Spill - I lie for money: candid, outrageous stories from a magicians misadventures

The reader is hereby placed on notice that he/she should not, under ANY circumstances, try to replicate the activities practiced in this book. Neither the publisher nor the author nor any licensee or seller of this book shall be liable for any physical, psychological/emotional, financial, or commercial claim or damage based on the material contained in this book.

Copyright 2015 by Steve Spill/Magic Concepts, Inc

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Spill, Steve, 1955

I lie for money : candid, outrageous stories from a magicians misadventures / Steve Spill.

pages cm

Summary: In this funny, irreverent, unique, eccentric memoir, magician Steve Spill reveals how he managed to survive decades inside a rarely profitable, sometimes maddening, but often deliciously rewarding offbeat showbiz profession--magic!-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-63220-492-9 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-63220-862-0 (ebook) 1. Spill, Steve, 1955- 2. Magicians--United States--Biography. I. Title.

GV1545.S75A3 2015

793.8092--dc23

2015008849

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Cover photo credit Sal Taylor Kydd

ISBN: 978-1-63220-492-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-862-0

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

T o each person that buys this book and encourages others to do the same; Adam and Irena Wrobel for having a daughter with a contagious zest for life named Bozena who makes my life make sense; to that daughter of course; my parents, Sandy and Shirley, for birthing me with the best of each of their qualities; boyhood magical mentors who added what was between their ears to whats between my ears; Bob Sheets for giving me my first best jobs; Penn & Teller for their generosity and inspiration; Asuka Hisa for engaging me to speak at the Santa Monica Museum of Art about my journey as a magicianthe seed that grew into this book; Mark Miller for getting me to Julie Ganz at Skyhorse Publishing who shepherded the passage of my manuscript into book form; Magicopolis staff both past and present; and to anyone who has ever bought a ticket to one of my shows, I appreciate you all.

Steve Spill is one of the greatest magicians thats ever lived. Fact. I Lie for Money is the most entertaining book about magic ever. Double fact. If you dont buy this book, there will be a big hole in your life that you will never fill, a void that will haunt the rest of your days until you cry out in the night, WHY DIDNT I GET THE MEMOIR THAT CONTAINED ALL THOSE AMAZING STORIES ABOUT MAGIC?! Triple fact. The choice is clear.

Adam de la Pena, creator of the hit animated series Code Monkeys

Steve Spill is one of my favorite storytellers. The man has pioneered more venues for magic than anyone I know, and along the way, broken lots of new ground as a comic, magician, bartender, busker, club owner, and now raconteurand thats no lie!

Joel Hodgson, creator/star of Mystery Science Theater 3000

A fantastic read packed with hilarious anecdotes and juicy tales of outlandish antics. Who would have thought the life of a family entertainer could be so wild?

Michael Larkin, NBC Digital News Producer

A ridiculously entertaining book about [Spills] life and adventures as a journeyman magician trying to make a living from his art.

Jack Shalom, segment producer, Arts Express , WBAI

A unique eye-opening account of the backstage life of a fiendishly funny magician.

Kirsten Sheridan, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and film director

Every person on the face of the earth who wants to laugh out loud and be amazed should read I Lie for Money .

Dustin Stinett, GENII Magazine

I Lie for Money opens a secret door and lets the reader enter the almost unknownand often misunderstoodworld of the professional magician.

Brooks Wachtel, Emmy-winning writer and director

CONTENTS

Introduction

I t is very difficult for a magician to deceive intelligent people without prevaricating. So everything I say is not true; this is true or I would not tell you so.

Karl Germain, a master magician considered by his peers to be one of the finest that ever lived, uttered these words. Germain, who lived from 1878 to 1959, also famously said, Conjuring is the only absolutely honest professiona conjuror promises to deceive and he does.

Being the classy guy that he was, when Germain described the performing art of magic, he avoided the words liar, lying, and lie. He also justified his deceptions for the sake of art, like the person who does a nude scene in a movie for the art of it (okay, maybe not exactly like that). Anyway, when not writing this book I am a magician who is proud to lie for my art, but I also do it to pay the mortgage. When I first started, I had only two dollars in my pocket, and look at me now, I owe thousands. I am a professional.

Other fact re-constructionists and reality stylists lie to their wives that theres no other woman, or lie to the other woman that they dont have a wife... or promise to pay you back out of their next paycheck, or tell you theyre from the government and are here to help you. The magician is an extraordinary breed of liar. In fact, theres not another creature on earth that would lie to make you think a coin is in their left fist when its really under the saltshaker.

Buried alive and living, transforming nubile young girls into savage tigers, floating humans, sawing women in two, vanishing elephants, appearing persons, mind reading, teleportation, time control, dangerous Houdini-inspired escapes, walking on water (actually, that ones not a big deal, if you know where the sand bars are)each and every one of those feats are magicians lies, designed to amuse audiences by making them feel their eyes are pairs of liars, and that their brains are lying to them too.

As you read this book you will question why any sane person would do some of the things Ive donelike swallowing sewing needles, stabbing myself, having someone pull the trigger of a gun pointed at my face, or being chained to a metal table and allowing a burning rope to drop thirty-nine sharpened steel spikes on me from fifteen feet above. Because Ive done this stuff doesnt mean youll be able to do it. Even if you think you know how to do these things safely, youd still be a bonehead to try them. Leave it to me. Im an expert.

The trick of our trade is to alter perceptions with dyslexic displays of honesty that range from tiny little manipulative untruths to big, fat, in-your-face, lies. To be a professional magician is to be an expert at dispensing disinformation, duplicity, hypocrisy, distortion, deception, and fakery without any of the guilt or unpleasant consequences. And we enjoy the thrill of getting away with it. Many of the defects you were taught to avoid in childhood are the very qualities that become your virtues as a magician. True practitioners of the craft do the same sort of things up front and above board in the name of entertainment that most governments do secretly in the name of espionage.