Who's on first?

My very first club date in America was at the Elks club in Long Beach, California. A stroke of good luck that was going to add a whole eighty bucks to my worldly wealth. I was very excited and ready to take the ‘Elks’ by storm. After a one-hour drive to
Long Beach I made myself known at the club and was directed backstage to meet up with the other acts. Now it is amazing how often the entertainment bookers of these kinds of organization make truly rational decisions but this one was a doozy! The committee had determined that four acts would be appropriate for the occasion and the booker had decided that the perfect choice would be two magic acts and two jugglers. He furthermore decided that the ideal running order would be to have the two magic acts in the first half of the show and after a brief break to continue with the two jugglers.
Of course, there is no payment for the job of booking entertainment at a service club and maybe it is bookings like this that are the reason.
Upon arriving in the dressing room I discovered that the other magician on the bill was Mr. Electric and Carol, a very serious
name in magic. I was very impressed. I was also somewhat astounded when Marvyn (for that is indeed Mr. Electrics first name) suggested that he opened the bill and leave me to close the first half. I thought my stock in the magic world must be on the rise. This was the evening that I learned the age old secret of variety acts; always go on first or as close to the beginning as you can.
To cut a painful story short Marvyn and Carol opened the show with a dynamic set that featured customized versions of every trick I did, all carefully adapted to the theme of their show. I followed and proved that lightning seldom strikes twice on one night. I didn’t die on stage, but I was quite sick!
After the show I chatted with Marvyn who was very kind and quite complementary about my show. Especially my version of the classic Chineese linking rings, maybe this was because it was the only trick I hadn’t duplicated. In fact, in what I later discovered was pure Marvyn at his best he planned an entire act for me based on linking things together.
As I remember I was to change my name to Link Lewin. Marvyn was the King of themed magic. What I should do, said Marvyn, was buy the Himber Ring Trick, which would allow me to link rings borrowed from the fingers of audience members. It sounded like a great idea and the next day I drove into Hollywood and paid fifty dollars to Joe Berg as a down payment on this very trick. It was the best investment I was ever to make in magic. Every magician needs one special trick to make his own and thanks to Mr. Electric I had found mine. I never did change my first name to Link, but due to this encounter with the gracious and friendly master magician.
I had taken a huge step forward in my career as a magician.
Oh, and I never again felt flattered at being asked to close a variety bill, like a true pro, I merely say; “You know, It might be better for the show if I open.”