From Close-Up To Stand-Up, Comic/Magician Ken Garr

We sit down with comic magician Ken Garr and trace how a stubborn request for an audition turns into years of close-up magic at the Magic Hat and a long run as one of our most reliable stage acts. We talk shop on timing, crowd work, and why the comedy world helped Ken find his voice faster than the traditional magic scene.
• Ken’s first connection to our club and the Magic Hat
• The audition story and what makes an act bookable
• Working close-up magic for real crowds and real tips
• The leap from bar magic to stage comedy after a last-minute slot
• Road work in the late 80s and 90s and how careers actually grow
• Collaborating with comics like Dave Coulier and learning joke craft
• Why breaking the fourth wall makes magic funnier
• Remembering hangouts, bowling nights, and the comedy community
• Ken’s current work with Cirque De Bohème in Sonoma
visit our website at www.standupyourhostandmc.com
Hosted by: R. Scott Edwards

Short intro to TTTP

Transcript

Welcome To Stand Up Comedy

Announcer 0:29

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business. Stories, interviews, and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and MC, Scott Edwards.

Scott Edwards 0:48

Hey, welcome everybody to another show of the uh podcast. We have a really good, good friend of ours, uh comic magician, extraordinaire. Ladies and gentlemen, we're interviewing Ken Garr. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, please.

Scott Edwards 1:06

You know, you always did well with the crowds.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Yeah, thank you. They love me. Especially when they don't see me.

Meeting Comic Magician Ken Garr

Scott Edwards 1:14

Well, it is it is true. Unlike some of the uh stand-up comics, uh, it's a little more challenging um interviewing uh magicians. I've done a couple magicians in uh ventriloquist because they're a little bit more visual. And it's not like I can say uh, you know, here's a comedy set from so-and-so because magic is so visual. But in the case of Ken Garr, ladies and gentlemen, one of our oldest friends in the business, worked for us not only as a great stand-up comic magician uh and escape artist, but you also worked in my doing close-up in the magic hat. So for those of you in the audience that haven't heard the term magic hat, for many years uh above the club I had a magic bar that I used as a pre- and post-show venue for my audiences, and I love magic and would have different magicians come through and entertain the crowds before and after the shows. And Ken was always uh one of the best, if not the best. You did some great, great stuff. But uh, I'm getting ahead of ourselves. Uh, let's explain to the audience how you first came to work for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Oh, well, that's uh, you know, it's funny because I got I was uh kind of uh pretend to think because that was a that's kind of a weird story because I we I remember one day I was hanging around the house and my wife goes, You need to get out. This is before I was really working a lot. Just get out of here, go do something. And there was a little local I lived in Stockton at that time, and there was a little local magic club, a bunch of guys, basically amateurs to get together, and I

The Audition That Got Him Hired

SPEAKER_01 2:51

was showing she goes, Go to that magic meeting thing. I'm like, I don't want to go. You know, and I I kind of put it off and I said, you know, maybe I should just not drive her nuts. I go there and one of the guys brought up at the very end of the meeting that someone was hiring. He goes, I think they're hiring at this comedy club up in Sacramento, uh looking for magicians, and so my ears perked up. You know, work. So I was like, um and I you know, I called you guys, and I guess you'd already auditioned almost every I called he goes, Jim Jay's, Clancy the Clown. Right. Uh that's and so I called him and he goes, There's a name from the past, Jim James.

Scott Edwards 3:27

Oh, totally. Clancy the clown uh to explain to the audience Clancy was an actual clown clown that did uh some um magic uh and he I paid him to work we had huge lines to get into the club on the weekends, and I paid uh Clancy to work the line and kind of entertain people with magic and and uh he was a a mime clown, he didn't talk much, but he would uh do balloon animals and and do little magic tricks and entertain the audience as they were waiting in line. So that was Jim J's, and so you got a hold of him.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah, I called him, and uh he was like kind of like, Well, I think they've found everybody they need, and I just was like, I knew I was supposed to work there or something. I just said, Look, you want me, I'm really good. I just told him. And he and he kind of sat there for a second and goes, Okay then. So he set up an audition. I think I was the last one to audition for you guys. Set a little audition, I went down and did some stuff and uh entertained a couple of your waitresses and uh I was in, you know. I think he worked me a couple of days a week. I worked Thursday and Saturday nights initially. I believe somebody worked a couple days a week there. So yeah, it was great. And that was I was go ahead.

