Arriving in Sweden on a Tuesday, I decided it would be fun to offer the good citizens of Stockholm a chance to experience my magic. I found a broad avenue with no cars allowed that leads to the Old Town, yet still in the heart of Stockholm. I parked myself In front of a store that sold sandwiches and sweets, and began to busk! So there I was, standing in the walkway with a small table that said “magic”. Within two minutes of setting up I had the first crowd, and crowd after crowd continued to form for 4 hours! Young and old, men and women, swedes and turks, families and businessmen, before I knew it, my hat was filled with coins, but it was the shrieks of delight and amazement that kept bringing people around, as the passers by fully embraced what I had to offer. I was delighted with how open and friendly the Swedes are.
But the highlight of the day was still to come…sure enough, within about an hour from my start, I see a young man in a police uniform burst thru the crowd and come right up to me, just in the middle of the invisible deck routine.
“Do you know you need a permit to do this here?”
“No, I didn’t know that! I’ll be happy to buy one, can you tell me where to get it?”
“Well, you have to call”.
“Great, do you have the number I can call?”
“No, I don’t have the number on me..you know I got a call on my radio about this,(and he tapped his shoulder unit) and I came over here ready to bust you and take you with me…but I thought you were doing..you know, that shell game, we’ve had several of them ripping off People, mostly with large bills, $100 krona and such”
..then he looked at my crowd, who were all frozen in smiling silence, then at my hat, full of coins, and continued..”but I can see everyone is having a good time and you only have coins, no bills”.
“And I wasn’t asking for them, they just gave them to me” I chimed in, “I’m doing magic,” I said, pointing to the sign on my table.
“Yes I can see that”..
“would you like to try some magic officer?”
When he said ok, it was all I could do to control my delight. I thought, this is my chance to show him how close up magic in NYC is done.
“This gentleman is holding an invisible deck” and the poor fellow had been frozen in place the entire time, so I continued, ” take a card from that invisible deck officer” ..he did!, “now put it back in upside down. Throw me the deck”
I said to the patron. When the invisible deck appeared in my hand I got a smile from the officer “What card did you put in when it was invisible?”
“The four of hearts” when I opened the deck and spread it out there was the four upside down! The officer laughed, (so did the crowd,) and said “have a good day!” And walked off! I love Sweden!!
As someone who does Close-Up Magic in Miami, I was thrilled to witness this street scene in Stockholm just two weeks before I decided to try my hand at a similar performance!