Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 47 Though Butte Magic never takes a break, winter does see them slow down, which means that it is the perfect season to book them for your dinner party, birthday brouhaha, wedding, church function, or any other event combining people, magic, and fun. Beyond that, you can expect to find Butte Magic at MisCon, Montana's longest running science fiction convention, the Montana Renaissance Festival, Magic City Monster Convention, and Bannack Days as well as many other social engagements and conventions throughout 2017. Their Web site is www.buttemagic.com, and their phone number is 406-491-3860. Their email, if you'd prefer, is buttemagic@gmail.com. 11 or 12 years obliged him, while onlookers winced. en Eric asked for an adult volunteer; the audience gasped as a grown man of not inconsiderable size stepped up. en the volunteer stepped, and not daintily, onto his chest. Some folks looked away. I may have been one of them. Meanwhile, Sir James ate flame, and breathed it like a dragon. e crowd, understand- ably, gave him a wide berth for this feat, even as they jostled closer to see Lord Alden's sleights of hand and Madame Azira's feats of mentalism. It wasn't just the children sporting wide eyes and credulous smiles. eir parents, too, laughed and clapped, transported. Which again begs the question of what place stage magic retains in a culture that has big budget motion pictures, video games, and high-technology competing to entertain us. Eric puts it best. He says that those flashy distractions are, admittedly, a "very cool, very exciting part of the world, but people are becoming jaded with them. It costs millions of dol- lars to make a digital bacchanalia of superheroes, explosions, and slow motion, and even then it only gets a 'Cool!' I can get better reactions than that with a coin, a bit of dental floss, and a ten-penny nail." is, I can personally attest, is true. Construction projects are complex. Your construction fi nancing doesn't have to be. At American Bank, we manage all aspects of your fi nancing in-house, keeping a close eye on your bottom line throughout the construction process. That way, you can focus on what really matters. americanbankmontana.com Bozeman l Big Sky l Big Timber Livingston l Whitefish Member FDIC PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIGHT OWL IMAGERY Sword swallowing with Santa

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