The Magical World of Glenn Bishop

Glenn Bishop, also known as "Bish the Magish" is a long-time friend of mine. He is a second generation magician & hypnotist, currently living in the St. Louis area.

Back when he lived in the Chicago area we worked together on several occasions. I'm fairly certain our paths first crossed at a New Year's Eve gig in the northern suburbs some time around 1988. Back then he had a cable access program called the "Magical World of Glenn Bishop". The show featured his own magic and illusions, guest performers, and a lot of horsing around. I appeared on the show a few times and still have some of the tape to prove it. It will take a lot of alcohol or sexual favors (or both!) for me to send it out, so all you Andy Martello collector's out there, keep that in mind!

Glenn has always had a lot of big plans and ideas about marketing & selling entertainment acts & products. He's also a good friend with a good act. I've not been able to see his hypnosis show in all these years, but I hear he does that program to delighted audiences more than anything else these days.

I mention Glenn because I found out he has a blog. Now if you are a fan of magic, love stories about show business, enjoy photos of CLASSIC performers, and are genuinely interested in reading some good material about all of the above you should definitely check out his blog. If you know where to look you'll even find a mention about little old me!

Glenn recently posted about a show we did together at an old theatre in Viroqua, WI. I'm all but certain it was the Temple Theatre. It was a cool theatre in dire need of some love and attention (translation: MONEY) for repairs. In days past it housed some of the greats of Vaudeville. If I am thinking of the right place, it seems that there has been some love and money spent there since then and that makes me very happy.

Viroqua was the home of the National (or possibly the WORLD) Ski-Jumping Championships and that single event was the biggest draw that has ever played there before or since our little show. Naturally our show (we actually had two scheduled that weekend) was scheduled the exact weekend of the ski-jumping. To make things even more fun, we had to drive through an awful snowstorm to get there, all to find out we were destined to have a minimalist crowd for both of our shows. We were professionals. We were ready to bring on the goods, nonetheless.

My fondest memory of this show had nothing to do with my actual performing on stage. Rather, I enjoyed visiting Dan Mott, one time producer of Glenn's TV show and current host of his own radio program in Viroqua. Dan helped put together this theatre show and brought the performers on the radio with him to promote the program, answer calls, and so on.

I, being a comedian (translation: ASSHOLE), couldn't resist the urge to have some fun at the expense of the competing ski-jumping championship. During one of my segments I broke in with a special announcement of paramount importance. Out of the blue I announced on the radio that the championships were, quite suddenly, CANCELLED! Everyone in the studio was busting out in hysterics as I rattled on some improvised tale about there being, "just too much snow to carry on such a silly event." It was pretty funny.

Of course, nobody told me that the ski-jumpers had spent about ten grand in advertising at the station (We spent less...translation: ZERO) and I caused something of a minor panic for a brief amount of time. Of course I knew that most folks could figure out I was joking, especially after I made a point of spelling it out to everyone later on in the show. Hey, I was just out for a laugh.

The two shows went pretty well and there was about 1/2 the theatre filled each time. We all enjoyed some friendly people, home cooked meals, a little pocket change, two long drives, and some good times.

Please stop by Glenn's site and say HI. Check out some of his DVDs if you're into learning a few card tricks or just like magic. Hey, you can even leave a comment on the Viroqua post and comment about how devastatingly handsome I am. I, the "top comedy juggler", am the really fuzzy looking one in the tuxedo. He really needs a better scanner, if not a better camera. LOL!