Jeremy: Teaching, baking, dabbling, and - finally - busking (Part II)

Say hello to Jeremy again!

Yesterday, I started my week-long series of posts on sidewalk magician Jeremy Pitt-Payne. Check out the first post to get a brief introduction to who he is and what he does. This second part is a little bit about how he came to be a street performer. I sat down with him prior to the day's performances, back on April 25th, for a long conversation. One day, I'll try to put up some footage on the whole interview here. In the meantime, enjoy these snippets!

The Early Years: Life before Busking

For Jeremy Pitt-Payne, it all began with some magic shows on tv. From there came birthday requests for magic supplies, magic books, and soon enough, catalogues from magic stores. At the age of fourteen, he wrote to magician Bobby Bernard and soon found himself training formally as a student of magic under his tutelage. At seventeen, he entered a magic competition, made it to the finals, and didn't win. At this point, I'll just let Jeremy tell you his story himself. Just read this out loud with your best British accent:

"Then pretty much after that, life just got in the way."

"I wanted to be a magician. I think maybe not winning that competition deflated my ego and maybe my enthusiasm a little bit. And so I ended up going to college, went to school, and magic took a back seat. I’d do a little bit here and there. And for a while I thought I was going to be a Catholic priest. Went to a seminary. I was there for five years and, you know, did a little bit of magic there occasionally just for like shows that would be put on in the school. And that didn't happen."

"So then I came to the States. That’s where I met my wife. Was just out here for a year, was going to school out in California. We got married and decided to stay here. So by that point it was like the early 90s. In California, dabbled in a little magic again. But never went the whole hog. [...] I was primarily a high school teacher there, did some insurance sales. I was a member of the Magic Castle, went down there a few times. That was a lot of fun. And then we just ended up moving out of California in 2000 and went to the mid-West, Peoria, three hours north of here right in the heart of Illinois. And we were there about five, six years. And I actually had a job there working for the Catholic church due to my theology background."

"Then that came to an end. There were some changes. And I ended up going to culinary school because I wasn't sure what to do next. I got trained as a baker. I did that for a few years. And I had some health issue. I wasn't able to work for a little while, and then I was between jobs."

"And that’s where we got to becoming a street performer."

Becoming a Street Performer

"I was sitting at home with no employment and I thought, That would be fun! I wonder what would happen if I did that! So I found out about what you needed to do to get a street performer license in Chicago and how that worked. And I got some props together, and I hadn't really done any magic for years, but, like, you know, if you've been trained early enough, you've got muscle memory, so all the basic moves and sleights of hand that Bobby had taught me was still in the brain. So I picked it up again and I came down here and I walked around for three hours not having the courage to set up my table 'cause I was kinda kidding myself: I was looking for a good spot, though I had no idea what a good spot is. And eventually I set it up 'cause I said to myself, you know what, if I don’t do this, if I go home now, I’ll feel like such a complete failure I’ll never show my face again."

"So I put my table up and I started. And here I am. That was in May. Like, May 6^th, I think. 2011. And here we are, 2014, and now it’s my full time gig. So. There’s a really long answer to a question."

First Day Out

"I walked around for three hours."

Jeremy, setting up

"I got off the train at Oglesby, and I went to State Street. And State Street is a big street. And I read the guidelines that the city of Chicago gave out. I wasn’t sure what the exact rules were. I knew there were restrictions on Michigan Avenue, so I was kinda very leery of coming over to Michigan Avenue because I didn't want to get in trouble. So I was walking down State Street and eventually that was where I set up my first spot. And I was there for maybe five minutes and these two older guys came up and said ok, what’d you got? And there I was and all of a sudden I had to do my first trick. So I had to do my first trick or two. Don’t remember now what I did, and they gave me a couple of dollars, and I was like ok. Well, I made something. So I stayed in State Street for a little while. It didn’t seem too busy. So I was like, you know what, Michigan Avenue. That’s meant to be the big – I’ll go over there. I’ll set up and if the police say I shouldn’t be there, I’ll say sorry I didn’t know and go away. So I came over to Michigan Avenue and I found a little spot between this real estate office and Starbucks. There’s a space between those two buildings. In some ways, it’s a natural stage. And for me it was a little bit out of the way so I thought maybe they won’t notice me, so I set up there. And I think the police did come by that day and they asked if I had a permit and I showed them and it was fine. So I’m obviously ok to be there."

"So then I stayed there probably for about three hours. And then packed up and went home. And I don’t know what I made that day. Not very much. But if you’re out of work, you know, that’s better than nothing. So the next day’s a Saturday, so I came down the next day and just never stopped after that."

"And then once I’ve been, I worked that spot for maybe a week or so. And L---, the silver man who sits out in front of the Wrigley Building there. I thought, well, he’s there, so maybe this is an okay area too. So I just went up and introduced myself and asked him if it’s ok to work here. And he pointed me up over to the bridge and said, 'That would be a good place to work. Go up there.' And I was like 'Okay.' So I wandered up there and I set up there by the bridge and that’s pretty much been home for the last three seasons."

And next up: What exactly does Jeremy do? Tomorrow, we'll look into how Jeremy fits into his immediate environment, how he uses it, and what his show is all about.