Scott Edwards 4:40

Was this at the Magic Hat?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah, Magic Hat, yeah, the Magic Hat. And I was impressed. He had little light switches underneath the little spotlights that hit the tables and uh you know, the edge you had the tables along the uh two edges and tables down the middle. And uh you jam, man, before the show, you know, it was a little more relaxed and I could do stuff. But after the show, man, the place would get packed out. I'd be jumping from table to table. It was a great training.

Life Working The Magic Hat

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I mean, I was already doing a lot of good close-up at that point, but I got better doing that a couple days a week for quite a while. I can't remember how long I was there. Five or six years, it seemed like.

Scott Edwards 5:15

Well, it was uh not only amazing to have somebody of your talent, but you all and you always wowed the crowds. But what's interesting is that you did transition from doing close-up magic in the bar to doing the stage show.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah. Yeah. When did that happen? That was that was a couple years in, I believe. I always, you know, I used to sit down like what was great about working there was I'd go out and sit on the steps and watch the comics, you know, so I could watch and I couldn't watch everybody, I'd watch a couple, you know, a part of each set. And then go upstairs, you know, and start entertaining again. So I had a little break time between shows and I kept thinking, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna put together a little act, you know, and I could do this. I saw a couple guys and I could put some stuff together. It was just in my head, a head release. And you came up one time, someone got sick, one of the acts wasn't feeling well or something, and can you do anything on stage? And I'm like, Sure. I mean, of course I I had no idea what I was gonna do. You know, can you do anything? I'm like, Oh, of course I can. I'm like, oh but I went up, I think I did ten, fifteen minutes, and I had a great I was killing. People were laughing, I got hooked. I was hooked. And uh so I started taking the material and you started using me off and on, you know. And I can't remember I

First Time Doing Stage Comedy

SPEAKER_01 6:35

don't remember exactly when I opened a show for the first time. I think it was out at the Citrus Heights Club, I believe. Was uh the little one, the first club you guys had out there. I think that was the first time I actually did a week out there.

Scott Edwards 6:47

But um and what's interesting is that I ended up leaning on you as one of my go-to guys, especially when there was somebody a last-minute uh illness bailout, or or there was times in the uh mid to late 80s where I'd have somebody booked and they would go and do the uh tonight show or something, and boom, they were stars and didn't want to bother with Sacramento, and I would have have to fill these spots in pretty short notice. But Ken, you were fun much more than that because you were not only uh one of the magicians of the magic hat, but you were also had the advantage of doing the stage comedy for, like I said, a many, many years for the club.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yeah, it was big fun, man. It was a good training ground. I ended up transitioning, going out and doing more clubs and one nighters, and you know, it kind of just went from there, you know, turned into it turned into a thing.

Scott Edwards 7:39

Well, we always thought of you as part of the Laughs family, and you were involved in a lot of the uh growth of the company through those years. But what uh was interesting that I was not aware of was that uh we helped you transition from a close-up magician to a stage magician to uh uh a traveling comic. So, how much road work over the let's say the late 80s and 90s had you done?

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Oh, I I stayed mostly West Coast, you know. I would do these little one-night tours. I did um, I know there was um uh, you know, I ended up doing clubs in San Francisco. Uh also the what was the guy down in LA? LA did stuff in LA. It was mostly California, but I'd go into Arizona or then I'd fly back to Kansas City occasionally and did stuff there, my hometown. Uh I stayed mostly West Coast. Yeah, I was busy. I was getting busier and busier. You know, I remember when I trained with the club, I think I can't when Magic Hat stopped being a thing. I was there almost to the end of that, I think.

Scott Edwards 8:42

But um Yeah, sadly it didn't last forever. It it got expensive renting the additional space. The landlords saw this cash cow and kind of kept raising the rent. I had uh the Magic Hat bar, and then across the hallway I actually had the Magic Hat magic store.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah, Magic Shop for a while. I remember that. That's right.

Scott Edwards 9:01

Well, that's right. Not that I love magic, huh?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

But uh subtle clues.

Scott Edwards 9:07

But it's interesting. Uh I don't think I realized uh what a big part of your transition uh into Oh no, you guys were my I always thought of you as my home club.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Like that was my foundation, you know, for going out. Um I worked at Merlin McFly's in San Francisco uh through that period of time too. Uh so that was part of my transition. So I was doing close-up there. So I was working almost six nights a week doing close-up magic for quite a while. So that was I actually kind of took a cut and pay to go do comedy, to tell you the truth. Opening acts didn't make that much money back then.

