Host: Jodi Powell

Jodi Powell: [00:00:02] Welcome to The Moth Podcast. I'm Jodi Powell, a director at The Moth and your host for this episode. 

There's something magical about storytelling. But you know what else is magical? Actual magic. Well, perhaps, not actual magic. We're not talking about Gandalf or Dr. Strange here, but there's something special about stage magic, about card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats and astounding an entire audience. This episode, we're going to be playing two stories that touch on magic in different ways. Don't worry, no tricks get revealed. 

First up, we've got Micaela Blei. She told this story at a 2016 New York StorySLAM, where theme of the night was Romance. Here's Micaela, live at The Moth. 

[cheers and applause]

Micaela: [00:00:53] Oh. Hi. So, in high school, I had not had any boyfriends whatsoever at all, whatsoever. Even a little. And the closest I came was I had platonic male best friends who people would think we were dating for a second before I had to be like, “No, we're not.” But my favorite moment was between when they thought we were dating, and I had to say, no, we're not, because that was the closest thing I had to a boyfriend. 

So, I get to freshman year of college and I'm thinking, this is where I will meet the nerdy man of my dreams, and it will be so real. And freshman year, first party, there's this guy. He's in a knot of people. He's wearing a velvet jacket, and he has a pompadour. Looks like Elvis. He's doing magic tricks for this little knot of people and I'm like, “That's the one.” [audience laughter] I head over and we hit it off. We talk about books, which is the way I knew how to flirt. [audience laughter] 

He was so different than the boys I knew in high school. He likes art history and Morrissey. The best part about him, he's not just a magician, he's a really good magician. He had won the Junior Magic Olympics in high school. [audience laughter] That's a real thing. He had also given a trick to David Copperfield, that David Copperfield was currently using in his roadshow. He was the real deal. The absolute best part was he thought everything I said was fascinating. 

We spent three straight days together. We didn't kiss, but there were all these moments when we were going to and I was like-- when it happens, it will be amazing and this is what it feels like to fall in love for the first time. On the fourth day, there was a candlelight vigil for the Defense of Marriage Act on campus, sort of a candlelight vigil in support of gay marriage. It's really romantic. We're snuggled next to each other with candles, and they're lit and he says, “I have to tell you something. [audience laughter] I think I'm gay.” Now, what I should have done at that moment was go, okay, cool. Now I know. And we're friends now. And instead, I thought to myself, we're so close. He can tell me anything. [audience laughter] And I say, I will be here for you while you figure this out. [audience laughter] 

And so, we keep hanging out. We hang out a lot. Everyone on campus thinks we're dating, and I don't tell them that we're not. We spend nights in his dorm room not doing anything. I wish we were, but we're not. But we hold each other. And it's beautiful. He hasn't been able to tell people he's gay. And then, it's going to be parent’s weekend, and he doesn't want to tell his parents and he says, “Will you be my girlfriend for parent’s weekend?” And I say, of course. 

And so, parents weekend happens. His mom hugs me really hard. I think she knew and I was like her last great hope, you know? I get to introduce him to my parents. I'm really proud to introduce my parents to my boyfriend. We've already been like this. I know it's not real, but it feels so real. I mean, we are so in sync that at parties, he does magic tricks. I got to the point where I could do his patter, his monologue that a magician does while he's doing his tricks, I could do that for him while he did the tricks. That was how together we were. And finally, we'd been hanging out for a month before I tried to really kiss him. I leaned in. We were on his dorm bed, and he stopped me and he said, “I love you. You know this is pretend, right?” And I said, yeah, obviously. Right, of course. 

I get up off his bed and I go back to my room and I don't go back. He stays away from me. He knows I'm hurt. And three weeks later, he comes to my room and knocks on my door and says, “Listen, David Copperfield's in town, [audience laughter] and I have two tickets in the second row and my trick is in this show and I really want you there. Will you come with me?” And I say, of course. Absolutely. So, we both get dressed up. We both get dressed up in velvet. [audience laughter] We go to this theater. There are all these amazing famous magicians in the first row who are like quiet behind the scenes magicians, and he introduces me to all of them. He doesn't say I'm his girlfriend, but he keeps his hand on the small of my back. I can tell the way they're all smiling at me that they think I'm his girlfriend. 

