Two Dream Jobs

October 9, 2017 12:45 PM

Manager of the Magic Castle in Hollywood is the first one. And the second one is an Angler/Archer/Woodsman who is a sage at heart.
posted by MovableBookLady (15 comments total)

OH MY GOD FLIP PALLOT YAY!!!!

For about 3 years, I was the PA/Admin Assistant/Sales Assistant/Associate Web Editor for the ESPN show they talk about, and worked (via phone) with him a lot; the corporate office was in New York, and he was based in Florida, as were the camera and sound guys. The three of them would go on the trips, capture the footage, and send the tapes up to us in New York, where they would be edited; meanwhile, our writer would draft the scripts for the narration and send them to Flip to record that in Florida in a studio and send them back to us. Then after everything was finished it got sent to ESPN. I was the one booking all their travel, doing all their expense reimbursements, negotiating cheap rates on the hotel in exchange for "we'll show your hotel's name on the show" (and then calling the camera guy to say "yeah, just linger onthe sign in the lobby for a few seconds"). And sometimes I was script doctor for the narration (the writer was NOTORIOUSLY late with his scripts, sometimes to the point that poor Flip had been waiting in the studio for a half hour because there was no script yet; sometimes if some parts of the script were icky when we got it my boss would just give it to me in desperation and ask me to fix it).

SO much of this article is reminding me of names and people I haven't heard of in years. The "wealthy businessman" the article talks about who owned the cay that started the show was Robert Abplanalp, who invented the nozzle you find on spray cans. We loved when Lefty Kreh was on because he would always say the weirdest things (sadly, none of which I remember). We built a whole episode around he and his wife going on a fishing trip together, and asked her to narrate it that time. By a sheer stroke of luck, while they were filming, the cameraman managed to capture a launch of the Space Shuttle while they were out in the field and threw that in too.

He was a seriously nice guy. At some point while I was there he wrote his memoirs (I ghostwrote the ad that we ran for the book), and he happily autographed a copy for me for my dad.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 PM on October 9, 2017 [9 favorites]

The Magic Castle is an amazing place - a few years ago we stayed at a nearby hotel, an older one that was funky and reasonably priced. To our surprise we found out that it also included an invite to the Magic Castle. It's apparently now called the Magic Castle Hotel, and if you're interested in seeing a performance at the Magic Castle, staying there would be the ticket (so to speak). Otherwise the Magic Castle is still invite only, I believe.
posted by emmet at 1:34 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Robert Abplanalp

Robert Ablanalp, Bat Rebor.
posted by komara at 1:41 PM on October 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

Angler/Archer/Woodsman

He should dip Fighter for the extra feat.
posted by The otter lady at 2:06 PM on October 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

A dissenting opinion on the Magic Castle.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 2:07 PM on October 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh my, Mr Tompkins is very funny, and I'm sure so so right, and now I vastly much more desperately want to visit the castle. I've left my magic-nerd life far in the past, still have the folding silk hat that needs repair but, oh never mind, not a place for non-nerds but what a unique microcosm of unique antiquated kitsch (that probably still works).
posted by sammyo at 2:21 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have never understood the love of magic. I know it's a trick and it leaves me bored.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:22 PM on October 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I lived in Hollywood back in the early 70s, I went to the Magic Castle as a guest and had a thoroughly good time. I'm especially fond of close-up card work. I'm a big fan of Ricky Jay's but, of course, he wasn't there.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:45 PM on October 9, 2017

EmpressCallypgos: cool story; seems like he's still out there doing his thing.

Re the Magic Castle: there are memberships available for non-magicians but they aren't cheap.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:52 PM on October 9, 2017

the other way to get in is to be a professional magician.

I was able to fulfill my lifelong dream of going by staying at the nearby hotel a few years ago. I think it used to be apartments.
posted by brujita at 2:54 PM on October 9, 2017

Kleenex, maybe you're lacking the physiological response reflex to witnessing a magic trick?

Pete Holmes Explains
posted by ajryan at 3:16 PM on October 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

Illusions, Michael.
posted by ckape at 3:27 PM on October 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

Also Kleenex may not have been to the right kind of show or a really good performer. There is a whole lot of really lame magicians around. But the right performance is art that leaves you with a gasp of wait, that can't happen, how... great fun.
posted by sammyo at 5:11 PM on October 9, 2017

Mr. Dinty was listening to the Paul F. Tompkins skit and recognized who he was talking about even before he got to the bit about the toupee (Dai Vernon). He also thinks that it wasn't a toupee, it was just really shitty hair.

We went to the magic castle a few years ago, and it was pretty much like the skit, but also awesome if you are into magic or just really like watching people be really happy about being into magic. You'll see ten acts - two are kind of amateur level, six will be vegas performer level, and two will be amazing golden gods. And yeah, there's stuff everywhere.

(we also got like two drinks because they were really overpriced).
posted by dinty_moore at 7:40 PM on October 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Regarding going to the Magic Castle you can try what worked for me. The performers each get a few guest passes. I simply emailed several of them a month in advance asking nicely if they had any extras. Bizarro came through with two free tickets!
posted by cosmac at 6:46 AM on October 10, 2017 [2 favorites]