Rotary Park – Wentzville, MO

It’s been an interesting couple of social days here in the suburbs of St. Louis. Wednesday found us in town buying food and other sundry items in preparation for a pot luck with Swords & Roses. I had a very specific craving for a cold Thai dish and had found a recipe for it, easily able to be prepared in the trailer. We had also selected a couple of items from Bob Blumer’s book on small one-bite appetizers, all trailer-friendly recipes tested in his modified Airstream trailer, the Toastermobile. We found all of our ingredients handily at the gourmet market up the street and returned to our home on site to prepare for our 7pm rendezvous.

On the way, my phone rang and I was pleased and delighted to be hearing from Chicago-area magician David Parr. After catching up a bit he let me know that one of the main reasons for his call was to let us know that fellow magician Dan Mindo was in the St. Louis area for work and had been for several months. Dan knew no one in the city and I had David pass along my phone number so we could make plans to meet up before our stint here was through. As we wound up our conversation we discussed the possibility of guesting at his show in Chicago sometime in October. Either the third or fourth Tuesday is looking promising. We will keep you informed of developments as they happen.

Amid our food preparation my phone rang again, this time with Dan on the other end. We immediately set to work convincing him to join us for the pot luck and succeeded in short order. This was shaping up to be an excellent evening of company. We continued our preparations with great anticipation.

Everyone arrived within ten minutes of one another, and it very quickly became clear that the table space we had allotted was sadly lacking in surface area, so James and Alex pilfered one of the buffet tables from site. The repast covered it entirely. Among the offerings: Thai peanut noodles, parmesan pinwheels, crudites, a fruit plate, cheese and crackers, pizza, apple pie, knuckle sandwiches, apple cider and hot buttered rum.

That’s just for starters …

The fellowship and stories shared were amazing and wonderful. We talked and laughed well into the evening until the owls began calling to one another across the field. We made arrangements for lunch between shows with Swords & Roses and for dinner the following night with Dan.

It was great to get to spend some more time with Dan. I first saw his work at the Phoenix Gathering magicians convention some four or five years back and it was a very startling piece of bizarre magic to watch. I hope to link to footage of it later on so I won’t spoil it by describing it here. Suffice to say I got chills watching this storytelling piece unfold, and I have seen a lot of magic in my day.

Today is our last day off until shows and driving like madmen back east immediately following. Lots to get done and we’re just getting started.

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