Abbott's stage area is a unique situation for any performer. Basically, it is high school gym with a stage at one end under the basket. Once a year, the stage crew manages to transform it into a workable stage for some of the biggest acts in magic. Some acts adapt better than others.

That stage for four days becomes a "Hemp House". That means there is no fly system. Everything is dead hung. The only moving curtain on stage behind the main curtain is the traveler, which is about 14 feet upstage. There are side legs to dress the stage up a bit but they do not move. Any drops or illusions that need to be lifted in the air are done by pure brute manpower, using ropes and pulleys.

All illusions must fit through the standard 83" x 83" double doors into the band room. We have had to have some illusions assembled on stage. When Blackstone worked the buzz saw, it was stored in an upstage corner with a black cloth over it.

This is a real world performance venue. Magicians will often find themselves working on this kind of a stage. To have a full fly system, a couple of moving travelers and a full compliment of lighting instruments, does not always happen in the real world. You have to be able to innovate and adapt to make things work.

Another problem at Abbott's, there is no onstage lighting. There used be a row of border lights overhead. But as the years progress and more and more of those lights died and were never replaced by the school. Two years ago, the school added large fluorescent light boxes for onstage work lights. They light up great for work lights but hang down pretty low so they show below the teasers. So all the lighting is from the front. If you move more than 15' upstage you can lose the light. Our spotlight guys, Jim Fitzsimmons and Jeff Boyer, are crackerjack. They cut their teeth on the road with Jerry Conklin, our stage lighting guru. I have seen them light only the face of a performer while he does dancing cane. Having two knowledgeable magicians on the spotlights can help a lot. They can anticipate the action and know what works and doesn't.

Part of the innovation that goes on backstage, is how to keep the show moving. Putting the props for each act so that they move quickly on and off stage without interfering with the next act is a real art. Communication is vital with the stage manager and the deck hands. Often the acts adapt their normal performance area so that things flow in their act and during the other acts. This keeps the Emcee from having to kill so much dead time. When everything is set backstage, a ready light is turned on. "Sparky" as we call him almost was kidnapped to England. Paul Daniels just went nuts over it and could not believe that we were using a light up snowman nightlight for our ready light.

Several things make Abbott's really stand out. Everyone is there to pitch in and help make the show go. In the circus, it is called "being with the show". That means you will do anything and everything you can to make the show happen. Wives are loaned to magicians for assistants. Animals are shared. Other performers help fix broken props. It is really a family helping one another.

For the 50th anniversary of the Get Together in 1986, we had a lot of big acts to set and work the stage. Blackstone brought a large portion of this Broadway tour show. Abb Dickson did the famous "Kitchen Act" of John Daniel's Shazam show. This act was built for John when he owned Owen Magic. Many of the props were actually made by Carl Owen himself.

This act had not been out the trunks in over 25 years. In fact, Rick Walker brought the trunks with costumes from the show as everything had been intermingled years ago. Abb found some of his stuff in Rick's and Rick had some of Abb's.

This was a big production; there were 12 onstage assistants and at least four of us offstage. It was a lot fun but a lot work. We hung the "Veggie Drops" on the legs. These were large black clothes that had rope outlines of vegetables on them.

At one point, we had four rolling tables onstage with girls in full showgirl costumes being rolled on and off the stage. There was a lot of rehearsal to make sure everything went smoothly.

Most items were adapted so they required no overhead rigging or special stage. But the closing effect did require a little extra rigging. A girl in a corn outfit (yes I said corn outfit -she looked like a big ear of corn) was vanished in the cargo net or dizzy limit illusion. This was a beautiful prop constructed in the heavy Owen tradition to troupe. It was an aluminum framework with a large net to hold the girl in place.

The prop needed to be flown or raised once the girl was inside. We had no winches or block and tackles so we improvised. Backstage there is a ladder that went up to a storage area above the stage. We ran two ropes through two sets of pulleys over to the ladder area. Loops were made in the rope for foot stirrups. At the appropriate time, Wayne Burchell and myself would jump off the ladder with our feet in the loops to fly the illusion. It was crude but it worked.

Because of this little episode, Wayne has been known as "The Great Ballast" while I am "Ballast #2".

Over the years, the performers, friends and crew, have made the magic on stage happen year after year. But often a lot more magic was going on behind the scenes to make it happen. Thank goodness for the "Great Ballast" and others like him.

Richard