The Shaman

My Great, Great, Great Grandmother, Edith Bell "Dee" Walters Willis. She was full blooded Native American Indian. She's one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

My Mom is an artist. In fact, I come from a family of artists. Mom loves art above all else that she does. She says it’s her first love, (besides me, I hope.)

She knew she wanted to do a “Shaman” because they are known to have magical powers. She was trying to figure out something spectacular that a Shaman might do. Then she got the idea of bringing a dead dove back to life. We didn’t know how that would go over, you know, a “dead dove”, but we went for it. Mom and I spent months and months listening to Native American music and researching the web and the library about Native Americans. I have tried to keep the saga as genuine as possible and still maintain the "fantasy" for theatrical artistry. (After all, everyone knows you can't bring a dead dove back to life.) It is simply "magic"!!! Hence, my routine is part truth (my heritage) and part fantasy (magic).

Well, we found some music and started putting it together. It was a lot harder than we thought it would be. Her first idea was really bad. Way too many different kinds of music spliced together, so she tried to make it simpler. Larry Taylor told her, “Remember KISS, Keep it Simple Stupid.” So Mom went back to square one and spent lots more time listening to music. Both of us finally decided on two songs.

Now, what magic to do. I love the linking rings so we had to fit that in. Larry Taylor said to do my ball routine. He said, “That would be another high level skill.” So we added balls. Larry taught me “Kick Dove” and so on and so on. At the Master Class, Jeff McBride said I should start learning to talk in front of a large audience, so Mom thought it would be neat to do some Native American sign language. So I had to learn that. Well, we finally started getting some things together. Me, Mom, my Grandma, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Susie and Larry Taylor started brainstorming how the routine would “look and feel.” Larry Taylor said we needed something really spectacular for the opening so we added the teepee flash appearance. Sometimes, we had great ideas, but didn't know how to pull them off magically. Larry always found a way to make it work. My mom works with a lady, Jackie Susnik. She doesn’t know anything about magic, but mom said that is good, ‘cause she will be more open to coming up with ideas. You know, she won’t say, “Well, that’s impossible to do.” Ideas kept flowing and we kept trying them out.

One thing Mom was very adamant about was that she wanted the props to be small and not very many of them.“Yeah right.” If you have ever seen my stage, you know what I am talking about. We have a large Teepee that my Grandma made, a large hide stretcher that Uncle Jeff made that holds all my props, a fireplace that mom made out of scrap styrofoam, and a table. None of it is small. Oh well, maybe the next routine will be less.

We finally had something put together for competition for Magi Fest 2003. Mom was so nervous. She was sure that no one would like it. She said, “Maybe it is just tooo different“. Magi Fest Magic Convention was the first time it was shown in public. After I finished my routine, Dr. Jep Hostetler (the man in charge of Magi Fest) ran back stage and said, “I don’t care how you place in this competition, I want to hire you as a paid performer next year.” I thought mom was going to start crying. She hugged him. After he left, Mom said, “They liked it, they liked it.” “OK mom, chill”. Well, it was an awful lot of work, but it paid off.

We are still doing a lot of tweaking. I had a consultation with Jonie Spina (the lady who choreographed David Copperfield's shows) at the Holy Toledo Magic Convention 2003. Unbelievable !!! She had sooo many ideas. We still haven’t put them all together. Lots of people give us ideas. We talk about them all. Some we use, some we decide not to, and some we have on the back burner.

I started taking acting classes to help with the routine. Acting is a lot of fun and it has helped me with the routine. I love this routine. We are talking about a "Part II". I might play the Native American flute to court a beautiful Indian maiden. We have two more acts planned. All we need is time and money. All on the back burner for now. But keep watching !!!

This routine has really sparked a lot of ideas. It’s amazing to me when I hear people say they can’t think of any routine ideas. I have sooo many. I hope that I bring them all to life someday.

Magicians from all around the world were at Jeff McBride's Master Class. It was such a great time. I will never forget.