John Mendoza Passes July 29

[magicking]

Kenton Knepper just posted this on Facebook ( if this is not the right place to post this, please move )

I am very sad to learn of the passing of one of my very important magic teachers. JOHN MENDOZA John Mendoza was a huge part of advancing my close-up work in the 1970s.

This may seem long at first but my bet is you will find it entertaining as well as educational. It says much about how we learned magic from the pros back then.

For years, every week, I drove an hour and a half to stay at John Mendoza's home for three days and nights of intense magic learning and then drove back. Every week. For years.

I worked with John on many lecture tours all over the U.S. and Canada. That's how I first came to know guys like Roger Klause, Allan Ackerman, Derek Dingle, Albert Goshman, Paul Harris, John Cornelius, Don England, Randy Wakeman and the like.

How was it to be a student of John Mendoza's?

I had to audition to be accepted as his student. One of my other teachers said he would arrange a possible audition. I asked what John wanted me to do for an audition.

When that teacher got back to me, he said "John wants you to do everything you do."

"Everything? I do close-up, doves, big illusions, pretty magic..."

"EVERYTHING. He will come to your house in one week. Be ready."

The next week I auditioned, and I would do a few tricks in a certain genre, and then John would say, "That's enough" and I would move on to another aspect of what I knew.

A week later I got the news I would be accepted, as long as I could meet the payment requirements. It was a lot of money back then, but my Dad said it was more or less my college tuition given my inclinations, so he made the arrangements.

Here is what it was like my first night at John's as a student:

"Kenton, glad you made it. We are not going to waste any time. I know it's already evening, but let's get you started. Look. I put the aces in the deck with a faro shuffle. The aces are now in these positions. There are no breaks or anything. Just cut the aces out of deck for real, since you know where the aaces are in the deck, like this."

"Haha. Yeah, right!"

"No Kenton. I am serious. Shuffle the aces into the deck so you know which positions they are in the deck, and then cut them out. Keep working on it. I'm going to bed. Show me tomorrow."

That was my first night. And my students think I am intense!

I worked on stage shows with John, traveling all over. One night I was helping the two of us drive on a lecture tour. I was at a toll booth and I liked that the person in the toll box was wearing a Fleetwood Mac shirt. John woke up and asked where the hell we were. We were in Chicago. We were supposed to be going to Canada. He drove more from then on. My sense of outer direction was sometimes a little challenging.

John got a lot of rare props and I was privy to many unique props being his student. Once we were at Owen Magic and we were given the grand tour of everything. Many years later Les of Owen's said to me, "John is a great guy. He would have been very wealthy if he didn't spend all his money with me!" It is true. John would buy all these beautiful Owen Magic pieces. And Anverdi. He'd get things from Lubor Fiedler before anyone much knew who he was. And he'd buy... you name it. He was a real collector and knew a great deal about rare and highly specialized props.
John Mendoza was also how Dan Fleshman and I became friends. We both have plenty of stories to tell, I am sure, and some of those we probably shouldn't tell.

One year on a lecture tour we found ourselves in West Virginia. There was a young guy there we liked who gave us a rough design of some lecture notes he was working on. John liked his thinking, and we were impressed too at the illustrations in the potential notes. John said he would keep in touch and try to help the guy out. Privately at the time, John said to me something like, "The guy's really good. Too bad he'll probably never make it. He's stuck out there."

That "kid" we saw many times after that. His name was Michael Ammar.

That's the sort of thing that happened around John. I met so many people. I worked hard, and I got to work with some of the best. Many became friends.

At the time I wore a lot of finger rings. One night Roger Klause motioned to me to come over. I asked Roger what was up. He motioned for me to lean in. Then Roger, in a strong voice said, "Kenton, the sixities are over!" and pointed to my rings. You never knew what Roger might say. Years later he apologized for "being an a-hole".

There was the time Danny Flashman, John Mendoza, Albert Goshman and I were out in a hallway eating and playing pinball. Al and John loved dueling each other with pinball. Albert had his trademark stain on his white shirt, as he was eating spaghetti while playing pinball. This was just before Albert had to go on. It was a classic Goshman situation.

Teachers are irreplaceable. They give you much more than can ever be said. What we get from real teachers are experiences, not just tricks. John, I owe you buddy for these things and others that no one can ever count.

One last thing. John wrote my first book in the 1970s. Back then we had to hand type everything out and take it to a real print shop. My book burned up in a printer fire. Probably for the better. My best works were to come later.

Here is an example of what was taken to the printer for one of John's classic short one-trick manuscripts.

If you don't know who John Mendoza was, ask Teller. I have said my piece for now. The rest are experiences and stories I may never be able to share, but that I will treasure always.

Kenton Knepper