Nov 5

Nov 5 September '25: Youth Home with AMOI

Some of the best shows are the ones you get to do more than once. If you’re lucky—and if your audience had a good time—you’ll be invited to perform again at the same place or event. And—if you had a good time—that can be a fun way to challenge yourself with new material or improve what you’ve already done. When I joined my friends Paul and Richard at a local youth home to entertain some teenagers, I was thinking about doing the same show a decade earlier, in the same room, with the same two guys.

When I was younger, I started doing shows with some friends who perform magic around the state as a group called Arkansas’ Masters of Illusion. In addition to those public shows with the full cast of five, we also do smaller shows as various combinations of duos or trios. Ten years ago, one combination was Paul Carlon (ringleader of the group, resurrector of newspapers), Richard Knoll (think Las Vegas showman, double the sparkly flair, add a South Arkansas accent), and Blayk Puckett (fresh college student, baby face, bowtie). Ten years and one pandemic later, Richard set up another show for the current group of high school students who live onsite at this same treatment center and home for teens.

I brought some of my newer acts, like the Hoop & Glass and Candlestick, with a few of my classic routines sprinkled in. I took a look at some of the videos Richard made at our original show, and I was happy to see that at least one routine—trusty tennis balls!—made an appearance in both shows. In 2025, that act used

The same props: literally, my original set of tennis balls are still going strong ten years later!
The same music: Judas by Lady Gaga—can you imagine tennis ball juggling to any other song!?
And the same bowtie: well, today’s version has more sparkle. Ten years of performing alongside Richard will do that to you.

But so much is also different about the tennis balls in 2025

I’ve added a handful of new moves, like the no-look catch at the end!
There’s a little more flair and polish across all the moves, even in the ones I was doing back then.
And most importantly, this 2025 version of Blayk—who has now juggled those tennis balls in a few new states and for thousands of new people—has more confidence in the technical moves, and it allows me to spend most of my time and attention connecting with the crowd. There are several moments in the tennis ball routine where I get to look out at (hopefully) smiling faces, get to know the audience a little bit, and see who’s really enjoying the show.

Looking back at my original performance, I enjoyed seeing younger Blayk doing things I don’t perform as much these days: a fast-paced juggling club routine to kick off, an old nine-ball gag I would do at the end of a silly ball juggling set (9 ball juggling=3 sets of 3 balls glued together), and a lip-synced duet with a singing juggling club (back before I had given her a wig, some makeup, and a drag name!). And I was really pleased to see that, coincidence or not, I set up my act kind of like a sonata, just like el Maestro Juan Tamariz recommends: the allegro (club juggling), andante (slower-paced talking comedy bit), and climax (tennis ball juggling and later, the musical duet). I wouldn’t have known about that musical structure then, but it’s one example of how the 2025 version of me has new words and real-world evidence to explain why certain things worked well for younger Blayk who was figuring things out. And in many more cases, why they weren’t working the way I’d hoped!

Paul and Richard also brought combinations of classic and newer material. I really enjoy seeing how their magic has evolved too, both in their new skills & expanded repertoires, and in the polish they’ve added to their signature routines (Paul’s restored newspaper, Richard’s floating table!). And you know they were good, because both of them had teenagers (famous for hating… well, everything) lining up for autographs after this noon magic show in a gymnasium mid school day. Those guys know how to make quite an impression wherever they go!

I think there’s a lot of value in looking in watching younger versions of myself performing. I’m glad documentarians like Richard taught me to record as much as I could. It helps me remember jokes and moments and lessons that might have been lost to time, and it reminds me how all of this got here. Our 2015 show had all the building blocks of the 2025 version, and show after show, trial and error, rewatching and tweaking, I love seeing what we’ve all built. And of course, we’re still recording some Masters of Illusions shows, so we can do all this again in 2035!