Scott Edwards 9:43

No, no, I didn't I didn't it was like $150 a week or something.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Uh something like that, yeah. My wife was really pleased that I decided to go into the comedy.

Scott Edwards 9:53

But didn't move. So at the Magic Hat in uh McFly's in San Francisco, it was a lot of it was all tips, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Well, there was an hourly wage. I mean, you you paid me uh, you know, I had a base pay, so even if I didn't make tips, then at least I made some money. But uh, you know, it was good for gigs too. Both of those, you know, I booked gigs, just, you know, someone would say, hey, can you come to a party, or I'd give out a card. So I mean, I wasn't doing tons of that work, but I would get jobs that way too. But uh yeah, from and I had a couple other little restaurants in the San Joaquin Valley. So there was a couple years there where I was doing six and seven nights a week of close-up magic, and I was making pretty good, pretty decent dough for the time, you know.

Scott Edwards 10:35

So that made the the wife happy, you're making more money and you're never home. That's like the perfect memory.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Right, oh she loved that. Yeah, at first it was like, oh, you're not coming. Yeah, yeah. The longer I was out, the better it was.

Scott Edwards 10:47

Now you did mention that your hometown is Kansas City. Was it uh were they impressed or was how surprised was the family when you went back and you're a professional entertainer?

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Um, I think my dad, you know, I never really, you know, they were all they all just kind of sunk. I mean, yeah, we figured.

Scott Edwards 11:06

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 11:08

But my dad was like, he was really

Road Work And Club Growth Years

SPEAKER_01 11:10

I think he was in shock at first because I don't think he thought, you know, that I was gonna actually make a living at it. And uh and uh yeah, he was I think he was really super pleased. I found he never really told me, but my brother said, Oh yeah, he goes, he's super proud of you, you know, so that you're out doing it and finding a way to make a living doing what you love.

Scott Edwards 11:29

Yeah. Fathers are that way, they're not always communicative directly on how they feel about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Especially that generation.

Scott Edwards 11:36

Yeah. Oh, well, that's cool that you had that experience. Now you mentioned that you did do a a fair amount of road work, but back going back to laughs, you were there as a magician in the magic cap, but when you started doing stage shows, did was there anybody in particular you work with that stood out? Any good stories?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Um, oh God, there's so many people. Um, I think the first week, uh one of the best weeks, I think a couple weeks really, uh, I liked working with Dave Collier.

Comics Who Helped Shape His Act

SPEAKER_01 12:04

I you booked me with him a few times. We got to be pretty good friends um over that period of time. And he actually helped me he developed he actually gave me throw me jokes and lines and helped me develop like my old strait Jagger routine. He really he he only gave me a couple lines for it, but it really was like he kind of fit in little plugged in little holes that were uh existing in my routines, like, oh, why don't you say this here and put this there? And so I started developing better material just working with him a couple of times.

Scott Edwards 12:33

Wow. Um remind the audience, David Couillet, of course, from uh Full House, and then in more recent years, Fuller House. He also was one of the original hosts for America's Funniest Videos after uh Bob Sagitt. Dave Couillet and I were very close. In fact, he was at my uh bachelor party uh for my first marriage, and uh would play football with the girls on the weekends. Yeah, he was one of our regular acts back in the 80s, but that's really nice. We've talked about another podcast, the great camaraderie between the comics. And yeah, we had mentioned in talking with uh I've talked to uh Larry Wilson already and uh Andy Gross that sometimes magicians weren't given the respect in comedy clubs that I did because I was such a fan of magic. But it's great to hear that uh Coolier and others stepped up to uh work with you.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, there was I would run into that occasionally, but I'll tell you, I found the comedy world a lot more I think the comics I because I I I you know I was trying to do original stuff, I tried not to do till you know a lot of magicians do the same tricks, and I mean I did some old standards too. But I got, you know, I didn't get respect everywhere I went, but most of the places I did, but I found in the comedy world almost more open than the magic world. You know, magicians, there's a lot of there was a lot of thievery back then. It's changed now. There's a lot more originality going on now, thank goodness. Uh I found magicians, I mean the comics were a lot more fun to hang out with, and they they were better at coming up with original stuff and they respected you for doing your own thing. I had a little different approach, but a lot of kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing than a lot of guys did, and I think they they like that. And um I think they had a lot of fun.

