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fell on deaf ears. What was not to likeabout Quacky’s life? “He’s got wheels,he’s got somewhere to live, he can gowherever he wants.” David wanted tobe just like Quacky. “I see a guy actuallymaking a living and traveling aroundthe Midwest,” says David. “It gave me aromantic notion of what a professionalperformer must be.”It comes as a surprise when David sayshe wasn’t a natural performer. Comparedto his brother Gary he was less outgoing,a talented kid with lots of friends. “Myyounger brother Gary was one of thosekids who could do anything. He couldpick up a guitar and within half an hourhe could pick up a song. If he took threeballs he could learn to juggle in an afternoon.” To David’s horror he even turnedhis hand to magic.“He could pick up a deck of cardsand he could Back Palm. He could BackPalm, two, three, four cards. He couldsqueeze out a Pressure Fan quicker thanI could. I finally made him stop. Nomore magic for you. Let me have magic.I made him stay away from magic. Thatwas my area.”“It was also a way for a shy kid toput himself out there a little bit and getnoticed by people at school. School isa competitive place for a kid. There’s alot going on and you have to find yourplace. Magic became my thing, my safeplace.”The fraternity of magicians thatDavid had imagined became a reality82GENIIin 1973 when he visited Abbott’s MagicConvention. His mother had read ina newspaper that there was a magicfestival in Colon, Michigan. She offeredto drop him there while she drove on tovisit her sister in Wisconsin.“There was another kid fromCincinnati who was about my age andinterested in magic. My mom knewhis mom. I had a little pup tent. Shedropped us in a dairy field in Colonand then she took off toward her sister’shouse. There we were, 12 years old. Webarely knew how to pitch the tent but itwas the greatest weekend of my life. Wesat there at the picnic table every nightwith Colman lanterns and these guysshowing us magic tricks.”Karrell Fox, Tom Mullica, and MonkWatson were among the performersthat impressed David. He watchedGene Anderson lecture and perform hisfamous “Torn and Restored Newspaper.”He saw Jose de la Torre change the colorof penknives. And was totally mystifiedby a mysterious floating ball under thecontrol of Neil Foster.From Hank Morehouse he boughta bunch of recommended booksand stowed them away in his tent.Unfortunately the tent was pitched in agulley and on the first night of the convention it rained. Everything was ruined.But then something happened that further convinced David that the world ofmagic really was something special.“This guy jumps into his Mercedes.He was a mentalist. I don’t know whoit was. I know it wasn’t Max Mavenbecause I don’t think he drives does he?But Max is the kind of guy who woulddo something like this. He saved all ourstuff and he replaced everything thatwas damaged. The next day he broughtus new copies of all the books we hadbought. That made a big impression onme about the fraternity of magicians.”Fraternities have secret initiation ritesand David learned that magic conventions were no exception. At the TAOMconvention in Texas he met JohnnyAce Palmer. “I think we were in ourlate teens or something. Some old guycomes by and says ‘we want you twoboys in the Presidential Suite at midnight for the Order of Merlin meeting. There’s an induction ceremony, bethere.’ We were all excited. We didn’tknow what this was. We were so proudof ourselves being invited up to theOrder of Merlin Society.”“We were brought into this suite, aprivate dining room. The doors open.There’s candles everywhere. I don’tknow who all the guys were but it’s abunch of old gray-haired magicians thatyou never talk to because you’re thecool teenagers. But Jay Marshall wasdefinitely there. And Ed Campagna, theboss of the TAOM in those years. Hewas an interesting guy who worked forNASA. Lots of stories there.”“They were all sitting around thiscandlelit table. It was very intimidating. They had towels on their headslike Swamis. Like Genii has. Turbans.Johnny and I come in. It’s like TheWizard of Oz, how they go down thehallway and shaking. We’re shaking inour boots.”“And they said, ‘You have been chosen to be inducted into the voodoo society of the Order of Merlin.’ So they hadthis ceremony with all this double talk.I forget exactly what was said. But theyhad us say the names of two wizards,Willard from the West and Herrmannfrom the East. And we recited theseincantations. It was all very serious andvery mysterious.”“Finally we had two voodoo ballsand they said to put both voodoo ballsin one hand. And we did. And they

