| Dignity
Personified
How actions speak louder than words in the career of one of magic's
beloved luminaries.
by Amy Stevens
Few people know that Ricardo Fantasio was the highest-paid magician
to ever appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show," or that he worked
on the same programs as did the Beatles, Louis Armstrong, Bob Hope,
Tony Bennett, Count Basie and his orchestra, and many other notables.
The reason this intriguing snippet falls by the wayside is because
Ricardo Fantasio is not burdened with an ego run amok. He seems
resilient to the bombast and amperage ingrained in so many modern-day
performers, be they rock stars, opera singers, actors, athletes
or magicians. Yet despite his unassuming manner, or perhaps because
of it, his presence in magic looms large.
After cutting his magical teeth in Buenos Aires with the likes of
Fu Manchu, René Lavand and, later, Dai Vernon and Francis Carlyle,
Fantasio, born Ricardo Roucau, had long-running engagements at the
famous Latin Quarter, Radio City Music Hall, the Liberace show,
and at Las Vegas' Desert Inn. For three years he toured South America
and Florida with an illusion show featuring his wife, Monica, and
daughter Jacqueline. One day, during a run in Las Vegas, he received
a call to perform on Ed Sullivan's show.
Fortunately for Fantasio, he could cast a spell with not only his
magic, but with his geniality that could sway even hard-nosed show
producers engulfed in the capricious world of entertainment.
On five different occasions he appeared on "The Ed Sullivan
Show," even though show booker Mark Leddy initially wasn't
interested in hiring him due to the large contingent of magicians
slated to appear. When producers requested only a three-minute act
for the show, Fantasio's panache overcame their concerns for time;
viewers at borne were treated to his entire seven-minute act.
When faced with booking a magician whose visual richness would be
worthy of Ed Sullivan's first color TV show in 1965, producers called
Fantasio, who several years earlier - when black-and-white television
reigned supreme - was the first magician to make brightly hued doves
appear at a whim. This performer now had a strange new canvas on
which to leave his mark, and he did so with the elegant artistry
that defined a genre of magicians in the '60s. 'I built everything
for color," recalls Fantasio. He crafted elaborate silk productions
with a myriad of fountains, flags, a 12-foot by 18-foot silk, and
much more, ah from Silk King Studios. "But the cost to buy
silks was more than $7,OOO," he says. As a testimony to the
producers' faith in him as an artist, they gave him the money to
buy the props. Today, he still has the silks.
Yet, there are some things from his early days which he no longer
has. His original stage name, Ricardo, is one. Gone tun is the name
chosen for one of his first out-of-the-country appearances. «I needed
some publicity because of an engagement in Uruguay. I saw a marquee
advertising a comedian named Larry. So I had my friend take a photo
of me standing in front of the marquee and went off to Uruguay as
the famous magician Larry," Fantasio says.
There he met Monica, a Spanish dancer, and fell in love immediately.
She agreed to work with him but discovered an added surprise stemming
from puritanical hotel accommodations. "We were not allowed
to stay together because we weren't married," Fantasio explains.
"Su I told her let's marry in Uruguay, because in this country
we can get a divorce right away" They've been married for 35
years
"I now had to give her a name. My name was Larry and I wanted
her to have a Five-letter name. I didn't want it to be longer or
shorter," says Fantasio, who preceded equal billing efforts
by nearly 20 years. "Her real name was Margarita, which is
Daisy in English. So we became Larry and Daisy."
When magician John Scarne saw the duo perform in South America,
ah but one nuance impressed him. "He asked us if we wanted
to perform in the States. He said we had a beautiful act, but our
name would never work in America," says Fantasio. In a desperate
attempt to reinvent the wheel, Fantasio returned to his hotel room
and did what many magicians do when faced with an important enterprise
- he began playing cards. In a few seconds he noticed the brand
name - Fantasio - on the pasteboards. He thought the name decidedly
international, since in Spanish the "F" sound is usually
written with a "Ph" except for the words fantasy and fantastic
Like in German and English, both those words are spelled with an
"F".
Despite a luminous performing career that spanned 19 years, Fantasio
readily admits his disdain for being in the spotlight. "I never
wanted to be a professional magician. "I hate the stage,"
he admits. "I love magic. I love to create tricks, and will
do so until the day I die."
This undying creative quest- to date he's invented
more than SO effects - has led him on some strange odysseys from
supermarkets to refrigerator paint stores to train depots ah in
the name of coiled plastic.
The journey started by accident in 1960 when a German made "Vanishing
Cane" he was using broke in the middle. Fantasio turned defeat
into victory by painting half of it white and resurrecting it as
a "Vanishing Candle." After this genesis, the rest is
history. Single-handedly, Fantasio began one of the most successful
business ventures ever in our industry. What amateur or professional
hasn3t used his apparatus? Six years later he scoured New York City
in search of the plastic used to hold six packs of Coca-Cola against
a wall. That was the exact material needed for his "Color-Changing
Canes" and "Vanishing Candles.» Nearly 29 years later,
his combined sales of canes and candles is more than 400,000.
His early efforts, however, were fraught with frustration. Supplies
proved difficult to find and distributors, such as Tannen's, Al
Flosso and Russel Delmar, rejected his prototypes, claiming Russell
Walsh had sold thousands of metal canes and the market was saturated.
"They told me to keep my money in my pocket,» says Fantasio,
who recalls his sales pitch to these dealers in 1967. "But
I never wanted to compete with Russ Walsh. My idea was to have color
for the 'Triple Color-Changing Cane' - not a "Vanishing Cane."
Fantasio persevered with belief in not only his idea, but in himself.
Within a year, hundreds of magicians believed in his products as
well, as Tenyo became his first wholesale customer and as 300 pieces
sold at each the S.A.M. and I.B.M. conventions.
In 1967, he protected his endeavor by purchasing a train car (80,000
pounds> full of the laminated plastic material for $250,000,
converting an extra room in his new Miami borne into a factory.
Due to the possibility of fire and the prohibitive cost of insurance,
he divided the material between three mini-warehouses and his home.
And just this year, that initial stock has finally s been depleted.
Fortunately, he has located a new source for an even better plastic
material to continue his manufacturing of the Fantasio line of canes
and candies.
Recently, the magician and entrepreneur has trod back onto the boards
under the new billing of "Funtasio," a comedy magic act
he's been developing for three years and premiered in the F.I.S.M.
competition in Yokohama. The result: Second Place in Comedy. "I
don't have the face or the guts to come out and do my candle act.
Everyone does my candles better than I do," he says. While
his original act is still in demand, this comedy act is what he
now performs when friends, whom he can't turn down, call him for
an appearance at magic conventions. His days of performing for people
other than magicians are over. "I don't want to try to impress
producers," he says. But considering his history, you know
he could easily win them over, not so much with words, but simply
in the time it takes a candle to disappear.
Amy Stevens is a Contributing Editor, but spends most of her time
these days
wrestling the monsters of cyberspace launching
Stevens Magic Emporium's Greater Magic Network - an online computer
magazine.
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION FROM MAGIC:
THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR MAGICIANS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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