Rich Bloch still believes in magic.
Bloch and his wife Sue are accomplished legal professionals. He's a successful attorney and she is a constitutional law scholar who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Magician Rich Bloch talks to WDDE about his career and the Dickens Parlour Theatre.
Magician Rich Bloch talks to WDDE about his career and the Dickens Parlour Theatre.
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But on warm summer nights, you can see Bloch and his wife holding audiences spellbound. Bloch is also a renowned magician who appeared with Abbott and Costello and discussed magic over dinner with Orson Welles.
After decades of globe-trotting, the pair opened the Dickens Parlour Theatre in a small home and workshop in Millville, just a few minutes west of Bethany Beach.
Almost within earshot of the rolling waves, there are card tricks, disappearing jewelry, classic misdirection and a hearty dose of good-natured humor sprinkled throughout a lively show. Audiences might find the show opening with an introduction of the "world's greatest magician. But he couldn't be here, so we present Rich Bloch (one of many performers at the Dickens Theatre)."
The theater is a home away from home for the Bloch family where he performs as a magician and she is an assistant named, of course, Miss Direction. "Given her resume, she deserved to play in a garage in Millville," he said with a laugh.
The Dickens Parlour Theatre has been in business for three years and hundreds of shows have been performed at what Bloch calls "the magic capital of the Delmarva Peninsula."
It's an intimate theater named for author Charles Dickens, who was an avid amateur magician. It seats 55 people in a Victorian setting with magic posters, bookcases and a stage that makes you feel a part of the show itself.
After the show ends, visitors retire to the neighboring parlour complete with secret bookcases, hidden rooms and fortune-telling machines. They can snack on popcorn and get a drink from the bar while magicians perform card tricks and close-up magic at their tables.
The emphasis is on atmosphere and whimsy and guests might be asked to display invisible decks of cards or participate in other feats of wonder.
Bloch likes to tell the story of how he was introduced to magic as a seven-year-old boy. He walked into a magic shop in New Jersey and "there was a guy behind the counter doing absolute miracles."
Bloch knew he had to work there. "What experience do you have?" he was asked. "I thought, experience, I'm seven-years-old. So, I lied. I had seen a magician the year before. I didn't remember him, but I remembered his name was Ted Collins."
"So, I said 'I don't have experience, but my dad is a great magician."'
"Who is your dad?" the shop owner asked.
"My dad is Ted Collins," he said.
"Well, if your dad is Ted Collins, then you can work here," the owner said.
"I started to leave and then I turned and said, 'I don't know your name,'"
"I'm Ted Collins," said the shop owner.
In 1946, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello asked Billie Bloch, Rich’s mom, for permission to have her three-year-old son stay in Hollywood and begin a career in show business under their tutelage. Billie declined, whisking her son back to the safety of the East Coast. But the hook was set, according to his bio on the Dickens Parlour website dptmagic.com.
Bloch is a two-time recipient of the “Blackstone Award” from the International Platform Association, a six-time nominee for Stage Magician of the Year, and a 2006 Fellowship recipient at Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle.
Bloch served as a scriptwriter and magic consultant to Orson Welles, who referred to Rich as “an Edison of Magic.” Bloch has also served in various capacities at several theater companies including the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C., and produced the World Magic Seminar, in conjunction with Siegfried and Roy and Lance Burton, hosting thousands of magicians from around the world. In the fall, Bloch will take on the role of Mark Twain in a one-man show, “Southern Comfort.”
He has invented over 80 magic effects.
Bloch has many favorite illusions, but his best work was only "performed once," he said.
At a dinner reception in Nagoya, Japan, he was asked to perform an impromptu trick. He borrowed a deck of cards and invited a young lady with long, dangling earrings to assist him. As he admonished her to "listen carefully" he gestured by pulling on his earlobe.
At that moment, to his surprise, one of the woman's earrings dropped to the floor. The crowd gasped, then rose to its feet with a thundering ovation. Bloch bowed and sat down.
Magic grows and wanes in popularity from time to time, but Bloch would like people to know that magic is not just for the young. "This is not just a children's venture. It's seriously fun, funny theatrical experiences for people. These are sophisticated shows," he explained.
After a lifetime of work, magic has not lost its charm for Bloch. "There's an old saying. I told my dad 'I want to grow up and be a magician.' He said 'you can't do both' and he was absolutely right," he said.
"It still makes me smile," he said. "We have had a very lovely life with magic."
For a schedule of performers and shows, to buy tickets or just find out more about Bloch and the Dickens Parlour Theatre, go to dptmagic.com.
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.