It’s Magic: Micaela Blei and Anthony Griffith

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Welcome to the Moth Podcast.

I'm Jodi Powell, a director at the Moth, and your host for this episode.

There's something magical about storytelling, but you know what else is magical?

Actual magic.

Well, perhaps not actual magic.

We're not talking about Gandalf or Doctor Strange here, but there's something special about stage magic.

About card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats and astounding an entire audience.

This episode, we're going to be playing two stories that touch on magic in different ways.

Don't worry, no tricks get revealed.

First up, we've got Michaela Bly.

She told this story at a 2016 New York Story Slam where the theme of the night was romance.

Here's Michaela, live at the moth.

Oh,

hi.

Woo-hoo!

So in high school, I had not had any boyfriends whatsoever.

At all, whatsoever, even a little.

And the closest I came was I had platonic male best friends who people would think we were dating for like a second before I had to be like, no, we're not.

But my favorite moment was between when they thought we were dating and I had to say, no, we're not.

Because that was the closest thing I had to a boyfriend.

And so I get to freshman year of college and I'm sort of thinking, this is where I will meet the nerdy man of my dreams.

And it will be so real.

And freshman year, first party, there's this guy.

He's in sort of a knot of people.

He's wearing a velvet jacket and he has a pompadour looks like Elvis and he's doing magic tricks for this little knot of people and I'm like that's the one

and

I

I head over and we hit it off we talk about books which is the way I knew how to flirt and

He was so different than the boys I knew in high school.

He likes art history and Morrissey and We and the best part about him he's so he's not just a magician He's a really good magician.

He had won the Junior Magic Olympics in high school.

That's a real thing.

And he had also given a trick to David Copperfield that David Copperfield was currently using in his roadshow.

He was the real deal.

And the absolute best part was he thought everything I said was fascinating.

And we spent three straight days together and I was like, we didn't kiss, but there were all these moments when we were gonna.

And I was like, when it happens, it will be amazing.

And this is what it feels like to fall in love for the first time, you know.

And on the fourth day, there was a candlelight vigil for the Defense of Marriage Act on campus,

sort of a candlelight vigil in support of gay marriage.

And it's really romantic.

We're like snuggled next to each other with like candles and they're lit.

And he says,

you know, I have to tell you something.

And

I think I'm gay.

Now, what I should have done at that moment was go, okay, cool, now I know, and we're friends now.

And instead, I thought to myself, we're so close he can tell me anything.

And I say, I will be here for you while you figure this out.

And so we keep hanging out and we hang out a lot and everyone on campus thinks we're dating and I don't tell them that we're not

and we spend nights in his dorm room not doing anything I wish we were but we're not but we hold each other and it's beautiful and he hasn't been able to tell people he's gay and then it's gonna be parents weekend and he doesn't want to tell his parents and he says will you be my girlfriend for parents weekend and I say of course

and so parents weekend happens his mom hugs me really hard I think she sort of knew and I was like her last great hope you know

and I get to introduce him to my parents, and I'm really proud to introduce my parents to my boyfriend.

And

we've already been like this, and it, I know it's not real, but it feels so real.

I mean, we are so in sync that at parties, he does magic tricks, and I got to the point where I could do his patter, his monologue that, you know, a magician does while he's doing his tricks.

I could do that for him while he did the tricks.

That was how sort of together we were.

And finally, we'd been hanging out for a month before I tried to really kiss him.

And I leaned in, we were on his dorm bed, and he stopped me.

And he said,

I love you.

You know this is pretend, right?

And I said, yeah, obviously.

Right, of course.

And I get up off his bed and I go back to my room and I don't go back.

And

he

stays away from me.

He knows I'm hurt.

And three weeks later, he comes to my room and knocks on my door and says, listen,

David Copperfield's in town.

And I have two tickets in the second row.

And my trick is in this show.

And I really want you there.

Will you come with me?

And I say, of course, absolutely.

So we both get dressed up.

We both get dressed up in velvet.

And we go to this theater, and there are all these amazing, famous magicians in the first row who are like kind of quiet behind the the scenes magicians.

