Hey Steve, I know you've been in magic a long time, and I recently had an opportunity to see your wonderful show. I noticed you didn't use any animals at Magicopolis. I didn't see so much as a dove. Is there a reason you don't have any animals in your show, or did you have them in your show in the past? Thanks again for the great time!

Glad you liked the show Mindbender. No I've never worked with live animals, most of my career was travel intensive and I was never up for the care and feeding, plus creatures are unpredictable. But I've worked shows with plenty of animal acts.

Speaking of birds... Early in Brett Daniels career I did a casino show with him called Kazzamm, we liked to call it Kablamm. One of his birds wants to catch my act, he's a big Steve Spill fan. So he flies up to the ceiling above the stage. I start to do my act, not noticing Brett offstage trying to coax the bird down. Then at a certain point, I know something is wrong. I haven't said anything funny, but the audience is laughing, whispering, pointing. I'm wondering if my fly is open and then I learn it's truly something else.

Midway through my rope trick, the bird makes a perfect landing on my shoulder. From his vantage point the bird alternately checks the ropes I'm fooling with and peers at my face... probably picking up a few pointers. The incident helps make this one of my best performances ever. But the winged benefactor resigned and never appeared with me again.

I've worked shows with leopards, panthers, tigers... Most of my savage beast stories I won't share here to avoid embarassing other performers. But here's a story I can tell that really sticks out in my memory. I'll never forget the night I saw a luckless animal trainer attacked by a leopard. Suddenly I heard a commotion backstage. Glancing over I saw two or three bodies thrashing around, after which one man lay on his back with his right arm firmly gripped in the jaws of the cat.

Two of his co-workers immediately came to his rescue, poking the eyes of the animal until it relaxed its jaws just enough for them to stick a block of wood into the leopard's mouth. When the trainer's arm was finally worked free, several deep tooth-holes were discovered. Ouch.

I guess this is why it isn't cool to use animals for entertainment. Sorry... PETA member.

Robert

I agree with you Robert. Here's something I saw that you'd think would stop a girl from ever working with an animal act again... but it didn't. A gorgeous girl in a slinky black dress dances like a wild animal. She gets into a clear plexiglass box. A cloth hides the lady for an instant, when it's whisked away, in her place, is a growling black panther.

The cloth conceals a secret compartment that holds the panther. Under the cloth cover the compartment gently slides to the bottom of the box, allowing the panther to make his appearance. At the same time, the girl squeezes into a secret compartment in the deceptive, built to look thin tabletop, the box is resting on.

The girl is completely protected from the panther, but not protected from his urine. On at least one occasion, as the cloth was lowered, everyone saw the plexiglass walls of the box sprayed with a never ending stream of yellow liquid. The liquid quickly drained into the secert tabletop compartment hiding the girl. When he cloth was whisked away, the relieved panther made his appearance with a mighty growl.

Unbeknownest to the uninformed, the babe's hair, costume, and body were marinating in warm panther urine. After the applause, as always, the illusionist walked the cat along the 250 foot apron of the huge casino stage, then followed with a long choreographed bow where the panther stood on two feet and was rewarded with a piece of raw meat.

By the time the curtain closed, and the box was rolled offstage, the girl had been soaking over two minutes... that two minutes must have seemed like days. Big cat urine has a pungent, long lasting scent, that doesn't wash out easy. Sure, she looked like a nubile, young, covergirl... but she smelled like panther ****.

When I was in Times Square I saw a movie like that. Well..almost.