|
  Scott
Wells Appeared in
Texas Highways
The Travel Magazine of Texas
February 2003
Yucca Theater, Midland, September 21,
1981. The chairman of the local United Way
fund-raising campaign stretches out in a supine position onstage. A tuxedoed conjurer stands over him. Known as “the magician with ‘Tex’ appeal,”
Scott Wells projects his magic mojo until the Permian Basin oilman rises, parallel to the
stage, and “levitates.”
Today,
that Midland businessman, George W. Bush, faces challenges far
more daunting than floating in air.
And while Scott may be the only magician to levitate a future U.S. president, the astounding feat is a mere
intro to the amazing world of Texas
magic.
Throughout the state, prestidigitators astonish
audiences by pulling rabbits out of top hats, sawing live humans in half, and
magically reassembling chopped-up neckties.
They swap secrets in magic clubs, sell magic paraphernalia, and
instruct youngsters in the art of legerdemain. Each Labor Day weekend, the
magicians-per-capita demographic skyrockets in a different Texas city, as some 1,500 to 2,500 members
of the Texas Association of Magicians (T.A.O.M.) gather for an annual
conference.
Scott Wells
served as President of the T.A.O.M. in 2000, the same year that George W.
Bush ascended to another, higher Presidential office. Coincidence or Magic?
Excerpted
from Texas
Highways February 2003
|