Another White House Easter Egg Roll Memory

Tomorrow (Monday) is the Annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House. I've been fortunate enough to perform at this event numerous times. A couple years ago I wrote about one of the funnier moments at the Easter Egg Roll and I thought I'd take a moment to share with you yet another one.

I'm not certain of the year, it might have been 2002, not sure. At any rate, I had created this show called "The Festival of Magic" along with my good friend Ralph Metzler. Together we presented this show of magic and comedy. We had taken the show to a number of small venues in the area and we always had a blast.

Kristine & I going through Security

I had the crazy idea of bringing the show to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll. So I called them and we worked it out. We had an unusual schedule of shows however. Some were on the White House Lawn and some were on the Ellipse, the area that is between the gated White House Lawn and Constitution Avenue. The Ellipse had numerous events for those folks that didn't have tickets to be on the Lawn but yet wanted to partake in the festivities. The only problem was, moving the show back and forth between the two locations because you had to go through security each time.

So, the morning of the Easter Egg Roll, we get the itinerary and find out where we'll be. Just so
happens we are on the Big Stage first thing in the morning. This is exciting because traditionally only the celebrity acts are on the Big Stage. So, there we were, Ralph, my assistant Kristine and myself performing an illusion before several thousand spectators. What could be more fun?

Dean and Ralph

Well, in the middle of the routine, an announcement was made that the First Lady was about to speak from the Balcony of the White House. Suddenly, as if by magic, that audience of  several thousand people vanished! They went scurrying up the hill to see the First Lady. We were still mid-routine when they left, lol. Ralph and I kind of froze and my girl Kristine was inside some box at the time. We just all started laughing and said, "Oh well!" and kept laughing. Such was our first show of the day, lol!

The rest of the day was fine and thankfully, our audiences stayed with us! In later years, my friend Ralph would play a bigger role in the Easter Egg Events by helping to coordinate performers and even was able to get the White House organizers to put up a 'Magic Stage' for magicians only. This kept the magicians in one location and prevented the back and forth from the Lawn to the Ellipse situation that we suffered from in 2002. Those were fun times.

To Read About Another Funny White House Easter Egg Roll Moment, click the link below
http://artistofmystery.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-white-house-easter-egg-roll.html