Name: Magic Brian
Occupation: Magician, Comedian, Performer
Location: East 3rd Street and 2nd Avenue
Time: 11:30 am on Wednesday, Dec 17
I was born in Long Island and I grew up in Cornwall, about an hour and a half north of the city. My mom’s from Brooklyn and my dad’s from Queens, but they moved out of the city and I moved back in.
I moved to the city in 1996, to an apartment on 51st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. I didn’t know this neighborhood that well but I was always coming down here for shows or to go to the bar or whatever and then I just fell in love with it. I was just constantly taking the bus down here, so I moved to 7th Street a year and a half later. I then moved to 1st Avenue, above Lanza’s for four years, and 12 or 13 years ago I moved down to where I live now with my wife, to 2nd between C and D.
Any time friends come into town I just walked them around the neighborhood. Benny’s was a favorite place. There was great people watching at Benny’s. Now we’re like, I guess we’ll just set up lawn chairs on the corner and bring our own margaritas. It’s a great neighborhood, it’s just changing. I’ve started taking pictures of all the corners. I’ve got about 60 corners so far.
I started doing magic when I was a kid. My sister works at a daycare center. When she was working there as a teenager, there was construction, so she had a daycare center in our house basically. There was a room in our house with all these kids in it, and she was always trying to come up with stuff to do with them. I had always played around with magic. I had a friend who lived down the street and I said, ‘Hey what if we put on this show for the kids?’
So we started practicing on these same six kids over and over again. So I was like, ‘You know what, we can make money doing this.’ We became Abra and Cadabra. We did a lot of family shows, kids shows, senior citizen centers. I did that for a while and then when I went to college I started doing solo shows and more comedy shows.
It was a bit weird doing it without my partner because I had always had someone else, and then he completely lost interest. He had never really wanted to do it to begin with. So I started doing open mics and things like that. Magic is my tool, but [what I do] is like a comedian or a clown act. A juggler might use juggling clubs or balls, but they’re a comedian that juggles. Magic is my tool.
I started doing that and then I met this circus, the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, based in Brooklyn. They were doing shows at the Brooklyn Brewery at the time, Winter Cabaret, and they always toured, so I started touring with them for a few years. I loved traveling around the world with the circus. It was kind of like we were a band. We would play rock venues. We had a trailer that said, Bindelstiff Family Cirkus and people would ask, ‘Are you guys in a band?’ ‘No we’re a circus.’ ‘Is that the name of your band?’ ‘We’re a circus, not a band.’ ‘What kind of music do you play?’ We’re a circus.’
After that I started street performing and then I started traveling the world. I had just done so many shows on the road with them that I thought, ‘Well, what else can I do?’ One of my friends on tour, him and his wife were street performing in Europe, so I just asked them some advice and I put a show together. The first time I did it was in Washington Square Park. That was 2000 or 2001. I worked there just at the very start and then left. It was just waiting around so long to do a show because there were so many acts that it took forever. It was hard. Yeah. Back then it was a lot of different acts and so many strange ones. Now it’s just the break dancers. Then I went up to Central Park and it was a nicer experience.
I’m back up in Central Park. [2014] was the first year where I was going up there regularly again. I started going up with a magician friend of mine. The break dancers took over the spot I usually work by the fountain. They kind of do that everywhere — everywhere in the world. They’re kind of a plague. There’s a code among street performers — you share. You show up at some place, you help somebody out. Someone’s new, you explain to them how it works. Break dancers don’t understand that at all. They just decide to do what they want, when they want. They’ll just do show, show, show, show, show and they don’t want to share. There’s only a few break dancers that I’ve ever worked with that are nice guys. They basically force people out of pitches, the spot you work.
It’s a crazy life to live, being a performer. We’re talking about the neighborhood and you’re used to the neighborhood being the way it is. Being a performer, I’m used to what it is that I do and I forget that it’s strange to people that don’t do this. It’s like, ‘Wait, what do you do?’ I hammer a nail in my nose. I swallow razor blades. I put a wig on and talk in an English accent. This is what it is. It’s normal to me and the people that I work with. My colleagues are the sword swallower and the lizard man. That’s not strange to me.
Since January 1999, Manitoba’s has existed and thrived as one of the last great New York City Rock and Roll Bars, with a sub-specialty in Punk Rock, a casual bar to enjoy a few drinks, watch a game, play a game, or have a lovely conversation with a member of our wonderful, unpretentious staff ... and listening to Johnny Cash, The Stooges, The Beatles, The Ramones, and The Dictators, for example.
Sadly, this East Village landmark is now in danger of shutting down.
Due to a small wrinkle in the interplay between State and Federal law, Manitoba’s was recently forced to reluctantly settle a case with a private individual for a cumbersome amount that threatens the future of the establishment.
Our backs are against the wall. Our ONLY choice, after being advised by several very competent lawyers, was to settle.
Manitoba’s, its proprietors and patrons, are the very fiber of the East Village — the same East Village that is now being commoditized at an alarming rate and manifesting itself in the form of tenants in expensive apartments levying noise complaints at 8 pm.
This is a battle cry for help. Please don't let Manitoba’s meet the same fate as other business institutions that have recently been forced to close.
Understand this please, this situation is not part of what you would call, "business as usual." It's not a fine, and it's certainly not business mismanagement. We either pay, or shut down. Not one penny goes into the owner's pockets, or is being used to pay bills. All of it goes to settling this claim and keeping the bar open.
There will be auctions, concerts and donations. Every donation — no matter how small — will greatly assist towards keeping the lights on, the beer cold and the jukebox playing.
Thank you,
Handsome Dick Manitoba & Zoe Hansen, owners
The last time anyone was able to make a claim on a space within Vaux and Bradford’s storied Lodging House was 1978. And prior to that, never.
So in the most literal way possible, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase a living piece of Manhattan history. As it stands, the lower floor features a wonderfully proportioned South facing living area with wood-burning fireplace, 10 foot ceilings and a large wrought-iron enclosed Juliet balcony overlooking the recently restored St. Brigid’s church and Tompkins Square Park.
Within the Lodging House, Apartment 2–3E is located on the south, east and north sides of the 2nd and 3rd floors, light is guaranteed all day long. Once inside, look closer. It will be easy to find the original spirit of the building by stripping the existing sheetrock away to expose the wonderful Monk bond brickwork, and it’s thrilling to imagine the probability of 130 year old wooden ceiling joists and beams running lengthwise across the ceilings.
To the rear of the home is a large dining area and kitchen with a north facing window overlooking verdant-planted gardens and the stately Christodora House on East 9th Street. The upper floor of the duplex currently has three comfortable bedrooms and is replete with exposed brick, two large wood-burning fireplaces, arched windows and strip oak hardwood floors.
MAN ALL HANDS 133 E 4 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT,
— FDNY (@FDNY) January 13, 2015
MAN ALL HANDS 133 E 4 ST, MULTIPLE DWELLING FIRE IN BASEMENT, UNDER CONTROL
— FDNY (@FDNY) January 13, 2015
