BRICK – A magician from Maryland brought some spectacle, fun, laughs and of course a bit of magic to a young crowd at the township branch of the Ocean County Library recently.
Mike Rose brought his magic hat and plenty of tricks up his sleeve to make the 60th anniversary of the branch – as well as the centennial celebration of the library system itself – a bit more special on a recent summer afternoon. The magician however is observing a milestone year of his own as it turns out and he shared that story with The Brick Times.
His wit, humor and sleight of hand provided many a chuckle from the audience filled with children, some parents and even grandparents that day. His performance was sponsored by the Ocean County Library Commission.
“I live in Bel Air, which is north of Baltimore. I did another show around here this morning. I go all over the mid-Atlantic in the summer and do tons of library shows. Over 100 shows in Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware,” Rose said. “I have been doing this forever.”
His roots in magic have an interesting twist of fate which illustrated that once you find your passion, pursue it to the end. “I started my interest in magic when I was eight years old. The bug bit as they say and everything was magic focused. I worked my way through college doing it and I was at a point where I was doing a good number of shows but I was managing a furniture store at the time.”
“It was a tiny store with two other employees and me. The owner and usually I opened and closed the doors and I was doing more shows and coming in late and leaving early and one morning I came in and turned on the lights and the owner was sitting there in the dark waiting for me,” Rose said.
His boss told him, “‘You have to make a decision. It’s either this magic stuff or your job.’ So I said, ‘Here are the keys.’ I was single and had no responsibilities and I was now a full-time magician. That was 1985 exactly 40 years ago.”
“I figured that if I wasn’t pushed, I might not have done it,” Rose said. “I thought I might as well do it and for the first two years afterwards I sent him a thank you note for being fired. I don’t know if I would have had the nerve to go out on my own at that time. It was now or never so I might as well try.”
Rose, now married, has been an entrepreneur since that day. “I figured out ways to make it work. I do shows but I also got into magic history some 25 years ago. That is a side thing for me. I write about magic history and articles about magicians.”
“I also have a little side business as I am interested in old magic apparatus. It is kind of like an antique business but it is all magic. I buy old collections from deceased or retired magicians and keep the good stuff for me and resell the rest on my website,” he added.
Rose remarked, “I always tell people magic is my job but magic history is my hobby.” Rose also hits a good number of magic conventions where both interests collide. “Nowadays those shows are the best ways to reach magicians with tricks and equipment. There used to be brick and mortar magic shops but they have mostly gone by the wayside.”
“Now if you want to see someone in person and you want to demonstrate your magic product (to sell to magicians) you go to a magic convention. One just happened in Las Vegas called Magic Live and they had 2,000 magicians there,” Rose noted. “Yes, there are magic conventions out there.”
As to his show that day, a few youngsters had the chance to serve as the magician’s apprentice. They were also part of the fun – having to hold a floppy magic wand that wouldn’t straighten out or to hold a container that held colorful balls inside.
There were some rope tricks with sliding knots. “I know you’ve seen knots before and while this one looks like a normal knot, this one is special because when you pull on the end it doesn’t get tighter it gets looser. It starts to slide along the rope and eventually as it gets closer to the end it actually flies off,” he told his audience to their amazement and amusement.
His show featured a lot of comedy and he frequently asked attendees what he should do as he was directing their attention around his act. At the close of one trick he told the audience, “feel free to burst out into spontaneous applause.”
