Joe M. Turner is a well known professional magician, speaker and M.C. who is based in Atlanta, Georgia. He specializes in corporate entertainment and creates customized corporate magic presentations for promotional, motivational and entertainment events in the United States and Canada. Joe recently took time out to speak with Magic & Illusion.
Wayne N. Kawamoto: When you left the business world, what was the biggest challenge for you to establish yourself as a corporate magician?
Joe M. Turner: I wish I could say it was all a well planned and masterfully executed career change. It wasn't. I think the biggest challenge was the fact that I had never actually sold anything before. In all my previous work, I was part of a team that showed up to execute a plan; I had never been part of the sale of a project. Learning to become an effective salesperson was my single biggest challenge.
WK: Please tell me about the concepts behind your weekly show at the Norcross Station Café and “Shenanigans.”
JT: Norcross Station Café is a restaurant and I perform there twice a week when I'm in town. My performances there have no larger concept other than the fact that I am not just entertainment, but part of the hospitable atmosphere of the operation.
“Shenanigans” is a cabaret-style parlor show. The audience is seated at small cocktail rounds and I do a one hour show. The content is drawn from my corporate after-dinner repertoire. I keep about 75% of the material constant, but I do allow myself to insert one or two different routines from time to time. These pieces are also drawn from my working repertoire.
WK: Please tell me about your other projects as a writer and director.
JT: My most visible writing project is my ongoing review column in Genii Magazine. I have also contributed pieces to many other magic periodicals.
My stage writing and directing has gone to the back burner since I became a full time performer.
WK: You have expertise in lots of area (motivational speaking, memory techniques...). Which one is your favorite and why?
JT: Outside of magic, my most favorite kind of performance to do is musical theater, but it's been a long time since I got paid to do that. Of the things you listed, I prefer the memory training seminars because I am a teacher at heart and enjoy empowering people with a new practical skill.
Until recently I also played the piano professionally and still enjoy that on my own.
WK: I'm interested in hearing about your magical ministry. How do you approach the presentation of magic with such an important message? Do you run into churches who don't like the idea of magic? If so, I'm curious if you've been able to make them open to magic and even enthusiastic supporters?
JT: First, I am not a pastor or even a vocational evangelist, so I don't harbor any confusion about my role when I'm doing a show in a church. I am a Christian who works as an entertainer. Like any other client, the nature of the show I bring to a church depends to a large degree on the nature of the event I've been hired for.
I have some presentations that are structure so that each magical routine lends itself to some kind of lesson, and these lessons build into an overall point. I also do some shows which are strictly for entertainment purposes -- perhaps with one short message-driven piece, or perhaps not.
I think there are thoughtful and creative ways to use magic to allude to specific elements of Christian teaching and create memorable "hooks" upon which to hang the content points. When I do a show, however, I don't like to use a magic trick at the moment of explaining or discussing the specific decision to accept Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior.
I like to reserve the magic for other valuable messages that are part of outreach or discipleship - using magic to cause someone to examine what they believe, show distinctions between various belief systems or communicate about practical ways that Christian principles can be applied to your life. I prefer to use magic to augment those kinds discussions and lessons.
I rarely run into "churches" who don't like the idea of magic; if there was an objection, I probably wouldn't have been invited. I have run into a few people who had personal objections to what I do. I have sometimes been successful in getting them to see what I do as what it is -- a form of theater. Sometimes I haven't been successful in that.
I just thank them for their concern and tell them I hope I haven't been a stumbling block for them. I politely and respectfully disagree, and I figure I'll just meet them at the finish line.
WK: What are you working on these days?
JT: I am working on a new business relationship with the magic industry's premier supplier of magicians to the trade show industry, Corporate-FX. I am writing this message from Seattle, where Scott Tokar and I have been in a meeting with a client for an upcoming trade show.
WK: Anything else you would like to mention/talk about?
JT: Any success I have enjoyed in magic has only been achieved with the support of my friends in Atlanta's IBM and SAM clubs, and more importantly, the support of my family and my wife Rosemary.