The Doors Open.There’s candleseverywhere.I don’t know whoall the guys werebut it’s a bunch ofold gray-hairedmagicians thatyou never talk tobecause you’re thecool teenagers.But Jay Marshallwas definitelythere.They were allsitting aroundthis candlelittable. It was veryintimidating.They had towelson their headslike Swamis.said, ‘Now squeeze the magic voodooballs.’ And we squeezed them andall the guys sitting around the tablewent ‘Oooooooooh’ as if in pain. Thenthey’d break into laughter. Then theygo, ‘Okay get lost! Next’.”Photo by JP Cezanne David entered his first magic competition in Galion, Ohio. He didn’t winbut Michael Ammar came up to himand complimented him on his performance. He was three years olderthan David and more knowledgeable.Ammar, along with Gary Plants whomDavid also met there, would not onlybecome very influential on David’sgrowth as a sleight of hand worker butlifelong friends.DECEMBER 201383

WchGAME OF CHANCE(Performance)It might have been Gary Plants whoplayed a part in one of David’s prankssome time later. “I’d been tipped off,by Gary or someone, about a trick thatDaryl had been fooling everyone with.He was cutting a swathe across the country doing his lectures and fooling everyone with this trick.” Daryl was appearingin Cincinnati and David went alongwith his girlfriend Marsha, who hadbeen primed about the magician-bustingeffect. Afterward they went to eat and,sure enough, Daryl did the trick that he’dbeen fooling everyone with.“So he does this trick for us and hedoesn’t know us from Adam. There wasthis teenage girl sitting at the table withthis skinny kid and he blows everybodyaway with this card trick. Then Marshaturns to me and in a loud voice says,‘Isn’t that the Mexican Joe Crimp.’ And Icould see Daryl thinking what the heck?I’m in the middle of nowhere Ohio andthis teenage girl knows what I’ve beenfooling every card man from coast tocoast. Moments like that are just great.”David and Marsha began dating inhigh school. “She was always the girl Ipassed in the hallway. I remember the84GENIINatWNatchGAME OF CHANCE(Explanation)first time we were in a class togetherand I was doing ‘Chink a Chink,’ theDavid Roth version, where the handsfloat above the coins. It really looks likemagic when done from the right angleand done well. And I must have done itwell because she turned to me withoutirony and said, ‘Are you a warlock,’ asif warlocks existed. I went, ‘Yes I am.’That was the beginning. That was thefirst time she spoke to me.”They married when they were incollege. It was an unpretentious affair.David found a preacher out of thephone book and for 35 he came to hismother’s house and said the right wordsand the marriage was made. Marshastudied for her degree and then went tolanguage school in Vermont but Davidlasted only two years as an art major.Despite a love of cartoons and animation his heart wasn’t in it.“Marsha supported my career manytimes. She worked a full time job andallowed me to dabble in magic and tryto get a career going. Then we switchedplaces when we had children 10 yearslater, Ben and Anna. She was able tostay home and by that point my careerwas going strong enough that I could bethe breadwinner. That’s what I recommend to young magicians. They say, ‘Iwant to be a professional magician, doyou have any advice?’ I say yes. Makesure your girlfriend gets a good education and a good job and you might havea chance.”At that time David’s professional lifeas a magician was about as glamorous asthe life of Quacky the Clown. While incollege David performed magic at dinner theaters in the evening, but to paythe rent he also had to wash dishes ata Greek restaurant, The Colony Housein Fairborn. In the magic world he wasmaking his mark winning the GoldCups at the 1981 Pittsburgh I.B.M.convention. It was a competition MikeAmmar had talked him into.“I brought the Gold Cups home, putthem on the shelf, put on my apron,and the next day went back to washing dishes for the lunch crowd at TheColony House. It taught me a workethic. And every once and a while, Takiand George, the two Greek brotherswho owned the restaurant would say,‘David come out here.’ And I’d be in my

