Barry Gibbs Essay: In The BeginningInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

IN THE BEGINNING

It was 1956, a freezing cold November morning in Baltimore, MD, and the snow was pouring down and beginning to drift. I stepped onto the bus, dropped my dime into the box located beside the driver, and headed to the rear of the bus. I had been saving my allowance and my goal that morning was to visit Phil Thomas’, Yogi Magic Mart. I had watched Phil on Channel 13, WAAM in Baltimore for quite some time. He had a Saturday morning TV Show where he presented magicians and also ran movies of the “Little Rascals”. Yes, those were the good old days. Black and white TV and a 10″ screen.

By the time I reached downtown Baltimore the snow was 2′ high and still coming down. I tucked my gloved hands into my jacket as I trudged four blocks through the snow drifts to 215 North Charles St., my breath painting the air like clouds with every step I took.

After looking for a sign, I finally spotted a small one, about 5″ x 12″, hanging directly over a small doorway. Strangely, my heart was beating with anticipation. The sign proclaimed “Yogi Magic Mart”. Opening the door I peered in to see two flights of stairs leading to the second floor.

At the landing between the two sets of stairs there was a small dim light bulb that partially illuminated the dark stairway. The old wooden stairs creaked eerily as I started up them, and there was a distinct musty odor in the hallway. Looking up the stairs to the second landing, I could barely see a number of old faded magic posters at the very top of the stairs.

IN THE BEGINNING

I continued up the stairs past the second landing and when I reached the top landing, I made two sharp right turns,and walked down a narrowhallway. The hallway was lined on the left side with all kinds of magic posters some bearing pictures of imps and devils, alongwith famous magicians. As I crossed the threshold of the magic shop a loud bell announced my entrance into a world that would change my life forever. I realized I was entering into a different world, one of mystery and intrigue, where miracles happened with the muttering of a few magic words, like “Yogi, Yogi” and “Sim Sala Bim.”

This was a “real” magic shop. There were no costumes, wigs or masks, only magic. Directly in front and to the right side of me were old glass cases overflowing with hundreds of props and tricks. Brass bowls, feather flowers, spring flowers, coins, cards, mysterious boxes and tubes of metal with “ancient” Chinese symbols, steel rings and ropes and fabulous silk scarves with incredible designs on them.

Everywhere you looked there was magic!

To the left of the main studio was a magic library corner with hundreds of magic books including books on card tricks, coin tricks, rope tricks, Orbin comedy books, ventriloquism, Rice’s Silk Encyclopedias and the greatest of all, the Tarbell Course in Magic. Directly to the left of the library was a small theater complete with folding chairs and a small platform stage. A brilliantly dyed 6′ silk served as a background for the stage, and there were curtained off areas on both sides of the stage.

When the bell rang, Phil Thomas came from his back office and as he peered over his gold rimmed glasses he gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen, he welcomed me to the Yogi Magic Mart. We chatted for a few minutes as I gazed around the shop in absolute awe, and then out of the blue Phil said, with all the snow today, he didn’t expect a lot of people would be coming in.

Then he floored me with his next statement.

Phil said “would you like to do some work for me?”

I almost fell over backward, not only was it my first visit, but now this famous Baltimore magician was asking me if I would like to work for him. I couldn’t believe my luck! I imagined every kid in Baltimore wanted to work in Phil Thomas Yogi Magic Mart, and here without any forewarning, Phil offered me a job!

My heart was in my throat as I quickly I quickly stammered out a “yes sir!”

I was in shock! Here was a famous magician with his own TV show, and he was asking me if I wanted to work for him. What a thrill, and his statement changed the rest of my life. From that day on I became Phil Thomas’ “gofer.”

My first job was stuffing and sealing envelopes, and packing boxes and mailing shipments for Phil’s mail order business, which was located in a warehouse, behind his office. I soon graduated to making stripper and Svengali decks as well as assembling other props and demonstrating. Everything I made had to be done to perfection as Phil guaranteed all of his props 100%. Of course I was the kid who always ran down the block to Reed Drugstore and picked up sandwiches, coffee, cokes and anything else needed by Phil and other magicians in the store, and there was always a sandwich, coke or cup of coffee for me also.

The Yogi Magic Mart became my home away from home. I would walk 2 miles to the shop after school everyday and would be there all day on Saturday. I was very fortunate and very privileged to rub elbows with legends in magic like Frank Thompson, Milbourne Christopher, Hen Fetsch, George Most, Bob Tilford, just to name a few.

Every Saturday Frank Thompson would be in the shop with his legendary deck of red aviator bridge cards in his hand and a cigar in his mouth. Other magicians were always begging him to write a book and Frank said he was, but Frank passed away before the book was finished. What a shame as, and a great loss, as Frank was a legendary card man and much of his material was lost forever when he passed away.

I learned very quickly to never ask how a trick was done, but to just watch in quiet admiration, and eventually Frank, as well as other magicians would say “hey kid, like to learn a move?” I felt so privileged to be on the “inside” with these great magicians.

Another thing I learned, and always continued to practice was, “personalized magic service”. That was Phil’s motto, and no one ever left the store until they had learned to do the trick correctly that they had purchased. Of course this personal service always included patter and little “bits of business” that you never found in the written instructions.

I also learned every trick and prop in the store as one of my jobs was to clean, dust, and arrange the magic display cases and shelves. Talk about turning a kid loose in a candy store! I even made signs for many of the props and one time when I visited Phil’s new location in 1969, many of the signs I had made were still in the cases.

Phil’s hero in magic was Thurston, and he had a very large collection of Thurston Memorabilia, including a beautiful old floating ball that I remember delicately handling and cleaning. I almost felt I was in Thurston’s presence when I handled that ball, and often imagined myself on stage, putting the ball though its magical paces.

The shop had its own magic club, one of the largest private magic clubs at the time in the U.S., which met once a month, and occasionally other clubs in the DC/Virginia/Maryland area would visit and perform, and we in turn would visit them and perform. It seemed that there was more friendship and more of a brotherhood in magic during that era.

It was an era that when you learned a secret, you kept that secret to yourself, and never would you think of exposing the secret, no matter what sum of money you were offered. If you did expose the secret, it was so ingrained in you that it was not a decent thing to do, that you felt you would be “shunned” forever by the magic fraternity forever.

What a shame that the magic world is not like that today. Certain people have no decency in them. Magic secrets are openly exposed on television and the internet. The people that do this are really not magicians, no matter what they claim, as they adhere to no “magician code of ethics”, and they are simply out to make a “fast buck” for themselves, or to inflate their own already over inflated egos further.

There are even those that go as far as to steal and manufacture and sell for profit other magician’s ideas and creations. It truly is a sad world today. I thank God that none of these individuals ever served on a battlefield with me, as I would want them in front of me and not behind me, as I am afraid that in the thick of battle, it would be the one time in their life that they became magicians, and disappeared.

Yes, the time at Phil Thomas’ Yogi Magic Mart was a fantastic period of time in my life, one that every young boy should experience, but unfortunately it ended in 1959 when I moved to West Virginia. I will never forget however, those words Phil said that cold, snowy winter morning in 1956, “would you like to work for me”?, as they made a drastic change in my life.

I last saw Phil at an IBM Convention in Indiana,and at that time he was working on the cruise ship lines, but to this day I will always remember him as my mentor in magic. I have never met a more wonderful man and magician.