Last month I had the honor to have an article written about me in the San Francisco Examiner by Janet Gallin. You can read the article here http://www.examiner.com/article/robert-strong-the-san-francisco-magician-who-gives-meaning-to-incredible or below. Enjoy!
San Francisco Magician Robert Strong
If you ask me, the word “incredible” has been bandied about so lightly of late that it has come to signify not much of anything. Ah, enter comedy magician Robert Strong, the sorcerer who puts the disbelief back into “incredible” because the incredible is what he does every time he makes the impossible seem routine.
When he cuts that tie in half right before your eyes, okay, simple enough, audacious perhaps, and certainly more than a little meddlesome. But even the hapless fool who has volunteered his tie laughs. He sits through the performance with half an expensive tie, and by the end of the evening, almost as an after-thought, Robert calls him back to the stage. Whiz bang, Robert’s hands do something undetectable and the man’s tie is whole again. Not even wrinkled! You can feel the “whew!” in the air. Robert just smiles at what, for him, is the ordinariness of it all.
How does Robert do it? I don’t know. He won’t tell. There is something beautiful about his code of silence. Honorable. He knows we don’t want to know how the lady is sawed in half or how he runs the film backward on that severed tie. The fun is in the mystery. Robert is not just the magician. He is the magic. He is having such a fine time of it all that we laugh with him. We trust this inveterate mischief-maker not to disappoint us (see him at work in Berkeley) . We know we are out of harm’s way in his swift reliable hands. Danger is just an illusion. Safety is his reality.
Comedy magician? Yes. With Robert the comedy would be entertainment enough, the magic ditto. The blend is Robert’s long standing magic act that he has been doing since the age of twelve.
High spirits and joy follow in Robert’s wake. He says his job is to make events extraordinary. And does he ever! It isn’t so easy to gasp and laugh and scream with disbelief simultaneously, but that is what he evokes. You think you can watch more carefully next time and see what he does. Watch all you want. You will not see what he does; just the bewildering results. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this gleeful marvel in action you are missing something astounding. But, even as busy as he is performing in San Francisco, and elsewhere, you will be able to catch up with him. His website is up to date, so you can find him.
And, as if the magic is not enough of a career, Robert is co-founder, co-producer and emcee of San Francisco’s Comedy Talks; Conversations With the Legends of Comedy. With all his accomplishments he is a sweet and modest man whose gratitude is never overshadowed by the light of his success.
And, he knows how to do something ordinary that has bewitching results; that is writing a love letter. To hear the joy in Robert’s voice as he tells the story of how he became a magician is a treat in itself.
From me to you with love in the air,
Janet
