What does it take to organize a world-class magic tour for U.S. troops stationed overseas? In the second article in this series, magician Jason Michaels pulls back the curtain on the intense planning, emotional investment, and strict standards involved in bringing top-tier magic to military audiences across the Middle East. From selecting the right performers to navigating international security concerns, this is a raw, inspiring look at real-world logistics with a heart for service.
Retired Colonel Roy M. Chapman, USAF
Let’s start at the beginning. One day in early 2015, my agent Nick called me and asked me if I had any interest in performing some shows for the military.
“Absolutely!” I exclaimed. You see, as a child and teenager, I heard many stories from my Grandfather - Retired Colonel Roy Chapman, who was a pilot in the Air Force, about his time in the military.
I vividly remember hearing about the time during World War II when his plane had been shot up and they were running low on fuel. He was worried they wouldn’t make it back to the base, so he instructed his crew to throw everything out of the plane that wasn’t essential so they would, hopefully, have enough fuel to make it back.
When I turned eighteen and was considering my next steps into the world, I visited the recruiting station in my hometown several times and dreamed of joining the military.
Several factors stopped me from enlisting, but I have always had great respect for the men, women, and families who are part of the military family. (And while I have no regrets about my decision, I occasionally wonder what life would have been like had I chosen to enlist.)
When Nick called me and mentioned this opportunity, I thought about how I had always wanted to share my skills and passion for magic with these folks but simply had no idea how to do so. (And honestly, outside of the stories I had heard about Bob Hope entertaining through the U.S.O. I didn’t even know that it was a thing.)
Nick told me that he had met someone who was with an organization called Armed Forces Entertainment and that we should put together a package about me and my magic and send it to them. I immediately went to work.
Several days later I sent the package to Nick so that he could submit it to his contact. To my surprise, two days later Nick heard back from his contact that the military wanted to send me and another magician of my choosing on tour.
I called my close friend and brilliant comedy magician Stephen Bargatze and explained that we had an opportunity to go overseas and support deployed members of the military with our magic. Stephen wasted no time – he was in.
An autograph card from my first tour with Armed Forces Entertainment.
That resulted in our (my) first tour to the Middle East and Northern Africa - a region that I have grown to love that Armed Forces Entertainment calls Southwest Asia.
I’ll share more stories from that tour in a later article. For now, I thought I would share some of the logistics and planning that goes into making these tours a reality. The reason for sharing this information is because many people have shown interest when I’ve shared stories from my tours overseas.
Honestly, I’ve been very tightly lipped about these tours for a long time. I’m not exactly sure why, but I have two theories.
The first is because the magic community has a habit of ruining good things. Simply put, there are a lot of magicians who have no idea how to create opportunities for themselves. When they hear about a market that may have opportunities, they immediately flood it with marketing material and offers to work “cheaper” than the folks who are already established in that market.
While I know that we live and work in a free market, I find these types of actions very frustrating. For instance, I already know that there will be a certain number of obnoxious, pushy magicians, who don’t have a heart for the mission (and probably aren’t very good entertainers), who will read this article and immediately reach out to the military to try and book some shows at a cut rate. Actions like that ruin it for everyone.
(If you want to know what type of heart that I think you should have to work for the military family, you can read the first article in this series – which is here.)
The second reason is because of how much I truly love sharing my magic with these noble, hard-working people who sacrifice so much to protect our country. If I book the tours that go to military bases, I know that I am getting the very best magicians from around the country to share the very best magic with these folks.
Here's the thing that is hard to hear for people in my industry. Most magicians are okay to pretty good magicians and not very good entertainers. I learned this when I was the Entertainment Director at House of Cards our first year we were open.
Allow me a brief side note…as the entertainment booker at House of Cards, I was in charge of reviewing promotional material and finding great magicians to come and entertain our guests. What I learned was that promotional material was designed to show the magician in the very best light (and many times the magician was not as good in person as he or she was on video.)
I also learned that some of the biggest names in magic wilted when they were in front of a crowd of people who were not savvy magic audiences. The audiences who came to House of Cards the very first year it was open had never seen great magic. They simply didn’t know what was celebrated and what wasn’t. They watched the shows in the showroom with a critical eye and reacted similarly.
My friends started calling me the “legend killer” because of how many big-name and well-respected magicians who came to work House of Cards for a week that didn’t do well. Ok, back to the main point of this article…
A magic show in a tent in the desert.
Another reason that I stayed tight-lipped about working with Armed Forces Entertainment is because each tour that I went on only had room for a couple of acts and I wanted to reserve those spots for the magicians who I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would be well-received by these audiences. These deployed members of the military deserve the best and I was going to be damn sure that I provided it.
Diatribe over. Let me get back to the logistics and planning of the tour. What does it take to plan and execute a tour going to perform magic shows in one of the most trying conditions imaginable?
According to the Armed Forces Entertainment Rules of Engagement this is why they send entertainers on tour…
“Touring with Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE) helps lift the spirits and improve the morale of the troops you entertain/meet.
All the troops are far from home and their loved ones. Many are located in extremely isolated areas and regions with heightened threat conditions.