Photos by Susan gartnerapron. ‘Show my friend a trick.’ And I’ddo a card trick. ‘He’s an internationalaward winner.’ The guy’s like, ‘Really?’‘Go back in there get the plate clean.You left too much cheese on it last time.’Yes Sir! Those were good times.”In 1984 Marsha left for a semester tostudy in Leningrad. Meanwhile Davidaccepted an invitation from Thomas VanBüren Lenger to lecture in Hannover,Germany. Michael Ammar had recommended him. “It was a life changingexperience. Any time you take a kidfrom the Midwest and put him inEurope it’s culture shock, but it openedmy eyes to a bigger world and differentways of living. It was just fantastic.”“I’ll never forget sitting at a magicconvention and Ascanio was there. AndJohnny Lonn was there. And there’d besome guys from France. Bernard Bilisand Jean Jacques Sanvert and just all thegreat European magicians. There mayhave been five or six languages represented at the table. I was just this kidfrom Ohio and I had no idea what theywere saying. So I sat next to RobertoGiobbi, who simultaneously translatedevery conversation for me. And then putit in context on top of that. Historicaland cultural. So Roberto became a greatfriend. He was my Rosetta Stone whenever I was in Europe. Whenever I sawRoberto at a convention I would stay byhis side. Not to mention his incrediblemagic knowledge and his chops. He wasanother teacher along the way for me.”“I bumped into Chris Power and JJin Italy on that tour. They became greatfriends and my advocates in England.They helped me get work at magic con-ventions. Ron McMillan was there inLondon and the whole McMillan family embraced me as one of their own.The International Day Conventionbecame a big part of my life for yearsafter that, and all the people in Englandthat I met.”The impact that David had on magicians in the U.K. was huge. David wasperforming first class magic, demonstrating serious skills but not being inthe least bit serious about it. There wasa youthful vigor to it. An energy andnatural humor that had been lacking inmagic, a craft that often took itself tooseriously. He was connected, not justwith the audience but with the timehe was living in. I think it’s fair to saythat when U.K. magicians saw DavidWilliamson work, they found a shiningexample of how magic could be reimagined for a new generation of magicians.“I went all over Europe, 30 somecities. Riding the trains. It was fantastic. I was 20 or 21 years old.Marsha was in Russia so we didn’tsee each other for months that year.When we finally got back together inWashington D.C. she went to graduate school and I worked as a waiterin the afternoons and did magic atthe dinner theater at night. And webuilt a life.”DECEMBER 201385

David was performing first class magic.demonstrating serious skills but not being in the least bitserious about it. There was a youthful vigor to it.Back then, Washington was a greatplace for magic. David remembers SteveSpill and Bob Sheets performing atthe Inn of Magic, a supper club in anexclusive part of the city. “They did ashow together and it was the greatestmagic show I’d ever seen. It was funny.It was amazing. And the chemistry ofthose two guys on stage, I haven’t seenanything like it even today.”Other magicians congregated at thevenue; Scotty York, Bob Kohler, JohnKennedy. Meanwhile David was working at the dinner theater doing close-upat the tables and some stage routines. In1986 a different opportunity came hisway. His friend John called and told himabout Magic Masters, a chain of magicshops created by Ken Fletcher that wasopening up around the country and86GENIIwith plans to build one in Washington.“I said why would I want to do that.I don’t want to work in a magic shop.That sounds awful and horrible. Johnsaid they were paying commission plusbasic. It was about what I was makingbut not quite. Then he said they havedental insurance. They pay dental? Isaid I’m there!”It was at Magic Masters that Davidwould be reacquainted with someonewho would become a major figure inhis life, Rocky Raccoon. “I saw RockyRaccoon years before Magic Masters,performed by a fantastic performernamed Jeff Justice who worked theconvention circuit in the early 80s. Iwould see him at the TAOM or up inColumbus at the Magi-Fest. And he hadgreat hands with Rocky. He could makeit look alive. And he had an originalroutine with it that just killed everybody. And I bought one from him justlike everybody else. And I couldn’t doanything with it and it sat in my drawerfor years. Then I joined Magic Mastersand I realized that Magic Masters wasthe house that Rocky built. For everymagic trick that they sold over thecounter they sold 20 or 30 Rockies.”Dennis Sowers and Mike Abston, twoof Magic Masters’ top salesmen, taughtDavid how to perform with Rocky.“Dennis could make Rocky look alive.I think his brain had separated at somepoint where half of it was Rocky. Rockywould pay attention to other noises andlook around while he’s holding a conversation. If he said something about Rocky,Rocky would look at him. What?”

