On July 22nd, we celebrate the birthday of an extraordinary magician, Bill Malone. To be sure, if you’ve ever seen him perform his magic tricks, you’re nodding your head. “Damn right, extraordinary. Actually, this guy’s amazing.”

Magician Bill Malone is known as a master of sleight of hand.

What’s more, this beloved performer is an expert in close-up magic involving cards. At 17, after visiting a magic shop in his hometown of Chicago, he knew it was for him. After a few years of honing his skills, he moved to Southeast Florida. That’s where I met him.

It was the late 1980s in Fort Lauderdale.

My ex was employed as the Food and Beverage Director at the Pier 66 Hotel. As a result, we’d often dine at the hotel’s restaurant and if it was dinner, there was a good chance that Bill Malone would stop by the table and perform a few card tricks. He was personable, funny, and oh so entertaining. For that reason, everyone loved him. Even my rather young kids got a kick out of how he handled the cards.

Above all, Bill is recognized as a huge talent in his industry. To begin with, he was a winner of the Merlin Award from the International Magicians Society. According to Wikipedia, “The award is intended to be a recognition for magicians who perform at the highest level of skills on national and international stages.” Subsequently, he appeared in a number of television specials including the very first World’s Greatest Magic, World’s Wildest Magic, and Champions of Magic.

So, yeah, Bill Malone is a famous magician, but he is also the nicest guy.

As I have said, my kids were very young at the time, in elementary school. I volunteered at the school and especially loved being the room mother. One of the best parts of being the room mom is putting together the parties.

One Halloween I found myself trying to figure out how to entertain the kids at the party. And, then it hit me. “Bill Malone. Why not see if he’ll come and do a few tricks for the kids? I bet he’ll do it. I’m gonna ask him.” In fact, I was right!

After I told the kids that we were having a famous magician come to amuse us, I taught them the Bill Malone chant. Bill uses it during his performances quite a bit, so I thought he’d get a kick out of the elementary school kids doing it for him.

Here’s how to do the Bill Malone chant.

Start by making a fist with the right hand.

• Pound the left shoulder, chant “BILL”
• Pound the right shoulder, “MA-”
• Raise the right fist up into the air, “LONE”

We practiced chanting BILL MA- LONE a bunch of times. Soon, the kids were getting excited and each time we did it, the louder it got. (I got in trouble for creating a riot in the classroom. I didn’t know moms could get yelled at!)

Anyway, he finally arrived and just like at the restaurant, he went from table to table doing magic tricks and making the kids laugh. Once again, Bill Malone was a hit. It was the best party and my kids were so proud.

By the way, if you’re looking for some ballroom dance magic, check out this Dance Safari post, “Learn Ballroom Dancing? Let Me Wave My Magic Wand“.

Please visit YouTube and search for Bill Malone magic and watch the videos that come up. As a matter of fact, here’s one of my favorites, Sam the Bellhop. In addition, if you’d like to purchase some DVDs from Bill’s performances, here’s a great place to start. He did a series called Bill Malone On the Loose, Volumes 1-4. As you can see, it’s available on Amazon.

Here’s Volume 1.

Shout out to a super performer and a nice man. Happy Birthday, Bill!

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