Scott Edwards 14:23

Yeah, I think you were really good in relating with the audience that way. That uh what I remember was uh first off, you have great bug-out eyes when you want. Uh not quite not quite Marty Feldman eyes, but pretty damn close. And you and you always had that kind of and it's interesting because uh I'm gonna relate to somebody that that there's really no relation, no offense. But Penn and Teller. Penn

Making Magic Funny And Honest

Scott Edwards 14:48

and Teller got famous because they would expose the the goofy straight magic that a lot of people were trying to make a living at at the time, and and sometimes exposed tricks. And it was always a kind of a wink and a nod to the audience that, hey, I'm gonna let you in on the secret. And what I liked about your act was that you would say, and I'm gonna do something really amazing, and you would give them this look and a wink like, right, you know, that yeah, like this is really magic, right? Uh right. And I think the audience uh appreciated the fact Larry Wilson was good at that as well. That yeah, you know, look, if we could really do magic, would we be working here?

SPEAKER_01 15:28

It's exactly right.

Scott Edwards 15:30

So so you in putting it in a comedy format, you uh were really good, Ken, at kind of breaking that third wall and bringing the audience in as is kind of like part of the joke. You did some really amazing magic. Um, I would say the only person that I saw doing close-up magic that I would have to say was better than you was James Carney. Is that his name?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Oh, John Carney. John Carney, John Carney, so John Carney, oh god, he's a legend.

Scott Edwards 16:00

John Carney was probably the best close-up magic I ever, ever experienced. Yeah. But uh, and we're close friends, as I called him Jim. But uh John Carney. But but next to to next to John, Ken, there was very few that uh, and we had l some of the best. Harry Anderson, Martin.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Martin Lewis was there. Martin's great. Yeah. Oh, there were some wonderful performers. Yeah. John's kind of a yeah, he's a definite legend. I, you know, I just saw him recently and his his new he's got a new show he's doing uh that's very good. He's he's he's a superb artist. So, you know, a lot of magicians look up to him. So he's he's the real deal.

Scott Edwards 16:40

Well, so I'm trying to give you a compliment that next to him. You you are one of the best. Um and I and I used to love your patter. And again, for the audience, the patter is the story a magician tells while he's doing a trick to kind of keep it entertaining. It's not just moving cards, there's a story and and and jokes, and and my that was always the most important part to me, actually, more than the magic almost. So I think it is, it's true, and and and I have really fond memories of you doing I don't know the name of the trick, where the kings would eat the queens. Ohnibal cards. Yeah. Oh, that was you did that bit so well.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, I went I went a magic contest with that routine uh years ago. Yeah, that was part of my uh award-winning routine. So that's cool. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Edwards 17:30

So well, I I always enjoyed your your close-up, and I think that we helped you develop into uh a pretty decent feature act on stage as a comic magician. Did you have any uh did you get a chance to work with uh Martin or Harry or meet those guys at the club?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Oh yeah, uh yeah. I mean, uh I they come upstairs and hang out, but you know, Martin uh he worked your club fairly often. He would come up and uh I, you know, some several of them I got to be really good friends with. Um Martin would come up and hang out, and he was always very complimentary, and you know, he'd say I'd do a certain trick, and he was always like, No, you do that better than the originator, you know, it'd tell me stuff like that. And uh so I got pretty tired. Harry I only met once, he was kind of a big deal already, you know.

Scott Edwards 18:15

Cheers and some other shows, had his own show in Nightcourt, you know. Uh but we were lucky enough to work with Harry quite a bit. And uh but but but what about the stand-ups? You said Dave Couillet, was there anybody else's?

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Well, Dave Couillet, you know, another great week was Paula Poundstone. You booked me that was a great summer that I worked with her. Uh but we did uh weeks of show. I think we did two shows a night almost and all of them were sold out, and I think we even added a show on Sunday night that was almost full. I think we sold out every show, but that very last added show, and that was like three quarters of the way full. But that was a super fun week, and I got to hang

Comedy Week Stories And Friendships

SPEAKER_01 18:53

out with her, and we got got pretty we got you only worked for that one week and she was great fun to work with, though. Um that week stood out in my mind for sure. She was super fun. Um God had just so many people though. You know, sometimes I get confused over I little Brian and Valdez were favorites, I write working with those guys.

Scott Edwards 19:12

Yeah, uh, like I mentioned, you were part of the last family, so I've told in some of the earlier podcasts that we tried to uh make their uh comics road weeks a little less painful, and we used to do things like uh go bowling. I believe you joined us on a couple of the bowling nights.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Oh, yeah. I had some of the best bowling nights in my life hanging out with you guys. I bowled some good games.