VanishingTheManBy John Lovick This legendary stunt was inspired, inpart, by a similar legendary stunt performed by Ken Allen in the 1950s. KenAllen was a magic dealer and inventor,who started working for Abbott’s in the1940s before branching off on his own.At the S.A.M. convention in May 1952Photo by JP CezanneDavid Williamson is the vanishing man. Before I explain,I’m going to state unequivocally that there are are more hilarious,gut-busting, brain-crushing, amazing,literally unbelievable stories aboutimpromptu miracles, one-time-onlyperformances, magician-fooling effects,and practical jokes engineered byDavid Williamson than any magicianalive. But Williamson’s greatest performance is the after-hours, off-stagemiracle “The Vanishing Man”.If you were lucky enough to be atselect conventions in the 1990s, youprobably heard about (or perhapswitnessed) this impossibility. It wouldbegin with David gathering a selectgroup of people in a hotel suite.He would explain that he had amodern variation of a classic effect,based on the “locked room mystery”sub-genre of fiction. He’d invite peopleto step into the bathroom with him.He’d point out that there are no extradoors, the ceiling tiles don’t move, thereare no access panels in the walls, thereare no windows, etc. He’d say, OK goout, and count to ten. After counting toten, a friend (acting as the door monitor) would give the instructions to go inand look everywhere, in the trash can,under the sink, in the ceiling panels,everywhere. Do everything you can totry to find him. They’d walk in with anincredible sense of anticipation for whatthey would see.in Boston, in room 419 of the StatlerHotel, he performed a legendary stunt.Word would circulate that there wassomething very mysterious going on in hisroom, a must-see genuine miracle. As soonas a few people gathered in the room, KenAllen, along with two assistants presentedthe following mind-boggling performance:Ken stood backed into an alcove infront of the door leading to the bathroomas the two assistants, lifted a blanket infront of Ken so that he was out of sight forabout five to thirty seconds (reports vary).The blanket was then dropped, andKen was gone. Everyone was permittedto search the entire room and bathroomcarefully, but there was no trace ofKen. For half an hour, with hundredsjamming the halls, groups of five toten people would search the room,the room, the bathroom, in the closet,under the bed, even the drawers, butnever discovering the magician’s hideout. After all were satisfied he had disappeared, his two friends again held upthe blanket, counted to ten, the blanketDECEMBER 201387

Photos by JP CezanneNWatGENIIDavid’s style. He’d been inspiredby Tom Mullica, among others,who had shown that great comedy can be accompanied by greatmagic. His appearances at magicconventions were eagerly lookedforward to as his antics got funnierand more outlandish. “I got a littlemore goofy at magic conventions.I thought, well, there are otherguys who do great magic. Theydon’t want to see me do a four Acetrick. I can offer something else. SoI started being a little silly.” Whilewelcomed by conventioneers the silliness became a problem when it came tobeing booked by Bill Herz, one of themost influential bookers onthe corporate circuit.Mike Caveney had suggested David to Bill andBill had rejected him.He’d seen him work conventions and thoughthe joked around toomuch. “That was myreputation for magicconventions becauseI got very goofy andNatchINTUITION(Performance)NatW88chW“In his hands the Raccoon becameDustin Hoffman or Al Pacino. Actingwith pathos and anger, all the emotions.I don’t know how he did it. Nobody istheir equal. Dennis and Mike.” RockyRaccoon soon became a staple part ofDavid’s own repertoire, a highlight of hisact and a vehicle for tremendous comedy.1989 saw the publication ofWilliamson’s Wonders, written, illustrated, and published by Richard Kaufman.“Richard came to me, I lectured in NewJersey and he was there. He said, ‘Doyou want to do a book?’ I said, ‘Let methink about it. Yes, yes I do.’ Because allthese other guys were having books. Hetold me later that this was the thinnestbook possible to put a hardcover on.That’s the thinnest hardcoverbook in magic andI’m proud of thatfact.” He should beproud of the material too, gatheringtogether as it did thevery best of David’srepertoire.Comedy was becoming a bigger part ofMISER'S DREAM(Method)chINTUITION(Explanation)wouldn’t take it seriously. So he didn’twant to hire me. Mike said ‘Look, justhave him, I’ll pay his fee if you don’t likehim.’ That’s an example of the way Mikegoes out of his way to help people.”Bill booked David and, as Mike hadpredicted, everything went well. “Billstarted hiring me after that and webecame very close friends. And he kept

