“You don’t exist.”
In Bob Dylan’s Chronicles he mentions a scene. He was young performing in Minnesota somewhere. A famous boxer walked through the joint and winked at Dylan as he passed. The wink seemed to say “you’re making it come alive.” Whether or not anything was actually meant by the wink. Dylan mentions that sometimes it’s all you need to keep you going for a while.
“You don’t exist.”
I met him accidentally, perhaps it’s the only way to meet him.
“You don’t exist.”
I’m not sure if I said that out loud or if I was just thinking it. Either way I’d been staring at him for a while. He looked up, removed his headphones and stood up to address me.
“Are you Armando Lucero?” I asked.
He said “Yes and you are?”
“I’m James Mollenkamp, there’s no reason you’d know me. I’ve been searching for your work. It’s hard to find… You … don’t really exist.”
He really didn’t exist. At least not to me. He was more like a mythic figure in my mind. I’d heard about him, everyone told me about him. The things he stood for, and how good he was. They told me I’d love his work.But when I went searching I couldn’t find much of anything. Just a few clips, but no openly accessible body of work. He just didn’t care for social media or performing on TV.
I had searched for some time. I heard he played the Magic Castle every once in a while. But I wasn’t sure that I’d ever get to see him. I wasn’t sure that I was seeing him now... He invited me to sit down.
We were in a small coffee shop in Las Vegas off the strip. It was by chance I stopped in. After hiking in Red Rock, the person I was with saw the spot and wanted to check it out. But they left as Armando and I kept talking.
I told him about some of the things I was working on. He was nice, offered some ideas and insight, and seemed to dig my style. I showed him a shuffling idea I learned in a Marlo book. He seemed to dig that too.
He also showed me some things. He showed me the trick he’d been working on before I interrupted him. It fooled me bad. But more important, to me anyways, it was really well scripted. He also showed me some moves he’d put together. And showed me some psychology I hadn’t ever seen or considered before. It was eye opening.
But mostly we talked. We talked about Jimmy Grippo, street performers, and magic. We talked about all types of things.
At one point he said “You seem like you get bored around magicians.”
He was right. Most magicians, especially the past few years, have been hard to bear. I don’t fully know why. They just don’t get it I guess. I meant to ask what made him say it. But conversation flowed and I forgot to ask. It’s been like a stone in my shoe ever since.
I learned a lot in those few hours. Turns out, Armando does exist. And he’s good. Real good. As good as the myth. As soon as we parted I started reworking some of my material. Adding touches he taught me and thinking through bits of misdirection I had unknowingly left on the table.
It may have just been a conversation. But to me it was like a wink. A wink from a master. Seeming to say “You’re right there kid. Now make it come alive.”