r marcom
MarcoM
| Ralph A. MarcoM
first became interested in Magic at the age of eight, and ordered a
catalogue from Douglas Magicland in Dallas, Texas for ten cents.
When he was about ten, he did his first public show in his
cousin’s driveway, with a makeshift curtain that took more time to
construct than he had spent rehearsing the act.
It went well, however, and the audience seemed satisfied that
they had gotten their nickel’s worth, which was the price of
admission.
He worked at Magic somewhat longer, but puberty intervened, and his interests lay elsewhere for a time. Later, he trouped with a carnival for a short season, and did some acting. After he had finished school and a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War, he went back to show business, emceeing strip shows in nightclubs and continuing to act, eventually gravitating into radio and television, where he hosted the Shock! Show for a time, doing a bit of bizarre Magic dressed as Satan. Finally he succumbed to the family curse and followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a physician and taking over his father’s practice in Honey Grove, Texas, all thoughts of Magic gone. Then one fateful day he was in Dallas on a rare day off and happened to glance up and see the sign: Douglas Magicland. A wave of nostalgia overcame him and he thought he should visit the place that he had considered in his youth to be the font of all magical knowledge. He walked through the portals and Gloria was behind the counter. He was smitten, a few months later they were wed, and the two of them performed their acts on many stages, garnering in the process ten trophies, culminating in the I.B.M. Close-up Award. After that, people started offering him money – the first he had earned from Magic since that long-ago day in the driveway – and they performed in Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, as well as throughout the United States, doing the Renaissance Act and others. As Gloria was fond of saying, “Magic has taken us all over the world - and other places!” MarcoM is a Member of the Inner Magic Circle of London, The S.A.M. (Limerick Laureate) the I.B.M. (Order of Merlin) and an Honorary Lifetime Member and Past President of the T.A.O.M. (Order of Willard). He is the author of The Magic of MarcoM, MarcoM presents Magic, MagicaLimericks, Licentious Limericks, This Rough Magic I&II, MarcoMagick: Tricks You Can Do, And the Winner Is…, “…from the table of my memory…” (a compilation of his monthly columns from The Linking Ring) and Lord of Legerdemain - The Renaissance Magick of MarcoM the Mountebank. He is also the creator of MarcoM’s Leprechauns, The Sheik’s Bequest, MarcoM’s Werewolf, The Lady or the Tiger?, MarcoM’s Chain Escape, and MarcoM’s Chain Reaction. 2010 Update. Dr. Ralph Marcom, also known as MarcoM the Mountebank, passed away
Wednesday morning the 13th of October. He apparently had a stroke the
previous week and was found almost a week later in a coma. He was rushed
to the ICU and never came out of it. |