The show starts. And it's awesome. It's David Copperfield. It keeps not being his trick and not being his trick. I keep waiting for his trick and he says, “Not yet. Not yet.” And then, at the very end of the show, and Copperfield comes out and winks. He's got short sleeves on and he's got a white piece of paper and he's cutting it up into little pieces. He starts talking about how when he was a little kid in New Jersey, he always wanted it to be a snow day. He just throws his hand out in this one little gesture and it starts snowing from his hand. And I'm like, “This is your trick.” And he's like, “Yeah.” 

And then, David Copperfield does another bigger motion. And suddenly, the lights are on in the audience and there's no machines, but it starts snowing in the audience. It's just blowing snow everywhere like a snowstorm. You can see all the way up to the ceiling. Everyone's getting up. We're catching it and trying to eat it. We're acting like we're 10 years old. It's so gorgeous. I know it's a trick and I don't know how he does it, but it feels so good and I just want it to last a little bit longer. Thank you. 

[cheers and applause]

Jodi Powell: [00:07:04] That was Micaela Blei. Micaela is a story editor and a story coach based in Portland, Maine. She is a two-time Moth GrandSLAM champion and the former director of education for The Moth. Her full-length audio first memoir will be released in 2024 by Audible. You can find out more about her stories and work at micaelablei.com. If you'd like to see photos of Micaela watching some magic in college, we'll have those very cute pictures on our website. Just visit themoth.org/extras. 

So, this episode is all about magic. But magic isn't only found on stage. Sometimes it's about the special worlds we're able to conjure and create. Our next storyteller is Anthony Griffith with a story about that kind of magic. He told this at an LA Mainstage in 2013. Here's Anthony, live at The Moth. 

[cheers and applause]

Anthony: [00:08:07] The earliest memory I have of my biological father is watching him at a Mexican standoff. He had pulled the knife on my mom and threatened to stab her to death. My mom, who had suffered abuse for years, broke two bottles and held them out as weapons. Everyone is crying. My mom's crying, my brother's crying, I'm crying. I don't even know why I'm crying. I'm only four, but I know the mood in the room was at best, toxic. When my father went to the bedroom to sleep off his alcoholic rage, my mom grabbed me and grabbed my brother, and she just fled the house. No money, no food, no extra clothing. She just bounced. It's amazing what a child remembers. 

Over the next few years, my life splintered into two worlds. One world was being raised by a single parent, mother, and all that entails and the other world was the fascination I had for television. I love watching TV, especially anything magic. I watch magicians and magic shows. I asked my mom if I could get a magic set, which she got me one day. I found out quickly-- two things about doing magic. First of all, you have to follow the instructions to the tee. [audience laughter] If the instruction says, “Use a dove, [audience laughter] use a dove.” [audience laughter] Don't use your best friend parakeet” [audience laughter]

For two reasons, doves are docile. They're quiet. You can hide them on your person. [audience laughter] Parakeets bite [audience laughter] and they're always talking. You can't shut them up. [audience laughter] The second thing I learned about magic when you're performing, if you're performing in the inner city with whites, they're amazed, “Oh, that's great. That's awesome. You are really good.” [audience laughter] Brothers, not so much. [audience laughter] In fact, if brothers can't find out how you did the trick, they want to fight. [audience laughter] They cannot suspend their disbelief. [audience laughter] 

But my mom was cool, because my mom was right there with me. In fact, one time, she asked for Christmas, “What I'd like for Christmas?” and I said with enthusiasm, I want a straitjacket. And sure enough, under the tree was a crisp, never before used straitjacket. [audience laughter] I asked my mom years later like, “How did you ever get a straitjacket?" And she'd say, “Well, I called an insane asylum and I said, my son wants to be a magician. How much would a straitjacket cost?” But that was just like my mom. My mom went to the Bath & Beyond, because she would do anything to make me happy. 

