Magician's sad story has nothing to do with Parkinson's

Aug. 18, 2016

Jim Klodzen's sad story has nothing to do with his recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

Nor does it have anything to do with how he must now perform tricky sleight-of-hand magic with an ever-trembling right hand. No, Klodzen's sad story took place more than 30 years ago. He can't forget it, hard as he may try. When Klodzen was 21, he was at the top of his game with close-up card tricks.

"I was the young hot shot with a deck of cards," he recalled. Klodzen went to a Valparaiso bar to watch an old man perform a few parlor tricks for free drinks from other patrons. The old man possessed mediocre skills at best, he recalled, but he was well liked and didn't mean any harm.

"Can I show you a real card trick?" Klodzen asked with young brazenness. The old man left the bar and never came back, Klodzen recalls."I hurt his feelings," Klodzen said. "To this day, I still regret showing him up like that."

These days, at 54, Klodzen is more humble. He'd never consider doing something like that again. If anything, he may someday be on the other end of that humbling exchange.

Jim Klodzen, 54, of Portage, performs a "mind reading" trick for Kimberly Wiseman, branch manager of the Portage Public Library. (Jerry Davich / Post-Tribune)

Klodzen's right hand shakes uncontrollably from Parkinson's. However, when he picks up a playing card, his hand stops shaking, as if by magic. As soon as he places it down, his hand starts shaking again.

"As soon as I go back to being myself – just a nervous guy – I start shaking again," he said with a shrug.

Two years ago, while practicing a magic effect, his right index finger kept twitching. He thought nothing of it until it wouldn't go away. Test after test resulted in a diagnosis through process of elimination.

"I have Parkinson's," he told me.

We planned to meet earlier this year, but Klodzen put it off while he reassessed his life, and love of magic, with Parkinson's. After it sank in, he didn't see it as a mean twist of fate, considering his passion for magic that relies on his hands' dexterity.

"It could be worse," he said. "It could be cancer."

With that said, he performed a "mind reading" effect using a deck of cards.

Klodzen asked Kimberly Wiseman, branch manager of the Portage Public Library, where I met him, to randomly pick four cards from the deck. She did so and held them close.

Klodzen faced away from Wiseman and, one by one, named each card she was holding. She was amazed. I was, too. (You can watch a video and more photos here: www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/chi-jerry-davich-staff.html.)

Klodzen said he practices such magic effects every night, just as he has for more than four decades. It doesn't matter if he's tired, lazy, ill or, in his younger days, drunk.

He is just as fascinated with magic today as he was when he first got captivated at age 9.

Like many kids Klodzen's age, myself included, one of his early heroes was magician Marshall Brodien, who also played Wizzo the Wizard on WGN-TV's "Bozo Circus." Brodien was known for always telling young magicians, "Most magic tricks are easy once you know the secret."

Klodzen has been unlocking those secrets ever since. He became entranced by Brodien's "TV Magic Cards" and he soon learned many other card tricks to perform for his family, friends and, later, customers at a local pizza joint.

A lot of young magicians are loners who may be socially awkward or introverted," Klodzen told me while nervously pulling out another deck of cards. "They think if I can do this well, I can be somebody."

In the late 1970s, Klodzen first visited the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Mich. He was mesmerized by its exhibits and all they stood for. He revisited the museum in the late 1990s and for 10 years served as curator on its board of directors.

Since then he has studied magic, its history and our collective fascination with it dating back centuries.

"I'm educated in only one field," the Gary native explained. "Magic."

Klodzen's home is filled with hundreds of books, mostly about magic, century-old oddity practices and associated topics. These include optography, based on the belief that the eye can record the last image seen before death. Psychometry, a form of mind reading using relevant associations with an object of unknown history. And legendary performers such as Le Petomane (a French flatulist), Millie Lamar (an albino mind reader) and Annie Abbott (known for her supernatural "magnetic" strength).

Klodzen also can readily explain the etymology of related words, including "geek," derived from the Dutch word "gek" for fool or simpleton. Its first entrance in pop culture came in William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel, "Nightmare Alley," which Klodzen has read.

Klodzen will reveal insights about these intriguing topics during his first major public program since being diagnosed with Parkinson's. He also will offer a preview on my Casual Fridays radio show, noon Friday at WLPR, 89.1-FM.

His program, "Now THAT'S Entertainment," takes place at the Portage Public Library at 6 p.m. Aug. 25.

"It's a cross between 'Pawn Stars' and 'Night Gallery,'" Klodzen joked. "I guarantee an interesting night of fun stories and trickery. It's all good clean fun."

The family-friendly presentation will explore entertainment before the invention of television, the internet and Pokemon Go.

"From the stone eaters of the 17th century to the magnetic women craze," he said. "I will be doing my versions of things that were done back then. I don't want this stuff to be forgotten."

My hope is that at least one young kid attends Klodzen's show, becomes entranced with magic, and carries on a tradition that's as old as playing cards.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-davich-magic-and-parkinsons-st-0819-20160818-story.html