{"id":5778,"date":"2014-09-27T00:17:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T07:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/?p=5778"},"modified":"2014-09-27T00:17:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T07:17:21","slug":"this-worlds-greatest-magician-carl-ballantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklycurious.com\/wp\/2014\/09\/27\/this-worlds-greatest-magician-carl-ballantine\/","title":{"rendered":"This<\/i> World’s Greatest Magician Carl Ballantine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CarlOn this day in 1917, the great magician Carl Ballantine<\/a> was born. He is not best known for his magic, however. He is best know for playing Gruber on McHale’s Navy<\/a><\/i>. In fact, he is mostly known as an actor. He had one of the most recognizable voices and deliveries of anyone in film or television. He was a very funny guy.<\/p>\n

One interesting thing about him is that he didn’t work in vaudeville — he was just a tad young for that. But he created an entire career out what is essentially a vaudeville act. I actually think we’ve really lost something with that approach to entertainment. Now pretty much everyone has to have an hour and a half of material. But the truth is that very few people have anywhere near that amount of good, much less great, work. Ballantine had five minutes of absolutely perfect magic.<\/p>\n

Apparently, through the depression, he helped support his family by doing straight stage magic professionally. But he learned rather quickly that he would never be of quality of other magicians — people like Cardini. And one time while performing, he blew a trick. So he covered with a joke, the audience laughed, and a new act was born. Here it is. I’ve seen it many times. It is pretty much exactly the same every time, including the ending where they throw the broom at him:<\/p>\n