The other thing I liked about television was there was this show called Good Times. I loved that, because they had a strong father who wasn't abusive to his wife. He didn't run away. He didn't abandon his family. And even though things were hard, he was there through thick and thin. Not like my biological father, who was never there. He would always call me up and say, “Hey, I'm going to pick you up. We're going to play baseball. We'll go to the baseball game.” I would sit by the window with my mat, my mitt and my baseball hat, and I would wait for my father. And my mom, she would play catch with me until he came, which he never did. And that went on for years, that he would call me up, I would give him my mitt and my bat and my hat, and I wait for him. And my mom would play catch with me, wait for him, which he never did. 

When I became a young teenager, I hated baseball. I think I hated it, because I referred it to my father and his lies, and my disappointment that he always brought me. I was becoming a young adult. I was becoming 17, 18. So, my life was changing, because I was becoming a young man, black man from the inner city. And for some reason, people started to be afraid of me, and I didn't know why. Women would clench their purses in elevators. Every time I went to a department store, security would watch me over and over. Police would stop me on the street, whether I was driving a car or just walking down the street. And I was becoming frustrated. I didn't know why. All of a sudden, I was the enemy of the state. 

There was no one to tell me that my biological father was not there. And even my fictitious father in good times had been replaced, and he was no longer on the show. So, I was just a frustrated young man. As much as my mom wanted to intervene, she knew this was the time where I had to figure out the world for myself. This is my crazy rite of passage. So, it got to a point that I was a young adult. I was 20, 21, and I got a call from my biological father and he said, “I'm down the street. I want to see you. I want to talk to you. “

I was so overjoyed. Tears were in my eyes, because I was going to see my father. It had been years, and we were going to shoot the breeze and I was going to tell him who I was, and he was going to tell me who he was, and everything was going to be right and it was going to better than the show, Good Times, because we were going to be a family again. And I saw him, and we hugged, and we just teared up, and we exchanged vows and we were having fun. But when my father was talking, you know how you see Charlie Brown shows where the teacher is talking but all you hear is quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. That's what it felt like with my father. He was talking, but I couldn't hear him.

And then, everything slowed down. There was a part of me-- There was a verse in the Bible that says, “When I was a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. I had become a man.” One thing I had to put away as a child was the belief that my father would be coming back, that father that I wanted so much to be a part of my life would never be in my life, per se. And the father that I've always had my whole life was my mom. She raised me, she protected me, she guided me. And the biggest magician in my life was my mom, because she was able to take from chaos and create an environment, a magical world, in which I could grow up and be the man I was destined to be. And to that I say, mom, thank you. Thank you. 

[cheers and applause]

Jodi Powell: [00:18:40] That was Anthony Griffith. Anthony is an actor, comic and storyteller who won an Emmy Award for his outstanding performance in the television drama, Our Father, and oscillates between stage, film and television. Whether reminiscing about a younger brother saddled with hand me downs or sharing his thoughts on marriage, Anthony is an audience favorite at corporate events and has made multiple appearances on television. Find out more information about him at anthonygriffith.com. That's all for this episode. From all of us here at The Moth, we hope you have a magical week. 

Marc Sollinger: [00:19:17] Jodi Powell has been at The Moth for more than five years. She is a producer, director and educator who enjoys listening to and seeking stories from beyond the main corridors. Originally from Jamaica, she currently lives in Harlem. Anthony Griffith's story was directed by Catherine Burns. 

This episode of The Moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin Jenness, Sarah Jane Johnson and me, Marc Sollinger. The rest of The Moth’s leadership team include Sarah Haberman, Jenifer Hixson, Meg Bowles, Kate Tellers, Marina Klutse, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Lee Ann Gullie and Aldi Kaza. 

All Moth stories are true, as remembered by their storytellers. For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.

The Moth podcast is presented by PRX, The Public Radio Exchange, helping make public radio more public at prx.org.