Tyler Magic Club: Bunch of ClownsInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Jonathan Ernest

Tyler Magic Club Filled with Bunch of Clowns. There is a nice profile in today’s Tyler Morning Telegraph about the local magic club and its members. To a person, each magician is also a clown. It is entirely possible the reporter only included the stories of magician/clowns and that there are non-clown magicians within the club, but we may never know. That’s overly dramatic. We’ll know, don’t worry.

The article tells the members’ stories, focusing on their introductions to our wonderful art. We read about “Master Illusionist James Anderson” who found magic after injuring his knee in soccer. He was sauntering through the Tyler State Park and came upon Poppy the Clown. Through Poppy, the 18-year-old Mr. Anderson has found the rehabilitative excitement of magic and membership in the Tyler Magic Club. He works as both a Master Illusionist (he prefers “Illusionist” because “so many people associate magic with the dark side”) and Mister Jazzz the clown.

Jonathan Ernest’s tale is one to which we can relate. He started in the art during High School but put the practice on hold for lack of funds. After earning his law degree, he was flush with cash (okay, we can’t relate to that part) and able to get back into the only branch of the entertainment world that has any meaning, magic. (We are assuming, arguendo, that the practice of law is not part of the entertainment world).

The club also includes Terry Teene who claims to have been the very first Ronald McDonald clown. Mr. Teene told the reporter that he and his friend George Voorhees co-created the character, face design and costume, “complete with golden arches and French-fry-bag pockets.”

No disrespect is intended towards Mr. Teene but we have met many who claim to have been the very first Ronald McDonald and the originator of the face design. Willard Scott makes a big point of his early involvement in the Ronald legacy and claims to have been the first. That is technically true if by “first” one means first on a local television commercial. For our money, we believe Earl Chaney, owner of Las Vegas’ Planet Mirth and former Ringling clown was the first Ronald.

But the story of the First Ronald is like that of Babe Ruth’s Called Homerun in the…

Jonathan Ernest

But the story of the First Ronald is like that of Babe Ruth’s Called Homerun in the Cubs-Yankees World Series. If everyone who claims to have seen the Babe point to the very place in center field where he would hit his game-winning home run had actually been at Wrigley Field at the time, it would have had to seat about half a million more than its then 32,000 seat capacity.

Check out the full article by clicking here.

The Tyler Magic Club, Ring 266, is also affiliated with SAM Assembly 283. You can read the details of their meeting location and time by clicking here.