For whom the bell tolls . . .

With much sadness, I found out that Roger Klause passed away on Aug. 30th after battling cancer for the last year. Roger was a great guy with a lot of love in his heart and killer chops. I met him as a young man, I must have been 18. He was always so nice to me and coordinated a couple of my most memorable performances. The first time was at the "35 Years Later" Convention where Ed Marlo gave his final lecture. For whatever reason, Roger wanted me to do my act for Marlo. What a rush! Another time a few years later, at the Castle, Roger arranged for me to give a private performance for Dai Vernon and a few other select guests. It always puzzled me that Roger gave me the time of day, let alone, want me to perform for his good friends (my hero's).

Roger's generosity was legendary, he gave of his time, energy and knowledge freely and was a gentleman of the highest order. I will miss his friendship, his kindness and his love.

I posted this pic last week when I found out that Geoff Latta had died (he's the one on the left), I post it again for Roger (on the right). What does this mean. . . I'm next? Hope not. This picture was taken in February of 2006 at the World Magic Seminar. I had wisely blown off most of the convention to hang with these two guys. With Geoff we tried to kill our pain with booze, with Roger, he told me to watch my drinking. With both of them we shared tricks, stories and our shared love of the art of magic.

Steve Ameden and I spent countless hours at the bar with Roger as he lavished us with his time, magic and great stories of his adventures in the art. I will always remember Roger Klause and how nice he was to me.