Excerpts from a newspaper article, Canon City Daily Record 1/02/06 reporter, Debbie Bell:
A youthful fascination with Marvel Comics and superhero abilities has led to a successful second career as a magician for Marty Wayne of Canon City some 30 years later.
“I always loved the guys with the special powers,” Wayne said about his elementary school days. “Then, I began to realize I could never have those special powers, and magic was as close as I could ever get.”
That awareness let Wayne to the local library where he found and checked out the first of many magic books. He read and practiced his way through school, graduating from High School in 1978. The rest, as they say is history.
Wayne, 45, now performs for corporate functions, parties, receptions and other function. He performs close-up, parlor and stage magic.
But he is perhaps best known locally for his Friday night stints as the wandering magician at Pizza Madness in Canon City and Silver .
“It started as more of a hobby, just a fun thing to do,” Wayne said. “I used to drive my parents nuts, making them watch me practice.”
He said he never thought he could actually perform professionally until he was in college, when he staged his first formal show.
“The show went really well, considering it was all pretty amateur stuff,” Wayne said. “I performed for a bunch of college kids in my dorm.” He was attending Lamar Community College to ear a welder’s certificate – a far cry from the magical world that held his fascination – but his first performance lit a fire that has yet to be quenched.
“I started growing, doing harder stuff.” Wayne said. “When I turned 21 things really switched around for me. I went to Las Vegas and met a magician named Jimmy Grippo, who was the house magician at Caesar’s Palace.” His specialty was close-up magic.
“Jimmy Grippo was the greatest,” Wayne said. “This was during the first Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns fight, and he could have been in the restaurant with all the high-rollers, making a bundle in tips. He had a fancy tuxedo on but he come out and did magic for my friend and me in the lounge for two hours. “He just blew me away.”
The experience solidified Wayne’s determination to become a performer, but his life took a turn when he married and became the owner of two restaurants, Taco John’s in Canon City and The Red Rooster in Buena Vista.
“I really didn’t have time to do magic anymore,” Wayne said. “But then we sold the restaurants, and I started working for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.”
About the same time, Wayne and his wife, Carrie, adopted their daughter, Savannah.
“I started doing a little bit of stuff to entertain Savannah and I stared getting the bug again,” Wayne said. “I got hooked.” And he again became serious about performing. This time the itch did not go away.
Wayne said his main goal had always been to perform at the Tower Bar in Snowmass (near Aspen), a restaurant owned by John Denver and renowned for its high level of magic act namely Doc Eason and Eric Mead. Marty realized his dream before the Tower closed. Doc Eason and Eric Mead now hire Marty yearly to perform during the Snowmagical Festival conducted every July. Marty also performs at the Runyon Theater in Pueblo sometimes doing a stage act and sometimes bar magic.
Marty had another high light be he was asked to perform bar magic for Magic in the Rockies, in Fort Collins Colorado, which is a convention for magicians. He performed behind the bar along with some of the best magicians in the world, including Doc Eason, Eric Mead and Bob Sheets. “It was a great time.” Wayne said. “I got a chance to perform in front of some to the best magicians in the world. “I was getting compliments from magicians all over including Jeff McBride."
“I love magic, it’s almost like the air that I breathe,” he said. “I can’t live with out it."
Contact Marty
(719) 250-5037
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