A guest blog today, from Lee Terbosic, a professional comedy magician from Pittsburgh. Check out his website, www.LeeTerbosic.com
Growing up as a magician – yes I said magician – in the Steel City has been nothing short of interesting. Over the years I have been offered everything from Primanti’s sandwiches and Iron City Beer to someone’s original 1976 Terrible Towel (that looked like it was used to clean up the other two way too many times) if I would teach someone how to do a few of my tricks. Although the offers were very tempting at the time, I have never wavered in teaching any of my true secrets. I have to hand it to you Pittsburgh, you sure know how to ask. Performing card tricks and telling jokes in this city for the past fourteen years has been a wild ride and it just keeps getting better. Sure, I get to travel to other parts of the country and deliver my Yinzer talk and tricks to other maybe “more cultured” spectators, but Pittsburghers make for a much more enjoyable audience.
Over the years I have had the chance to meet and perform for tens of thousands of local-yokel people… and yes, a few jagoffs here and there, but for the most part people in Pittsburgh truly love magic or maybe just something crazy to watch between halftime of a Steelers game. The stories I have compiled over the years could write an entire Ya Jagoff best-selling novel because us Pittsburghers (myself included) say and do such unusual things in social situations.
Every year I do a few local shows with some hometown heroes and friends like Jim Krenn, Randy Bowman, Sally Wiggin and The Clarks but the weirdest request I ever got was when a spectator at one of these events wanted me to make Donnie Iris appear in this his living room so Donnie could sing him to sleep with the song “Ah Leah” …yeah, I had nothing to respond with on this one.
Another “only in Pittsburgh” story was when a guy with a mullet and beer belly decided he wanted to bet that he could do a better card trick than me… let this one sink in for a minute. Yes, a drunk idiot thought he could do a better card trick than me (a professional) and so the game of man vs. jagoff began. The rules were simple: if the audience thought his trick was better I would stand on the bar and admit to everyone that his card trick was the better than mine and would buy a round of drinks for him and all his friends. Needless to say I took this bet immediately because my wager (I was not holding back at this point) was that he go to the bathroom and cut his ridiculous mullet off! He shook on it and began the competition.
I wish I could say this guy held his own in this battle but that is not the case. I let him go first and the trick he attempted to do was stopped half way through because he forgot what he should do next… So I swooped in, took the cards back and asked him to name any card in the deck. I then wrapped a gum band around the deck, pointed to the ceiling, hurled the cards towards it and caused his randomly named card to stick to the ceiling. Yes, I won. He cut his hair in the bathroom and his wife slipped me a $20 with a note on it that said “thank you.”
And that, my friends, is why I love performing in this amazing city. So next time you see a magician around town, ask him if he can make a mullet disappear… because I sure can.
From one jagoff to another: be kind and rewind….Ya Jagoff.