And he introduces me to all of them.

And he doesn't say I'm his girlfriend, but he keeps his hand on the small of my back.

And I can tell the way they're all smiling at me that they think I'm his girlfriend.

And the show starts and it's awesome.

It's David Copperfield.

And it keeps not being his trick and not being his trick.

And I keep waiting for his trick and he says, not yet, not yet.

And then at the very end of the show, and Copperfield comes out and sort of winks, and he's got short sleeves on, and he's got a white piece of paper, and he's cutting it up into little pieces and he starts talking about how when he was a little kid in New Jersey he always wanted it to be a snow day and he just throws his hand out in this one little gesture and it starts snowing from his hand and I'm like this is your trick and he's like yeah and then David Copperfield does another bigger motion and suddenly the lights are on in the audience and there's no machines but it starts snowing in the audience and it's just blowing snow everywhere like a snowstorm and there's there's nothing, you can see all the way up to the ceiling.

And everyone's getting up, and we're like catching it and like trying to eat it.

We're acting like we're 10 years old, and it's so gorgeous.

And I know it's a trick, and I know I don't know how he does it, but it feels so good, and I just want it to last a little bit longer.

Thank you.

That was Michaela Bly.

Michaela is a story editor and a story coach based in Portland, Maine.

She is a two-time Moth Grand Slam champion and the former director of education for the Moth.

Her full-length audio-first memoir will be released in 2024 by Audible.

You can find out more about her stories and work at michaelably.com.

If you'd like to see photos of Michaela watching some magic in college, we'll have those very cute pictures on our website.

Just visit themoth.org slash extras.

So, this episode is all about magic, but magic isn't only found on stage.

Sometimes it's about the special worlds we're able to conjure and create.

Our next storyteller is Anthony Griffith with a story about that kind of magic.

He told this at an LA main stage in 2013.

Here's Anthony live at the moth.

The

earliest memory I have of my biological father is watching him at a Mexican standoff.

He had pulled the knife on my mom

and threatened to stab her to death.

My mom, who had suffered abuse for years, broke two

bottles

and held them out as weapons.

Everyone is crying.

My mom's crying, my brother's crying, I'm crying.

I don't even know I'm crying.

I'm only four.

But I know

the mood in the room was at best toxic.

When my father went to the bedroom to sleep off his alcoholic rage, my mom grabbed me and grabbed my brother and she just fled the house.

No money, no food, no extra clothing.

She just bounced.

It's amazing what a child remembers.

Over the next few years,

my life splintered into two worlds.

One world was being raised by

a single-parent mother and all that that entails.

And the other world was the fascination I had for television.

I love watching TV, especially anything magic.

I watch magicians and magic shows.

And I asked my mom

if I could get a magic set.

which she gave me one day.

And I found out quickly two things about doing magic.

First of all, you have to follow the instructions to the T

If the instructions say

use a dove

Use a dove

Don't use your best friend Parakeet

for two reasons.

Doves are docile, they're quiet, you can hide them on your person.

Parakeets

bite,

and they're always talking.

You can't shut them up.

The second thing I learned about magic when you're performing, if you're performing in the inner city

with whites, they're amazed.

Oh, that's great, that's awesome, you are really good.

Brothers, not so much.

In fact, if brothers can't find out how you did the trick,

they want to fight.

They cannot suspend their disbelief.

But my mom was cool because my mom was right there with me.

In fact, one time she asked for Christmas, what like for Christmas, and I said with enthusiasm, I want to straitjack it.

And sure enough, under the tree

was a crisp, never-before-used

straitjacket.

And I asked my mom years later, like, how did you ever get a straitjacket?

And she said, well,

I called in the same asylum.

And I said, my son wants to be a magician.

How much would a straitjacket cost?

But that was just like my mom.

My mom went to the butt and beyond because she would do anything to make me happy.

The other thing I liked about television was there was this show called Good Times.

And I loved that because they had a strong father.

who wasn't abusive to his wife.

He didn't run away.

He didn't abandon his family.