All our men and women in uniform need a "touch of home" to assure them they are remembered and appreciated by those back in the USA.
You will meet many people and experience a demanding travel schedule; many airports and customs procedures; jet lag; military regulation requirements; changing weather; and different cultures and languages. Preparation and flexibility will be your keys to a successful tour. You won’t have control over many things, so please REMAIN FLEXIBLE AND GO WITH THE FLOW.”
Doesn’t that say it all? That means that the magicians that I select for the tour must…
#1) want to share comedy, magic, warmth and caring in a way that will improve morale and remind these deployed soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, that there are people back home they have never met that care deeply for them and their well-being.
#2) be great magicians and entertainers who can “go with the flow” and work under almost any conditions.
Let me tell you something, they aren’t kidding about how demanding these shows can be. I’ve performed shows that had every bell and whistle, including a full technical crew in a beautiful theater, and I’ve performed shows where we stood on a chair in the middle of a cafeteria with no microphone and were expected to bring the same caliber of show to those gathered.
With everything that I’ve said above, let me say this…there are some really excellent magicians who I have had the pleasure of working with that make me proud to take on tour.
In the spirit of being fully transparent, let me share a few other reasons why some magicians are better than others.
Many times, when I am contacted by my contacts at Armed Forces Entertainment there is a relatively short lead time between when the offer is made to me and when I have to submit the list of magicians who I want to take with me.
That means that the entertainers that I call and make an offer to must have availability on their calendar for very specific dates that usually run for two to four weeks. As you can imagine, the very best entertainers are often in demand and simply aren’t available on the necessary dates or for the full length of time.
Next, many of my tours are to bases in the Middle East. That means that I have to trust that the magicians that I ask to go with me not have a reputation for taking drugs. I simply can’t risk my reputation as the one booking the tour to ask a magician who might choose to bring any kind of illicit drug with them.
Obviously, illegal drugs are prohibited on military installations. If an entertainer brought anything like that and got caught trying to smuggle it on base - it would jeopardize the tour. That entertainer would also probably end up in some sort of military jail for some length of time.
The travel can be challenging.
Additionally, bringing illegal drugs into most of the countries in the Middle East can get you executed. Yep, trying to bring drugs into these countries can get you killed – like legit dead.
I pride myself for taking responsibility for making sure that every tour is a great experience for those who are travelling and entertaining with me. If you go with me, then I’m going to make sure you get home. Hence, no illegal drugs, ever, for any reason.
It may sound silly for me to point this out, but when you work for Armed Forces Entertainment you are going to be gaining access to military bases-sometimes with heightened security. That means that you will have to go through a background check.
While the majority of magicians will have no problem passing a background check, if a magician has a troubled past, I don’t want to submit them for the tour only for them to fail their background check. It would make it look as though I wasn’t doing my due diligence in selecting good people.
I’m guessing that everything that I have shared above makes sense. This next one may be one you may not have thought of. One reason that may get one entertainer selected over another is because of how much time we will spend together travelling. When a team is on tour we travel together, we eat together, we visit bases together, and we entertain together. We may spend up to sixteen hours a day together. That means that if I find someone’s personality grating or someone is hard to get along with, I simply can’t ask them to go.
Some flights are more challenging than others! Just ask Bargatze.
Trust me, over the last ten years, I have made my mistakes selecting entertainers and then had to live with those mistakes on tour for weeks at a time. It makes an already stressful and difficult time even more difficult.
I know that I have already made a big deal above about having the right heart to serve these folks, but I must point out that some entertainers are too focused on themselves, their needs, and their interests, and simply are unable to serve with a heart of humility.
Unfortunately, I must report that I have had magicians on tour in the past who were rude, obnoxious, and treated the men and women that we met on base with disrespect.
That type of behavior, literally, goes against everything that we are trying to accomplish with these tours. The soldiers, seamen, airmen, and marines are often excited to meet us. They’ve been looking forward to our show for weeks. If one of my tour mates acts poorly, it makes me want to hit them squarely in the face. Seriously. I’m not kidding. SQUARE. IN. THE. FACE.
A chill, go-with-the-flow attitude is everything on these tours. In fact, I would say that attribute plus having a great act are the two most important things that end up getting magicians invited to join me.
For all of the reasons listed above, it can be quite challenging to find magicians who are of the quality that I want for these tours. To any magician who has been asked to join me on tour, you are obviously an elite entertainer. You should also feel a sense of pride that you passed my rigorous selection process to simply be invited.
With everything that I have outlined above, Armed Forces Entertainment has to do a huge amount of work behind the scenes to line everything up and coordinate with each of the bases that we visit. I’ve heard of outside groups who want to work independently of a group like AFE to take tours to military bases. Knowing everything that I know about how these tours work, I simply don’t think it would be possible to accomplish without the excellent work that Armed Forces Entertainment does to provide world-class entertainment in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable.
In the next article in this series, I am going to discuss travel, living conditions on and off base, and everything I can think of that is related to that.
To read the first article in this series, click here.
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