heads and advised me to have a serious backup plan. I am so grateful that I’ve never had to use a Plan B. Years later, I was so flattered when Mr. Melli called me to perform my show on Career Day for the school and talk to the students about following their dreams. A few years ago, I was deeply touched and honored to be asked to deliver the commencement speech at Westport High School, my Alma Mater. Talk about full circle.
Lyn, 14 years old, at one of her first performances.
CHAPTER 3
Family And Friends
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
Helen Keller
It’s taken me many years to get my “act” together and actually perform the show I had always envisioned. I’ve wanted my show to be a complete theatrical experience, including spectacular illusions, audience participation, comedy, and great lighting—and to make it entertaining as well as delivering high-quality magic that an entire family can enjoy. There have been many “hard knocks” along the way. For every highlight of my career, there have been a hundred disappointments. But with a tremendous amount of help from my parents, family, and friends, I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to live my dream.
I’ve had an incredible support system through the years. When I started out, my aunts, including my Aunt Rozzie and Aunt Nat, would help with any sewing that had to be done. My mother was my driver, secretary, bookkeeper and backstage helper. My cousin Martha would sometimes step in as my assistant and, in recent years, her children, Megan and Sarah, whom I consider my “nieces,” have also helped onstage and with special projects. My Uncle Freddie would help make some of the props with his superb carpentry skills, and of course, my father, Calvin, was invaluable, being a master electrician with many other mechanical talents. There are too many projects he helped me with to count. Sometimes he’d stay up all night figuring out a better way to make something work.
2001: Lyn and her father, Calvin, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He accompanied her truck driver to see her performances with the Las Cruces Symphony.
2002: Cape Cod. Lyn’s Aunt Nat, father Calvin, mother Loretta, and Aunt Rozzie help with tickets and merchandising at a show.
I’ll never forget the first illusion he made for me. He knew how badly I wanted to perform Harry Houdini’s “Metamorphosis, which involved a wooden crate. One day he came home with a chest he purchased from an antique store. Of course I knew how the illusion worked, but I had no clue how we were going to modify this old trunk and turn it into a miracle. Well, my father’s ingenuity made it happen. The method was brilliant. Now that I look back on that old trunk that I still have, it reminds me of how much my father loved me and would stop at nothing to help me attain my dream. When I purchased my most recent truck, he helped spec it out from the kind of engine I needed to all of the polished aluminum trim. How many fathers do you know who would be so proud that their daughter’s truck was bigger than theirs?
Incidentally, “Metamorphosis” has become a signature illusion in my show, and it is actually the grand finale. Since the original trunk my father revamped, I have had a few trunks professionally built. “Metamorphosis” is an illusion Harry Houdini made famous. I discovered it when the late illusionist Doug Henning featured it in “The Magic Show” on Broadway and later in his touring show.
In my presentation, a wooden crate is shown empty. My assistant, Marc Leblanc, climbs inside the box and I place shackles and padlocks on his wrists. Next, he steps into a cloth sack and I tie it at the top with a rope. With Marc inside, I place the lid on the crate and padlock all four sides. There is a cloth hoop which fits around the outside of the crate. I jump onto the crate and quickly bring the curtained hoop up to my shoulder height. This takes approximately two seconds. I toss the hoop in the air and it barely clears my head. Within a millisecond I have vanished and Marc has caught the hoop. It happens instantaneously and looks like trick photography. Marc jumps off the box, unlocks all the padlocks, opens up the box and I am now in the cloth sack, which is still tied. When Marc unties the sack, the locked shackles are on my wrists and I have completely changed my costume. Marc quickly unlocks the handcuffs, and after he lifts me out of the box, we do a final pose and there are colored confetti explosions that match my costume change which has been red, white and blue since 9/11.
I recently performed for a private party and someone came up to me afterwards and told me she had hired me to perform at her son’s birthday party many, many years ago. I was just starting out as a young teenager and she remembered my mother driving me to the show and running the tape recorder for the music. It was a precious memory and another reminder that my mother has also been by my side every step of the way.
CHAPTER 4
“Magic At The Symphony”
Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That is voting.
Robert Frost
It’s taken almost a lifetime to attain the success for which I’ve strived. I’ve had the privilege of working with many celebrities, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Crystal Gayle, Jeff Dunham, and Richard Jeni, to name a few. I’ve had the good fortune of appearing on Fox-TV News, CBS-TV News, The Discovery Channel, and The Statler Brothers Show. I’m very humbled to have played some of the most prestigious venues in the country, including The Magic Castle, The Belk Center, The Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts, The Ford Center for the Arts, The United Nations, The Showboat Hotel, Trump Plaza, and The Manhattan Center. I’ve made magic history twice for my work with elephants, and have appeared nationally in a print ad. I have to say, however, that of all the exciting things I’ve accomplished in my career, I am most proud of my “Magic At The Symphony” program.
I inherited my deep love and appreciation of classical music from my grandfather, Kenneth Park, a professional violinist and music director of the New Bedford public school system. He also taught private lessons and, much to his delight, taught me how to play the violin. I can still remember how exciting it was to watch my grandfather play first violin under the baton of Arthur Fiedler, the legendary conductor of the Boston Pops. But one of my most cherished memories of him are the times we played duets. Every Christmas Eve, he and I would play carols on our violins for the rest of the family.
Every day after school, I would stay at my grandparents’ home while waiting for my mother to pick me up after work. I would be surrounded by such beautiful classical music played by my grandfather as he was practicing. Inspired by those memories, I created a unique program that combines my magic with a live, full symphony orchestra. The symphony is onstage behind me playing classical music for my illusions. It’s an exhilarating, breathtaking concert that brings the music to life with my magic. The magic enhances the music and the music enhances the magic. It’s a wonderful way for symphonies to introduce classical music to new audiences, particularly children.
