Magic On The Pacific Ocean

Aboard the Norwegian Star

No land in sight. We’re heading north, moving at 21 knots, on schedule for San Pedro/Los Angeles Thursday morning.

I wasn’t going to post tonight, but… well, you’ll see.

In the meantime, as long as I’m writing, I might as well say I was disappointed with my choice of photos from Cabo San Lucas. It’s a little difficult to change things without full time Internet access (I have been writing the blog offline and then uploading the entries and photos all at once). When I get home I will post more from Cabo, which was beautiful.

We had dinner this evening at one of the six theme restaurants on the ship. La Trattoria is the Italian restaurant. Unlike the others, this one has no surcharge. Unlike the others, this is in a converted buffet area.

The buffet lines are hidden behind curtains. The chairs are covered with dark slipcovers. The menu is traditional Italian. The sky was beautiful through the large windows.

I had a meat/cheese/spinach lasagna. As has been the case with nearly all the food, it was excellent. My dessert was an Italian cheesecake.

With dinner over, Helaine and Stef headed to the casino while I headed to our cabin to read… and nap. I played Hold’em the first few days, but I was very disappointed in the rake, quality of dealing and play… and especially disappointed that the Hold’em area was in a room squirreled away from the main casino.

While playing the second day, I was beaten on a large hand by someone who was playing a 9-5 offsuit. That’s a terrible hand, but he had every right to play it. His full house beat my full house. I took this as a sign and stopped playing.

Considering how much I enjoy Hold’em, you can understand my dismay – but it just wasn’t fun, and this bad beat solidified that.

OK – on to the reason for this entry. We decided to see a magic show tonight. The venue was the Spinnaker Lounge, where we saw Dave Heenan last night. This magician, Matt Fallon, was performing some close-up magic.

Let’s pause for a moment. I have a theory about magicians and those who are driven to be one. In high school these are not the most popular nor most athletic. My guess is, when David Copperfield was growing up, he was quite the dweeb. The same goes for most of the magicians I’ve known or seen.

Penn and Teller are dweebs – though they admit it and use it to their advantage. There is little pretense of being mystical bunny pullers.

I make no claim of being anything but a dweeb myself. There was no chance of my being name most popular while a teenager.

I sat in the second row with Helaine and Stef, snapping off photos as I obsessively do. The show was entertaining – the tricks puzzling.

Everything was going fine until he had three people pick cards and then chose someone from the audience to put him in a straitjacket.

That was me!

I tried to do my best to help a fellow performer. That meant I did as I was told and wasn’t too curious or anxious to bust his trick (Not that I could. I just didn’t try).

The trick’s culmination was his stripping off the straighjacket while revealing the three cards. The third was revealed when he pulled off the straitjacket and his shirt! The card was attached to his bare chest.

Thankfully, I was off the stage by then.