And even though things were hard, he was there through thick and thin.

Not like my biological father who was never there.

And he would always call me up and say, hey, I'm going to pick you up.

We're going to play baseball.

We'll go to the baseball game.

And I would

sit by the window.

with my mat, my mitt, and my baseball hat, and I would wait for my father.

And my mom, she would play catch with me until he came, which he never did.

And I went on for years that he would call me up.

I would give him my mitt and my bat and my hat,

and I'd wait for him, and my mom would play catch with me.

wait for him, which he never did.

When I became a young teenager,

I hated baseball.

I think I hated

because

I referred to

my father and his lies

and my disappointment that he always brought me.

And I was becoming a young, young adult.

I was becoming 17, 18, so my life was changed because I was becoming a young man,

black man, from the inner city.

And for some reason, people started to be afraid of me, and I didn't know why.

Women would clench their purses in elevators.

Every time I went to a department store, security would

watch me over and over.

Police would stop me on the street, whether I was driving a car or just walking down the street.

And I was becoming frustrated.

I didn't know why.

All of a sudden, I was the enemy of the state.

There was no one to tell me that.

My biological father was not there.

And even my fictitious father in good times had been replaced.

And he was no longer on the show.

So I was just a frustrated young man.

And as much as my mom wanted to intervene she knew this was the time where I had to figure out the world for myself this is my crazy rite of passage

so it got to a point that

I was a young adult I was 20 21 and I got a call from my biological father

and he said I'm down the street.

I want to see you.

I want to talk to you.

And I was so overjoyed.

And tears were in my eyes because I was going to see my father.

And it had been years.

And we were going to shoot the breeze.

And I was going to tell him who I was.

And he was going to tell me who he was.

And everything was going to be right.

And it was going to be better than the show Good Times because we were going to be a family again.

And I saw him, and we hugged

and we just teared up and we exchanged vows and we're having fun.

But, you know, my father was talking, you know how you see Charlie Brown

shows where the teacher is talking, but all you hear is wah wah wah wah wah wah wah.

That's what it felt like with my father.

He was talking,

but I couldn't hear him.

And then everything slowed down.

There was a part of me,

there was a verse in the Bible that says, when I was a child, I thought like a child.

I acted like a child.

I reasoned like a child.

But when I became a man,

I put away childish things.

I had become a man.

and one thing I had to put away as a child was the belief that my father would be coming back.

That father that I wanted so much to be a part of my life would never be in my life per se.

And the father that I've always had my whole life was my mom.

She raised me.

She protected me.

She guided me.

And the biggest magician in my life was my mom because she was able to take from chaos and create an environment, a magical world in which I could grow up and be the man I was destined to be.

And to that, I say, Mom, thank you.

Thank you.

That was Anthony Griffith.

Anthony is an actor, comic, and storyteller who won an Emmy Award for his outstanding performance in the television drama Our Father and oscillates between stage, film, and television.

Whether reminiscing about a younger brother saddled with Hand-Me-Downs or sharing his thoughts on marriage, Anthony is an audience favorite at corporate events and has made multiple appearances on television.

Find out more information about him at AnthonyGriffith.com.

That's all for this episode.

From all of us here at the Moth, we hope you have a magical week.

Jodi Powell has been at the Moth for more than five years.

She is a producer, director, and educator who enjoys listening to and seeking stories from Beyond the Main Corridors.

Originally from Jamaica, she currently lives in Harlem.

Anthony Griffith's story was directed by Catherine Burns.

This episode of the Moth podcast was produced by Sarah Austin-Janess, Austin-Janess, Sarah Jane Johnson, and me, Mark Solinger.

The rest of the Moth's leadership team includes Sarah Haberman, Jennifer Hickson, Meg Bowles, Kate Tellers, Marina Cluchet, Suzanne Rust, Brandon Grant, Leanne Gulley, and Aldi Casa.

All Moth stories are true, as remembered by the storytellers.

For more about our podcast, information on pitching your own story, and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.

The Moth Podcast is presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, helping make public radio more public at PRX.org.

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