We recently sat down with comedy magician Keith Stickley after he emceed the Wednesday night show at the 72nd Abbotts Magic Get Together for a little interview:
Newest Tops: Keith, who are you, what kind of magic do you do, and
how’d you get started in magic?
Keith Stickley: Wow! One question at a time. I guess I’ll start with how I got started in magic. I grew up in the Detroit area, and the first magician I remember seeing was a close-up worker by the name of Jim Bergstrom in the early 1980’s. I was about four or five, and he was working a high-end restaurant in the suburbs north of Detroit. My dad took me there on what I think may have been a date (my parents divorced at a very early age) and the “magic guy” came up to our and did a few tricks. I was pretty amazed. A year or two later dad had a birthday party for me at a local Burger King that at the time was totally magic themed with a magic theater and stage in the dining area. Jim Carmody was the magician, and pretty much all I remember was he had a duck in his show, and produced a big dove pan full of candy that I got to take home. That was pretty neat to me.
NT: So that’s what inspired you to be a magician?
KS: Well not exactly. That was the first time I saw magic live, and it peaked my interest. After that I received magic kits for various holidays from my parents, and tried to do what must have been some of the worst basement magic shows ever staged.
NT: How’d you make the transition from basement magician to full time touring act?
KS: When I was about 14 or 15 I met some local magic guys in the area for the first time. Guys like Milt Kort and Ron Bauer. They were amazingly helpful and actually treated me with far more respect than a cocky kid of 14 deserved. I’d ride my bike over to Milt Kort’s house since he didn’t live far from me, and ogle the books in his library and listen to stories about him meeting with various “greats” of magic. At this time I was primarily a magic history junkie. I didn’t have much interest in performing, and was actually preparing to get my pilots license when I was 16ish, and have a career in the airlines. Then I got a phone call from a local magician who couldn’t do a birthday party, and he talked me into doing my little act, which at the time had never been seen outside my room. Being a history buff, it was mostly stuff cobbled out of old Will Goldston books doing lines, presentation, and tricks that made no sense whatsoever to anyone living in the current times. From then I went to college at UNLV after discovering that there was a college in Las Vegas when I was invited to compete in Lance Burton’s magic competition in 1997, decided to drop the whole aviation thing, and concentrate on performing. I moved to Las Vegas a month or two after graduating high-school and studied business and theatre. Out in Vegas I met a lot of guys like Scott Alexander who was headlining all the time at Caesar’s Magical Empire, and Denny Haney who would sort of help inspire and shape my act. On breaks from school I managed to get a few gigs in Hong Kong and China and kept working on my show. Eventually I got a break and got to substitute for Scott in the review show he was in at the time around the time he was having his first baby. It wasn’t until then that I really started to ENJOY performing.
NT: I’ve read about you working fairs and festivals pretty extensively when you are in college. You even wrote a book about it. When was all that happening?
KS: When I was on summer break after that first year of college, I started doing a lot of fairs and festivals with a street act I had put together. Initially I was still pretty shy performing, and I worked occasionally as a duo act with a buddy of mine, Jason Abbott. We were doing some pretty crazy stuff in the early days – like using a sub-trunk out on the street while busking. He continued doing his own thing and has become one of the busiest family show guys in metro-Detroit while I tried building a more traditional street “circle show” which evolved into my fair and festival show. I had a lot of fun with it during my college years, and the year I graduated, I wrote a book, “The Festival Entertainer – The Professional Entertainers Guide to Booking and Working Outdoor Fairs, Festivals, and Events” which basically documented how I did it all. I believe the book is still available from Abbotts, actually.
NT: What kind of material are you doing, and where are you working now?
KS: My current show is a comedy show with quite a bit of audience participation. I really enjoy digging up some of the classics of magic and putting my spin on them. The history nut in me has me seeking out a lot of great tricks that no one really does anymore like the Zen’s Envelopes and the original Abbott’s Canvas Covered Box (with full examination!). Being influenced heavily by guys like Rip Taylor who I had the pleasure of working with several times while in school, and great acts like Denny Haney, I really enjoy making “old” seem NEW again. I did some work on cruise ships and currently work quite a bit in Resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean.
NT: Where can we learn more about you, where you are performing, and what you’re up to?
KS: You can visit my webpage at http://www.keithmagic.com.
