The Tale of Horatio Reginari (Partial) - Tricks Aren't Just for Kids

HORATIO REGINARI :
MAGICIAN & MASTER OF OBSCURITY
by Daria Sellon McQuade

Magican Horatio Reginari is a close kept secret among the magician community. He was born in Merrick, Long Island in 1942 to Margaret and Daniel Reginari. Little is known about Horatio’s father, other than that he was a tall man who enjoyed staring contests. Horatio’s mother was a baker and television enthusiast.
Hoartio’s remarkable talent for magic was evident at a very early age; at 5 years old he was preformed his first card trick, in which he levitated a pen in order to sign his name to a birthday card intended for his Aunt Irene. The family was ecstatic at this amazing feat! Never again would they be burdened with tedious and oppressive card-signing. He even manipulated the pen to write “xoxoxo” with an exclamation point.
His next trick involved breaking a glass jar full of quarters by throwing it against the wall. This wasn’t met with quite the same level of admiration but was impressive none-the-less. At age ten years old, he was capable of holding his breath for a full 7 minutes with the intention of preforming a “fall through the ice while playing with your friends” maneuver. After repeated attempts, it turned out that a young lad, Percy Coburn fell through the ice instead and Horatio was forever scarred by the boy eclipsing his feat by actual drowning. Nothing could top that, and the tragedy was spoke of for years. Horatio decided that he would have to hone other skills in order to become a master of magicianery. He practiced the art of mind over matter by strapping himself into a chair very close to a plate of cookies after not eating for several hours. For dexterity, he balanced books on his head and walked along a clothesline whilst hanging clothes out to dry. The wind nearly knocked him over, yet his feet remained planted firmly on the ground! The incessant training continued. He strapped a 100 pound weight to his chest and then glued himself to a scale, eating nothing but corn for two weeks. This was followed by a new twist on an old classic – the “bullet catching trick”. In Horatio’s case, he decided that catching a bullet in his teeth was too ordinary and had been done to death.

To be continued…..