Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Discuss the latest news and rumors in the magic world.
Guest

Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 21st, 2001, 7:53 pm

Larry Jennings: Plumber
Paul Curry: Blue Cross Executive
Bill Larsen Jr. and Milt: TV producers, writers
J. Racherbaumer: Airlines
Mike Rogers: retired Navy
Bro. John Hammon: English Teacher
Ken Krenzel: Psychiatrist
Alex Elmsley: Computer Scientist
David Sandy: Advertising
Abb Dickson: Coroner
Lennart Green: Physician (still practicing?)
Guy Hollingworth: Perpetual Student
Dai Vernon: Sillouette (sp?) cutter (there's one for the resume!)

Okay, you get the idea. Do you have any accurate mentions to add to the list? Please do so, as enquiring minds want to know. But don't if you think it may offend anyone's right to privacy.

I'm still trying to nail Marlo. I axed Mike Rogers on the phone about a year before Mike passed on and he was vague, which was unusual for Mike, but he said he thought Marlo was an electrician.

Also, what kind of a doctor was Dr. Daley?

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 21st, 2001, 8:19 pm

Crimper, I can't believe you're that illiterate: "axed"? What the hell is that? I suppose you mean "asked."
Edward Marlo was a tool and die man
Guy Hollingworth is a barrister
Dr. Jacob Daley was a plastic surgeon
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Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 21st, 2001, 11:35 pm

Angelo Lewis, aka Professor Hoffman: another Barrister

John Pezzullo
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John Pezzullo » December 22nd, 2001, 4:14 am

I found these entries in my copy of "Who's Who in Hocus Pocus":

Ken Krenzel - male model
Alex Elmsley - squadron leader in the British SAS
Karl Fulves - janitor at the "New Jersey Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine"
Simon Aronson - bad ass ghetto pimp
Richard Himber - yoga instructor

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby David Moore » December 22nd, 2001, 6:29 am

Originally posted by crimper:
Larry Jennings: Plumber


Larry was a "Heating and Air Conditioning" guy. The distinction seemed to make a difference to him.

John Pezzullo
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John Pezzullo » December 23rd, 2001, 2:35 am

Here's another entry from my copy of "Who's Who in Hocus Pocus":

Jon Racherbaumer - debt collector

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 23rd, 2001, 5:34 pm

Also,

John Bannen Attorney
Al Schneider Systems analyst

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Rene Clement » December 24th, 2001, 2:20 pm

I think Derek Dingle was a Heating and Air Conditioning technician too!
-Rene

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 24th, 2001, 4:36 pm

and not to forget ( to my recollection they are correct):
Dr. William McComb M.D.
Carter - Lawyer
Pete Biro - photographer
Perci Diaconis - Professor
Ted Lesley - accountant
Richard Himber - Bandleader
David Ben - Tax Lawyer
Alan Ackerman - Professor
Kalanag - movie producer
Gary Oullette - lawyer
William Larsen Sr. - Lawyer
Sid Lorraine - commercial artist
Larry Becker - Advertising Executive
Eugene Burger - Priest

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Bill Mullins » December 24th, 2001, 10:16 pm

Originally posted by Rene Clement.:
I think Derek Dingle was a Heating and Air Conditioning technician too!
-Rene


I think Dingle was/is an environmental engineer.

Simon Aronson: attorney
R. Paul Wilson: computer programmer

"Alan Ackerman - professor" -- What kind??
I've never had a professor who said "Lookit" so much.

Bill Mullins

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 24th, 2001, 11:51 pm

I met Alan Ackerman a couple of years ago, and ran into him again at the World Magic Seminar. He's a professor of mathematics at, I think, UNLV. I know he lives in Vegas.
Rick

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 25th, 2001, 9:26 am

I thought I read, in one of his books, that Eugene Burger was a social worker.

Harvey Rosenthal
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Harvey Rosenthal » December 25th, 2001, 10:36 pm

Ken Krenzel is not a psychiatrist. He is a retired school psychologist who now has a private practice out of his home. Allan Ackerman used to teach mathematics. He now teaches computer networking but not at UNLV. :cool:

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Brian Marks » December 26th, 2001, 9:23 am

Sol Stone is also a psycologist

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Pete Biro
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Pete Biro » December 26th, 2001, 10:09 pm

Last time I asked Derek
Dingle, he was an air conditioning engineer.

Bill Wells: Chemist retired from EPA
Scotty York - Dept. Transportation US Gov.
Joe Stevens (former Fuller Brush salesman)
Pat Hennessy Computer chief at Hughes aircraft
Stay tooned.

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Pete Biro
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Pete Biro » December 26th, 2001, 10:10 pm

Racherbaumber listed as "airlines" kinda vague... he was (when I visited him eons ago) with Eastern Airlines handling baggage.
Stay tooned.

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Pete Biro
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Pete Biro » December 26th, 2001, 10:11 pm

Jeff Busby: Dental school dropout
Stay tooned.

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2001, 3:49 am

Dave Lederman - Optometrist

I didn't think Eugene Burger was a priest. I thought he was a teacher at the Yale Divinity School.

Jon Racherbaumer
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Jon Racherbaumer » December 27th, 2001, 7:33 am

Although this is trivia to the max, my role at Eastern Airlines (1965-1989), which I had planned to do for 6 months, started out on the ramp. They called the job classification ramp serviceman. I then moved to Operations as a operations agent. Then I spent time in air freight as a freight agent. I also worked ticket lift and lost-and-found. (Eastern once lost Kreskin's luggage. You can imagine what I told him.) Nothing exciting at any position. Free travel was the carrot on the stick.

