I SPENT LAST NIGHT IN A MAGIC CASTLE

Our good friend, that we often refer to as Rock Star Chad is lucky enough to know a few people in high places. Last night he got into the elite Magic Castle nestled in the Hollywood Hills right above Sunset. Now this Castle I speak of is a private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts. It is for members only, unless... that is... you receive an exclusive invitation. And lucky for us Chad did and we scooted in on his coat tails. Literally. With a jacket and tie dress code, eight of us got all gussied up for a mysterious night at the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

The old Victorian house that was built in 1908 has many little nooks and crannies, secret passage ways and supposedly a ghost too. We started off the evening in the dining room for dinner and drinks overlooking the city lights. The conversation was lively and the food was good too. After our bellies were full, we meandered into a room off the dining room to watch our first show of the night. There were several magicians performing throughout the show, but the one I was most impressed with was a guy by the name of Dan Sperry from Las Vegas. He came onto stage looking like Edward Scissorhands minus the scissors. With spiked hair, make up sprawled across his face as if he just walked out of a Tim Burton movie and purple and black goth like clothes, he dazzled us with AMAZING tricks. I kept a careful eye trying to discover his 'magic', but he was really good, he had the audience saying repeatedly "How'd he do that?!" He drew a bird on a sketch book, then he brushed a pink handkerchief over his drawing which instantly rendered his newly sketched bird in the same shade of pink. He tore the page from the book and then folded his freshly drawn page. He opened it again only to show us a live pink dove that flew off the paper into the audience. He did this all with sleeves up and the paper dangling by his finger tips mid air. We were all dumbfounded.



We went to another show where a Christian Slater looking magician also from Vegas approached my sister and bet one hundred dollars that he could read her mind and guess what? He did! How he did it, we will never know?! It was pretty cool though!

After our last show, we met up in the lounge where we watched and listened to a mob of magicians mingle about at the bar. You could pick em out a mile away. They either had crazy hair, peering eyes, an awkward presence, funky clothes or a deck of cards in hand. It was so interesting to get a privileged peek into this subculture I know nothing about.

As we lounged and listened on the velvet Victorian sofas, a balding mustached man leaned over to us and whispered out of the corner of his mouth. "You should ask Irma to play you a song on the piano" "Uh ok", we chuckled, not really knowing what the heck the guy was talking about. A grand piano sat silently near us, with not a soul around to play it. The mustached man saw our hesitation and encouraged us to ask the empty chair for a song. Scott and Rock Star Chad, always up for the adventure, both smiled and leaned in to the vacant space. "Hey Irma... how's it going? Uh...could you play us a little Louis Armstrong? How bout 'Our Love Is Here to Stay'". Suddenly, without hesitation, the piano keys started to move. We all listened carefully. Was it thee song? A few notes were plunked out into shaky, but familiar tune. Louie's song was just barely there as if someone was trying to remember how to play it. Then suddenly a loud burst of noise crashed into the room and about 15 adjacent keys all went down together in unison with one huge frustrated booming chord. A silent moment permeated the room as we all looked at each other a bit spooked and bewildered. Then slowly, a soft, gentle note floated out of the piano and a new song began. To our amazement, we soon discovered that the new melody we were listening to was" Georgia on my Mind" by yes... non other than... Louie Armstrong. How does that happen? We looked for a microphone or a box or anything that would suggest the possible presence of a player piano but... nothing- we found nothing. We did however experience another uncanny happening. While we were all trying to come up with another request for Irma, right in the middle of our silent decision making the song "Piano Man" started to be played. We all looked at each other questioning the random song that filled the air . Until... that is ... a huge gasp escaped from Rock Star Chad's mouth. "THAT'S THE SONG...THAT'S THE SONG I WAS JUST THINKING OF AND WAS GOING TO REQUEST!!!!" he blurted out.

Uhhh... can I say freaky?

All in all the night was magical one. Not only was it filled with tricks and illusions, but it was filled with friends, fun and some much needed time with Scott. It was one FANTASTIC evening!