dropped and there he was, smiling. Herepeated this stunt many times during theconvention and all Ken would give for aclue was, “I used to be an acrobat.” It created such a sensation it was even reportedin a Boston newspaper.Here is how he accomplished this. At thattime, Statler Hotels had specially designedmedicine cabinets in the bathrooms. Once ahidden lock was opened, the whole cabinetswung open allowing workmen to climbthrough into a sort of air shaft to do plumbing and electrical work. Ken had discovereda way to open the cabinet.During the performance, Ken wouldduck down behind the blanket and crawlinto the bathroom. He would open thecabinet, and climb into the space betweenthe walls. He braced the rubber soles ofhis shoes against the opposite wall as heheld onto the cabinet from behind. Becausethere was nothing between him andground level, four stories down, one slipcould have been fatal, which makes thefact that he repeated the illusion severaltimes all the more remarkable.There is a bonus to this story, andthat is the rumor that Ken wasn’t theone who figured out how to pull offthis miracle. Another dealer tipped himoff as to the mechanics of the medicinechest and encouraged him to performthe stunt. This raises the question, whydid this rival dealer supply Ken withthis information and encourage him toperform the “Vanishing Dealer” insteadof doing it himself? Because he washaving an affair with Ken’s wife, and heknew he’d have a window of opportunity to be in another hotel room with Mrs.Allen, while Ken was creating a legend. Hotels with this structural feature don’texist anymore (or are extremely rare)and Williamson was forced to pursue adifferent approach, which he did in inhis inimical creative way. If you wereone of the lucky few who got to witness a performance, your experiencewould have been something like this:After Williamson went into the bathroom, you’d hear a toilet flush, andyou would wait your turn as peoplewent in one at a time and reemerge afew minutes later amazed, proclaimingthat they had no idea where he went.As you stepped into the bathroom, youwould check all the logical, obviousplaces, the shower, under the sink, etc.If you stepped around the corner wherethe toilet is, you would see Williamsoncrouched on top of the toilet with hishair wet, holding up a towel rack he’dtorn from the wall, with a towel drapedover it that he was awkwardly tryingto hide behind. (Of course, what yousaw varied with each performance.Sometimes he would crouch in thecorner behind the toilet sucking histhumb, with a whipped cream-like swirlof toilet paper around his head, like athree-year-old who thinks he’s invisible.)You would walk out of the bathroom,mostly likely with an perplexed look onyour face, and say you were stumped,and then stick around to watch the restof the group go in, now that you were“in on it”. As more people went in thegroup of voluntary co-conspirators grewand it became funnier with every personwho went in.When the last person emerged,David would reappear and the groupwould disperse disciple-like, spreadingthe word about the miracle they hadwitnessed, creating an unbelievabledesire among convention-goers whoweren’t in the right place at the righttime. It would not take long beforeeveryone was asking, “Have you seeWilliamson’s vanishing thing?” Peoplewould beg Williamson to repeat it. Itbecame an aspirational experience.I’d heard the legend of Williamson’s“Vanishing Man,” and even thoughI’d been told what the “surprise” was,I still wanted to experience it, butassumed it was a thing of the past, andI would never get a chance to see it.But Williamson decided to revive it atthe thi

David Williamson’s magic was built for the “now.” You stood, you worked the room, the body language was loose and guileless, and the magic, really did just seem to happen free of structure and formality. It was a new way of performing and one that every magician wanted to emulate. That style