Magic Castle - LA Trip 2011

Once a year my very good friend, JC Dunn, and I head down to southland, L.A., more specifically Hollywood, to visit the Magic Castle. It's a private magician's club that the public may attend if they get a pass from a magician. They have to pay a cover charge and have dinner there to be able to come in. Members and their escorted guests don't have a cover charge nor do they have to buy dinner. However, the food there is incredible. We ate there on Sunday night. The prime rib was fantastic. The truffle dusted french fries were "wow"! Monday we dined at Shintaro Sushi near our hotel. We sushi-ed out! It too was pretty darn good.

Our drive started at 5:20 AM from northern California. We dropped my daughter and her friend at the airport (they were returning to college). It was along the way so it took no time off our travel to SoCal. We made it in near record time without once speeding...not even a little.

We were exhausted and took a cat nap then dressed and headed for the Castle. Sadly the entertainment wasn't the greatest the first night. It wasn't terrible. Most of the audience seem to really enjoy the shows. So I am thinking that the exhaustion of the day and the recent stress of preparing for our big move and the heavy duty marketing we are doing right now, might have played a role in making the entertainment seem not as fun as it had been in the past for me. But I did have a good time and the last act we caught was fantastic.

Since the castle is a night spot we spent Monday afternoon at the LA Zoo. If you recall, I took my girls to the SF Zoo a month or so ago. I have to say, the LA Zoo outshines the SF Zoo in every way. For one thing they had elephants and hippos at the LA Zoo and none at SF.

The layout and larger number of animals was better too. In spite of it being winter and a Monday the zoo was pretty busy.

JC does magic for some kids at the zoo.

Monkey Kiss.

This Gorilla came down and put his face right up to the plex right in front of me. I went nose to nose with the big guy. The reflection in the picture kills the awesomeness of it all.

Monday at the Castle was much better than Sunday. The acts were much better.

I was invited on stage to assist Les Arnold, the guest illusionist at the Castle. In the big trick I got to pick a card. His assistant, Dazzle, would then try to find the card by shooting it. First with a hand gun, then with a bazooka, then with a tank. The tank then vanished. I got the t-shirt int he picture. When he gave it to me it was the three of hearts....but my card was the 2 of hearts. Magically one heart vanished and that makes the saying on the front of the shirt meaningful.

It was a good night.