This particular birthday mom had purchased my
super-duper, big honking' show package featuring
the princess levitation. This was prior to the
upgrade to the chair suspension. This low-income
neighborhood was more prone to carjacking than magic
shows. But, it proved to be the right place and
she eagerly showed me to the carport – the neighbors
had cleared out their cars for the big day. When she
pointed out the electrical outlet for me to "plug
in my hydraulics" I was first perplexed, then
alarmed. Needless to say, she was grossly
disappointed in the show and the lackluster
levitation of her boy. In fact, she almost refused to pay me.