When Jim was seven years old he got a small magic set. After some practice he gave his first show for his parents in the living room, and his mother was completely dumbstruck — how could he have made that penny appear inside a sealed matchbox?

Jim majored in theater in college, earning a B.A. in Theatrical Arts and performing at Eldred Theater and Lake Erie Opera Theater. He immediately added a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education and became an elementary teacher. His expertise led him into a supervisory role with Cleveland Public Schools, where he spent many years presenting workshops and guiding other teachers. He has mentored teachers, consulted with school systems, and taught graduate-level education at Cleveland State University.

Because of that understanding of children and early childhood education, Jim has written school and system curricula and co-authored two prominent social skills textbooks — Taking Part and Working Together, expansive curriculum kits published by AGS and adopted by the Florida Department of Education for statewide use in elementary classrooms.

After all these years Jim is still fascinated by how thoroughly people are entertained by this art, children especially. That is why he continues to perform at schools, libraries, clubs and private functions. As he puts it: “The look of amazement in someone’s eye when I vanish a coin is priceless.”

Themed shows, built from scratch

With his own creativity and his wife’s sewing and design work, Jim has built costumes and props for more than twenty-five different themed magic shows — Outer Space Magic, Jungle Safari Magic, The Magic Chef, The Magic of Tall Tales and Folk Legends. For each 45-minute show he develops the tricks, builds the props, creates a costume and writes a full script with story-line patter.

He currently performs at ten to fifteen weekend festivals a year, with Renaissance and American Colonial magic as two favorite arenas. A typical festival has him presenting four or five fifteen-minute shows plus strolling entertainment in between.

Professionalism, researched

Jim has spent a great deal of time researching and studying the magic of the past to make his historical shows as historically accurate as possible, and has amassed a large library of contemporary and historical works. Both M.U.M. and LaughMakers have featured him in cover articles.

He has contributed articles to nearly every major trade magazine, including Apocalypse, The Australian Magic Magazine, Funny Paper, Kid Show Quarterly, LaughMakers, The Magic Menu, The Magical Arts Journal, The Minotaur, M.U.M., The New Invocation and The New Tops.

Today

Jim presents school assembly programs in schools all over Ohio, and every summer he presents dozens of themed programs for Summer Reading Clubs at libraries across the state. The books, props and routines he has built along the way are all for sale in the shop.