Bruce Cervon (1941 – 2007).
I just found out today that one of our longtime customers, one of our favorite customers, had passed away about a month ago. Bruce Cervon was a professional magician, with a long and fascinating career (which you can read about in his obituary – he was Johnny Carson’s personal choice for Tonight Show parties! How cool is that?). He was also a great lover of comic books, and we always enjoyed talking with him about his favorite artists, the industry, and otherwise just shooting the breeze about the hobby.
Bruce had an impressive funnybook collection as well. Once, he brought in a paper grocery sack filled with comics, telling us “oh, here’s just some junk I came across in the garage.” At the top of the sack: Sensation Comics #1. The rest of the bag was other Golden Age books…he didn’t bring them in to sell. He just brought them in so we could all have a good time looking through the books.
He’d also tell us about his adventures in the magic profession, about all the people he’s met, about performing for Elvis Presley and other famous folk. He once told me a story about how he’d performed for George Burns and friends at a party. After the act was over, Mr. Burns walked up to Bruce, thanked him for the show, and pressed a hundred dollar bill as a tip into his hand. Bruce, surprised, said “Oh, I couldn’t take this…after all the years of entertainment you’ve given me, you don’t owe me anything.” Mr. Burns replied: “Kid, trust me…take the money.”
Here’s a sample from one of Bruce’s instructional videos:
…and here he is demonstrating “3 card monte” on an episode of That’s Incredible (there’s about a minute and half of 3 card monte “in the wild” before Bruce shows up):
So long, Bruce. I’m glad to have known you, and you’ll be much missed.