Scott Edwards 19:36

I not that good a bowler, but I remember I was That just proves you can bowl good when you're drunk.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

That could be. That very much could be. No, I remember I was hanging out, I would go hang out sometimes at the at the comedy house afterward. And even when I was doing close-up, if I was somebody I knew or liked hanging out with, we'd go hang out the house a little bit or hang out and go out to uh the bar across the street or something and hang out. So I got to know a lot of people in that period of time. A lot of comics, uh well known, not so well known, you know, great fun, fun times. You know, I miss I miss hanging out with all those guys, telling you the truth. So I still stay in touch with a few.

Scott Edwards 20:15

And I do as well, and that's one of the great uh values of doing this podcast. I'm getting a chance to uh interact with people that uh and it's so funny that it's been 20, 30 years in some cases, and we start talking, and it's like I saw them last month. I mean, it's interesting how time evaporates when you reconnect with somebody that you shared uh you had a shared experience with, which of course the comedy world is. Well, Ken, thanks so much for um doing this interview. Uh I really appreciate all the years of uh service and friendship. Uh service isn't right. Entertainment, friendship. Sorry, I performed a service, but well, you know, when you were working the Magic Cat, it meant a lot to me because uh my love for magic and it was a big investment doing the the magic nightclub and then the magic store, and it was people like you that supported these crazy ideas I had and and and the money I was putting into them. And I I don't think I ever made money on uh those things, but I appreciate that you were there to uh do it. So, Ken, okay. We've known each other for a long, long time. Um we haven't actually had a chance to chat real recently, but you were one of the acts that I continued to uh book into fundraisers after the I sold the club. Uh I consider you one of my oldest friends in the comedy business, and I've always respected your uh magic and uh your stage show, but especially the close-up, which always invigorates me. For this podcast, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. Everybody out there, Ken's still uh available and working, right? Ken, you're still working?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've been working, uh working a lot, working with Cirque de Bohème, the circus in the wintertime. I do a winter show out in Sonoma uh from like the day after Thanksgiving through the month of December. So I'm booked for that again. So I'm kind of the ringmaster of the show. Oh, that's cool.

Scott Edwards 22:12

What's the what's the name of the show?

SPEAKER_01 22:13

It's called Circ de Bohem. Uh it's an

Ken Today With Cirque De Bohème

SPEAKER_01 22:17

actual French style Christmas circus.

Scott Edwards 22:19

Kind of a circus tent style.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

1900s, and they used to do a thing that was all World War I better started these things called Christmas circuses, and they would tour all over Paris and France, all over Europe actually. And uh it was kind of a Switch tradition at Christmas time, these little circuses would pop up all over. So he actually found a tent and he puts on this old style, like early 1900s style circus, and it's very fun and very cool. This is my third year being booked for it. So that's cool.

Scott Edwards 22:53

And you're the ringmaster.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

I'm kind of ringmaster. This past year I was. I played uh it's it's a kind of a little play throughout this kind of like circus lane that they have a storyline running through it. First year I played a mad magician, kind of uh, you know, semi-evil character, and uh, but very fun. And then last year I was the the main guy uh who thought of himself as king, and the story was about Notre Dame and how it was built. But uh there's circus acts all wrapped around the story. So it was very fun.

Scott Edwards 23:21

Interesting. Yeah. Well, we'll have to uh come out and visit. Hey, uh, thanks again for uh taking the time and doing this podcast and catching up. I know we'll be uh talking and working together again soon. I'm gonna try to come out and see you at the Cirque Theater. That sounds like fun in Sonoma, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Yeah, Sonoma Cornerstone in Sonoma. Yeah, runs after Thanksgiving through December. So, yeah.

Scott Edwards 23:45

Oh, that's great. Well, Ken, continued success. I feel uh um honored that we've had a chance to be a part of your early comedy magic career, leading you from uh stand-up, uh from close-up to stand-up stage act to to what you're doing these days. I think it's uh sounds like it's been a fun road, and it's really been a pleasure for us to have you be a part of our path.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

My pleasure, and it's it's been a blast. Thanks, Scott.

Scott Edwards 24:13

Thanks again. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

You too. Bye-bye.

Announcer 24:16

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC. For information on the show, merchandise, and our sponsors, or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at www.standupyourhost and mc dot com. Look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand-up comedy. Visit a comedy showroom near you.