Troy Hooser at the Magic Castle

Friday was a full day. Couple loads of laundry in the morning, straighten up around the apartment, charge my amp for the evening and get my shit together to head north. Left Redondo Beach around 12:30 took the 405 to the 105 to the 110 to the 101 and got off at the Barham Exit in Hollywood. First stop my old gym. The idea was to try and beat some of the Friday traffic and get to work early enough to go to the gym for a couple of hours have a quick bite afterwards then head into the CityWalk. After work I was excited to head to the Magic Castle and see and old friend work.

I met Troy Hooser over 20 years ago back in Ohio (where we both are from). Those were the days, footloose and fancy free. One of the nice things about living in LA is that sooner or later, all of my pals come in to town to work the Castle. I've always been a fan of Troy's work. He's always had a soft touch with the coins an exceptional ability to put together commercial routines that are foolers; like his "Charming Chinese Challenge" and his variations of "3 Fly". He opened with coin routine for his Parlor Act, after that the rest was new to me. A sort of mental routine with socks and his trademark low key personality. I thought he did a great job.

I've really been enjoying visiting the Castle these days. When I moved here almost 4 years ago, sometimes I felt like the odd man out. But now, I feel a bit more like a member of the community. Got to meet a Facebook friend, Friday night as well. A fellow named Tony Blake. We had a nice chat upstairs. Also spent some a little time talking to Maurice Newman. Another person who has always made feel welcome at the Castle is Vanessa Lauren. Nice spending a few minutes finding out what she's been up to. Later jammed a bit at the Owl Bar w/ Billy Goodwin and David Jockish. We ended up closing the joint, then heading over to Billy's apartment, walking distance from the Castle. We did card tricks well into the night and I didn't end up going to bed till 4:30AM.