The Magic Castle

 A few months ago, a business associate sent me an invitation to the private club in Hollywood called the Magic Castle.  This, of course, is the famed home of the Academy of Magical Arts, and you have to be a member, or have an invitation from a member, to attend.

The castle itself is the Rollin B. Lane mansion which was built in 1908.  It became the "Magic Castle" in 1963.  It's a really cool old Victorian house, complete with its own ghost, the imcomparable Miss Irma, who passed away in 1932, and now obligingly plays the grand piano and takes requests from guests of the castle.

A few good friends took me to the Castle on Saturday night as a birthday gift.  What a wonderful gift!  It was a very fun, magical night.  I'm still amazed by some of the things I saw there - like my friends all dressed up!  (They clean up rather nicely, by the way.)


Bernie, Mark, Peggy, Me, David and Rique.

 From the moment we entered through the hidden door, it was a lot of fun.  We saw all kinds of illusions, and fabulous sleight-of-hand tricks that had me puzzled.  Believe me, card tricks like that, when you've handled and cut the deck yourself, are most amazing!

Somehow, seeing someone making live birds appear and disappear, or pulling a big, fat (Really big! Really fat!) white rabbit out of nothing is much more impressive from about 2 feet away. 

We laughed a lot, and enjoyed a delicious dinner together.

Thanks alot, my dear friends!  What a magical night to remember.