Before drifting to this part-time job, I worked as a social worker and program consultant for a voluntary health agency (Lung Association)...

When I started with Eastern, there was very little security. It was possible to board a plane parked overnight and access the cockpit. There were no check-points and no security guards and no searches.

How times have changed!

Onward...

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Gerald Deutsch » December 27th, 2001, 8:03 am

Alan ("Ace")Greenberg is the former CEO and Chairman of Bear Stearns

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2001, 10:05 am

And to think I'd thought all these years that David Lederman was a late-night talk show host.
Rick

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » December 27th, 2001, 10:18 am

Jon,

If Kreskin's luggage got lost, then he should have known it was going to happen. It's his own damn fault. :D

Rick - The first time I was introduced to him, I said "You're joking." Unforunately Mr. Lederman is no longer with us. He was a very nice man and he had some very interesting stories. Also, the late night show host is terrible now.

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Brian Marks » December 27th, 2001, 2:14 pm

"When I started with Eastern, there was very little security. It was possible to board a plane parked overnight and access the cockpit. There were no check-points and no security guards and no searches.

How times have changed!"
QB][/QUOTE]

Unfortunately this stuff is probably still true

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Pete Biro
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Pete Biro » December 27th, 2001, 6:29 pm

Before airline security there were no problems.

Years ago, when this all first started, I was in NY and they just had a little screened off area and a guy "frisked" passengers.

I went in, and this guy... looking like a very serious secret service kinda dude, started to pat me down.

As he did this I said, "Can you guess my weight?"

The guy cracked... He fell limp laughing so had he couldn't contain himself.

He did get it together and then said, "Thanks, I needed that. Get on the plane."

:o
Stay tooned.

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » January 1st, 2002, 8:21 pm

Originally posted by Paul Alberstat:
Eugene Burger - Priest


Eugene Burger earned a degree from Yale Divinity School. At one time he was working to become a professor of comparative religions. He worked on staff briefly in a Lutheran Church assisting the pastor but was never ordained. He did social work for a while.

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » January 4th, 2006, 5:54 am

Mark Johnson

Please don't call me a systems anal-ist.
Actually I retired when I got out of college.
Since that time I programmed computers occasionally while trying to learn how to do the pass.
Al Schneider

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby David Alexander » January 4th, 2006, 9:40 am

Charles Carter had a law degree but, as I understand it, did not practice law, although he did use his knowledge of the law to his advantage. His "day job" was as "Carter the Great," a traveling theatrical magician with a large show.

There have been several other magicians who had law degrees but did not practice, notably the late Stuart Cramer who once told me he had won his first jury trial, decided to quit a winner, and became a full-time magician.

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » January 4th, 2006, 10:32 am

Legend has it that Thurston was going to Seminary school when he got "the bug" to do magic.

Kirk Kirkham (my mentor) made it his duty to be a royal pain in the tukkis by day for most everyone he knew... :p

Glenn Falkenstein of course, was speach therapist

And just to get everyone's goat, I work as a Psychic Consultant and Writer by day (an help manufacture small magic props for a couple of people) and do shows here and there in the evenings...

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John Hopkins » January 4th, 2006, 11:25 am

I believe Jerry Andrus was a telephone lineman.

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John Hopkins » January 4th, 2006, 11:26 am

I believe Jerry Andrus was a telephone lineman.

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John LeBlanc » January 4th, 2006, 11:48 am

Originally posted by John Hopkins:
I believe Jerry Andrus was a telephone lineman.
Did he drive the main road?

John
http://www.escamoteurettes.com/blog/

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Bill Duncan » January 4th, 2006, 8:39 pm

No. Jerry would have been "off the beaten path".

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Bill Duncan » January 4th, 2006, 8:47 pm

Oh, and just to add to the fun. More lawyers:

Curtis Kam
Steve Hobbs

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Danny Archer » January 8th, 2006, 1:24 pm

Marc DeSouza ... Real Estate Developer
Producer of MINDvention
mentalism convention

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Nick Maggio » January 8th, 2006, 4:28 pm

How about a list of performers who are/were, first, last and always a professional magician?

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » January 8th, 2006, 7:21 pm

Harry Lorayne - Auto-biographer

John LeBlanc
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby John LeBlanc » January 13th, 2006, 5:02 pm

Originally posted by Chris Youstra:
Harry Lorayne - Auto-biographer
Harry likes cars, too?

John
http://www.escamoteurettes.com/blog/

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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Daniel » January 14th, 2006, 3:07 am

Al Koran - Hairdresser

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Gord
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Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Gord » January 15th, 2006, 7:48 pm

Let us not forget:

Allan Slaight - Broadcast Mogul
Patrick Watson - Legendary Canadian broadcaster and author.

And before he was a lawyer David Ben was a magic demonstrator at Morrissey's Magic in Toronto. (I'm assuming it was quite a bit before he became a lawyer.)

Guest

Re: Day Jobs of Famous Amateurs and Semi-Pros?

Postby Guest » January 15th, 2006, 8:00 pm

I find it interesting that no one mentioned has an acting career.

But I suppose that requires you to have a day job as well.

Anabelle


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